- Ruud captures 7th win of season in TCX
- Smith, Fartuch take TC, TCA class victories
- Race 1 Provisional Results - PDF Link
ELKHART LAKE, Wisc. - The #81 BMW M2 CS Cup for Classic BMW driven by Jacob Ruud continued the streak of race wins in TC America Powered by Skip Barber for race 1 at Road America. Ruud led from flag to flag and took home his 7th win in as many races in the TCX class. The #30 BMW M2 CS Cup car driven by Steve Streimer finished 2nd in TCX for Hard Motorsport, followed by the #57 BMW of Stephen Cugliari for Accelerating Performance.
In the TC class, Austen Smith finished first in his #51 BMW M240iR for Auto Technic Racing, finishing ahead of the #78 Hyundai Veloster N driven by Jeff Ricca of Genracer. Rounding out the podium in TC was the #92 championship leading Honda Civic Type-R with Eric Powell behind the wheel of his Skip Barber Racing School car.
TCA’s battle was fierce for 2nd place - with the #16 Honda Civic Si of Carter Fartuch out front, the #18 Hyundai Veloster Turbo of Caleb Bacon and the #62 Mini Cooper of Clayton Williams driving for MINI JCW fought lap after lap until the race concluded under yellow for an incident in turn 7.
The race began after a half-hour delay for a passing thunderstorm that dampened the 4.048 mile, 14-turn road course in Elkhart Lake. By the time the green flag flew, the track was mostly dry, with drivers electing to run the race on dry-weather Pirelli tires.
An early full-course caution flew after an incident in turn 7 involving the #60 Mini Cooper driven by Derek Jones and the #06 BMW M240iR of Matthew Ibrahim led to the BMW getting stuck in the gravel. The race restarted with 29 minutes to go, and Jacob Ruud jumped back to his healthy lead immediately following the green flag. The TC leaders exchanged the top spot several times, with Eric Powell, Jeff Ricca, and Austen Smith engaged in a scrap on the long straightaways at Road America. The #9 Honda Civic Type-R of Kevin Boehm for DXDT Racing also spent some time in the top three spots, but eventually dropped to fourth where Boehm would finish.
In the closing moments of the race, the fight for 2nd in TCA fired up when Clayton Williams chased down Caleb Bacon. The two drove in lockstep through Road America’s tight corners, but the battle fizzled when the second and final full-course caution sequence came out with only six minutes left.
Another collision in turn 7, this time between the #3 Classic BMW BMW M2 CS Cup of Olivia Askew and the #5 BMW M2 CS Cup of Roy Block made contact, resulting in Askew’s car getting stuck in the gravel. The yellow would ultimately end the race, ceasing the two-horse race for second place in the TCA class.
TC America Powered by Skip Barber Race 2 kicks off at 12:05 PM CT on Sunday, August 29th, and will be available to watch on the GT World YouTube channel.