- TCX: Jacob Ruud claims third victory of 2022
- TC: Clay Williams drives home to first win of the season for Mini JCW Pro
- TCA: Gresham Wagner claims second win of the season for TechSport Racing
- Provisional Results
Avondale, Louisiana - Race 2 of TC America powered by Skip Barber at the NOLA Motorsports Park saw a clear track and a faster pace over Saturday, with great battles throughout the field compounded by some significant changes in position. It also saw the first caution flag of 2022 after three all-green races.
During lap one, the yellow flag went out due to contact between Olivia Askew (#29 Fast Track Racing BMW M2 CS) and Steve Streimer (#30 HARD Motorsports BMW M2 CS), which took 10 minutes off of the clock and took Askew out of the race. After sweeping both races at Sonoma, Jacob Ruud (#1 Fast Track Racing BMW M2 CS) battled NOLA Race 1 winner Colin Garrett (#44 Rooster Hall Racing BMW M2 CS) at the front in a fantastic scrap, showing immense driving talent. In fact, combined with the following three positions in TCX, the pace never let up as Ruud, Garrett, Catania (#26 Rigid Speed BMW M2 CS), and Cugliari (#57 Accelerating Performance BMW M2 CS) all traded the fastest race lap.
It was Lucas Catania who eventually laid down the quickest time, earning the CrowdStrike Fastest Lap with a blistering 1:51.072.
Race 1 TC class winner Kevin Boehm (#9 CrowdStrike Racing by Skip Barber Racing Honda Civic Type R) led the first four laps before giving way to Jeff Ricca (#78 Genracer/Ricca Autosport Hyundai Veloster N DCT), who was then passed by Clay Williams (#60 MINI John Cooper Works Team JCW Pro) for the lead. The first 20 minutes of the race included some brilliant turbocharged FWD action on display for many laps. Williams was able to hold off Ricca from Lap 6 until the final yellow flag, which then turned to checkered. For Williams, it was compensation for his hard luck DNF yesterday while challenging for the lead.
In TCA, Sonoma Race 2 winner Gresham Wagner (#21 TechSport Racing Subaru BRZ) raged ahead mid-race after starting in P3, passing NOLA Race 1 winner Carter Fartuch (#16 Skip Barber Racing Honda Civic Si). Having started towards the back in TCA, midway through the race Sally McNulty (#780 VGRT Racing Team Honda Civic Si) went on the attack and nabbed two spots in one braking zone, going from 9th to 7th. However, not long after, the second yellow flag of the race was brought out to remove a damaged car, which saw the race under caution.
TCX saw Jacob Ruub at the top of the podium, followed by Colin Garrett in second and Lucas Catania in third. “The competition has been great,” Ruud said of the TCX field. “You hate to win under a yellow flag like that, and I think we would’ve had a good run if we were able to go green.” As far as how his battle with Garrett went, he shared that “they have the straight-line speed, so I just had to be defensive, keep him behind me, and make him go the long way ‘round at every single point possible.”
In TC, Clay Williams drove home to victory, followed by Jeff Ricca in second and Kevin Boehm in third. “I think it was on the restart,” Williams said of how he was able to get the jump on Ricca. “When that came about, I knew I had to get around him. Ricca dove on the inside there, I was not expecting that, so it was a little bit dicey. But I couldn’t be more happy.”
TCA saw Gresham Wagner on top of the podium, followed by teammate Devin Anderson (#22 TechSport Racing Subaru BRZ) in second and Carter Fartuch in third. “We had a great car both days, we put together a great program,” Anderson said of how the weekend went. “It probably should’ve been a second or first, but we ran it a bit too hard and had a tire go down. To rebound with the win, it was what we needed to stay in the hunt. And for my teammate to be there in second -the first one-two of the season- I couldn’t really be happier with the day.”
This concludes the NOLA rounds of TC America powered by Skip Barber. Stay tuned for next month’s coverage when the series heads to VIRginia International Raceway on June 17-19
Follow the action via live stream, or catch it as a recap, on the GT World YouTube channel. Live timing and scoring and session reports are available at tcamerica.us.
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