SONOMA, Calif. – Cameron Evans won Sunday morning’s TC America contest at Sonoma Raceway’s 12-turn, 2.52-mile road course.
It’s Evans’ first TC America win.
The 40-minute, 18 lap-race was held under sunny, 82-degree Fahrenheit conditions. Pole sitter Evans in the No. 82 Copart/BimmerWorld Racing BMW M240iR Cup took the green flag and led the pack through turn one. Third-on-the-grid and 2016 TC Driver’s champion Toby Grahovec in the No. 26 Classic BMW M240iR Cup took second from Steve Streimer in the No. 81 Rooster Hall Racing BMW M240iR Cup entry.
At the completion of the first lap, Evans led Grahovec, Streimer, Auto Technic Racing’s Robert Nimkoff in the No. 20 BMW M240iR Cup entry and Evan’s teammate Chandler Hull in the No. 94 Copart/BimmerWorld Racing BMW M240iR Cup who had moved up two positions into fifth.
By lap 4 the top three had left the pack and created a 10-second gap with Hull now in 4th. A hard charging Johan Schwartz, in the No. 80 Rooster Hall Racing BMW M240iR Cup, was now up into sixth – he had started 12th on the day after being moved back in the grid because of a post race technical infraction following Saturday’s race.
At the mid-point of the race, the leaders settled in and held their positions. Race control issued a full-course yellow on lap 12 as Shaun Webster in the No. 31 Hard Motorsport BMW M235iR Cup went off through turn two. Webster was not injured.
On the lap 16 restart and a five-minute shootout to the checkered, Evans led the field to the green flag, with Grahovec second, Streimer third, Hull fourth and Schwartz fifth. Through lap 17, Grahovec began to close on Evans looking for an opportunity to pass.
On the white flag lap, Grahovec placed his car slightly wide of the line through turn 11 attempting to power out of the turn and get alongside Evans through the final turn turn 12 heading to the line. Evans and Grahovec drag raced to the line with Evans nosing out to take the win by .173 of a second. Streimer, Hull and Schwartz completed the top-five.
Sonoma Raceway is somewhat of a home track for Evans as he has completed many laps around the picturesque Northern California road course.
“I used to do the Russell Series here years ago and there was a guy here Rick McCormick who has since passed away. That guy helped me a lot here,” said Evans. “For Ozium, for Lund, for Copart, Jeff Hull, my teammate Chandler and everyone who has helped us do this. This is a big deal. If I was ever going to win one of these pro races, I wanted to do it right here.”