- Arthur Earns Third Win in a Row, Sixth of the Season
- Castro and Arthur Now Tied in Championship Points
- Race 1 Provisional Results
It was an action-packed 35 minute sprint at Road America for the TC America powered by Skip Barber Racing School, with numerous fights across the field in Race 1 on Friday afternoon. In the end, Braydon Arthur continued his remarkable run of form, leading from start to finish to claim his third consecutive victory.
Starting from the front of the field in the No. 4 JMF Motorsports Toyota GR Corolla TC, Arthur made a clean getaway and maintained control through the opening corners. Behind him, however, the race quickly descended into chaos as multiple competitors became involved in contact on the opening lap. The incident prompted a full course yellow before the completion of the first lap, but proved to be brief, with the field returning to green one lap later.
Michai Stephens, who had qualified second in the No. 3 JMF Motorsports Toyota GR Corolla TC, was among those caught up in the opening-lap trouble and dropped deep into the running order. That opened the door for Matan Rosenberg to move into second in the No. 78 Ricca Autosport Hyundai Elantra N1 TC EVO.
Rosenberg's Ricca Autosport teammate Andre Castro initially followed him in third in the No. 77 Hyundai, but his position would prove anything but secure. Castro slipped several places during the opening 15 minutes, falling to fifth before recovering one position to settle into fourth. Meanwhile, Justin Gravett emerged as a key beneficiary of the battles ahead, moving into third in the No. 8 Ricca Autosport Hyundai as the race progressed.
The complexion of the podium battle changed dramatically with less than 10 minutes remaining. Rosenberg encountered an issue and was forced to bring the No. 78 Hyundai to a halt off to the side of the track. His retirement promoted Gravett to second, while Castro moved back into third to return to the position from which he had started the race.
With the field closing in on the final stages, another incident brought out a full course yellow again. With eight minutes remaining, the No. 25 Skip Barber Racing Acura Integra Type-S DE5 of Logan Anderson stopped on track, prompting race control to neutralize the event once again and remained under yellow until the checkered flag.
Arthur crossed the line to secure his third straight TC America victory and sixth of the season. Gravett brought the No. 8 Ricca Autosport Hyundai home in second, while Castro completed the podium in third.
For Arthur, the result represents another emphatic step forward following a weekend at Sebring earlier in the season where he suffered two DNFs. Asked about the contrast between that difficult weekend and his current three-race winning streak, Arthur said he isn't dwelling on what happened in Florida.
“I'm not even thinking about it, honestly. I think it's proof that you can have one bad weekend, and a lot of people can focus on that, or you can move on from it. I think we've done a fantastic job at moving on from it. Here we are again in victory lane! It feels really good, and I can't thank the team enough.”
Let’s Get Racing
The TC America powered by Skip Barber field will return to the track for Race 2 on Saturday morning, August 29th at 10:05 AM CT.
If you can’t make it to Road America, be sure to tune-in to SRO’s free live streams all weekend long on YouTube (GTWorld) and Twitch (SROMotorsports) and follow all the action through our social media channels and the event hashtag #GTRoadAmerica.