AUSTIN, Texas – Polesitters Tyler Maxson, John Castro Dubets and Kevin Boehm secured TC America victories in TCR, TC and TCA, respectively, at Circuit of the Americas on Saturday.
Roy Block and Victor Gonzalez Jr. finished second and third respectively in TCR. In TC, James Clay finished second while Toby Grahovec finished third at his home track. In TCA, Tyler Gonzalez and Jonathan Newcombe finished second and third, respectively.
Drama ensued even before the green flag to start the 40-minute contest as polesitter Maxson was forced to start from the back of the TCR field because of a mechanical fix his team had to make to his machine to get it out on track to start the race.
That led to DXDT Racing’s Scott Smithson bringing the 31-car field to green behind. Smithson would successfully launch into the lead. Behind, him polesitters Castro Dubets and Boehm launched successfully to lead their respective classes.
Through turns six and seven, Smithson spun allowing Block to take the lead followed by Maxson, who had already slotted up into second, and DXDT Racing’s Olivia Askew. Behind them Castro Dubets led over Clay and Friday’s winner Grahovec. Boehm led over Caleb Bacon, Mark Pombo, Tomas Mejia and Gonzalez. Pombo, Mejia and Gonzalez would then move up to second, third and fourth respectively when officials issued a drive through penalty to Bacon for a track limits violation.
Then on lap seven through turn 19, Block was bogged in traffic, allowing Maxson and Askew to slide by for position. Block a few turns later fought back and passed Askew to slot into second and begin a pursuit of Maxson. With Castro Dubets opening up a three-second lead atop TC, class championship contenders Clay and Grahovec continued their heated battle.
In TCR, Taylor Hagler would pass Askew to move into third. Then with six minutes left in the contest, Pombo would suffer a cut tire dropping him back. At the checkered, Maxson crossed 1.5 seconds ahead of Block and Gonzalez, who passed Hagler on the white flag lap. Castro Dubets finished just over six seconds ahead of Clay, while Boehm crossed ahead of Gonzalez, and VGMC Racing’s Jonathan Newcombe, who fought his way up into third in TCA.
“We went to fire the car to get to pre-grid and it wouldn’t fire and the team and I thrashed to fix a distribution switch,” said Maxson “We were able to get the car out to pit lane but we had to start from the back of the grid.”
“Auto Technic gave me a great car and I really just put my head down and knocked out some laps, consistency helped me build the lead,” said Castro Dubets. “Luckily Clay and Grahovec were fighting behind me.”
“With these front-wheel drive cars the trick is to find a way to make it turn, we finally found a way to make it turn real good,” said Boehm on his fifth straight win. “The trick is to hang on as long as you can especially at the end of a race. We have the car in a real sweet spot right now.