ELKHART LAKE, Wis. – Tyler Maxson survived a wild race to top Friday’s TC America event at Road America in the TCR division.
After crews made a frantic change from rain to dry tires just prior to the start of the race, TCR championship leader Maxson led the TC America field to the green flag.
Before lap one was even complete, Tim Lewis Jr. would shoot from third to first, overtaking both Victor Gonzalez Jr. and Maxon. Gonzalez Jr. would also slip past Maxson to claim the second position.
In TC it was Johan Schwartz that led the way with James Clay right on his heels.
The TCA class would see the polesitting Kevin Boehm out front with Tomas Mejia in second. Championship leader Tyler Gonzalez would face a mechanical issue and sit in the pits while trying to diagnose the issue.
Nine minutes into the race Schwartz would make a mistake, going deep on the brakes into turn five and run wide, allowing Clay to slip by and grab the TC-class lead with Toby Grahovec inheriting second.
With less than 30 minutes remaining, it was Lewis’ turn to make a mistake as he would fall from the TCR and overall lead to sixth in class, with Maxson and Gonzalez Jr. left battling for the lead. Maxson would get around Gonzalez Jr. and begin to open up a four-second gap. Scott Smithson would slot into third.
With 21 minutes on the clock the first full course caution was called as Mark Pombo crashed coming out of turn three. P.J. Groenke would move to third in class.
The race would get back to green with nine minutes on the clock with Maxson leading in TCR, Clay in TC and Boehm in TCA.
Smithson would get past Gonzalez Jr. for second in TCR in turn six and begin to chase down Maxson for the lead.
Further back in the grid, Joseph Federl would spin going into the highspeed kink and bring out the second full course caution of the race with seven minutes left on the clock.
The race would end behind the safety car, with Maxson claiming his ninth-straight win in the TCR class. Gonzalez Jr would take the final podium position.
“To be honest, our car is not very fast here this weekend, so I’m not really sure how we did it today. Just thankful for the Copeland Motorsports crew for giving me another great setup,” said Maxson.
Clay would take the TC class win followed by Grahovec and Schwartz. Boehm went on to take the TCA class victory, his first of the season, ahead of Groenke and Mejia.