Kevin Boehm Paces Honda in Opening Weekend of Touring Car America Season

• Boehm finishes less than a second behind in Sunday's TCA run
• Victor Gonzalez puts his Honda Civic Type-R in top five in TCR opener
• Juan Diego Hernandez scores pair of top-six results in TCR

Honda cars turned their first competition laps of the 2020 TC America season this weekend as the three classes of TC, TCR and TCA launched their TC America season at the challenging Circuit of the Americas layout in Austin, Texas.

The weekend yielded some strong performances from the Honda contingent, paced by the Civic Si of Kevin Boehm who battled the MINI Cooper JCW of Tom Mejia over the final laps of Sunday's TC event, finishing just .556 seconds behind Mejia to claim a second-place finish. Boehm, who is fielding his own car under the Boehm Racing banner, started the weekend with a fifth-place run, giving him a pair of top-fives to start the 16-race season.

Four teams, including the associate-run team from Honda Manufacturing of Alabama, campaigned the Honda Civic Type R and the Honda Civic Si in the three classes over the opening weekend. The Honda TC America cars are developed by HPD with extensive on-track testing with HPD-developed and partner-supplied parts.

One of those teams was a greatly-expanded effort from VGMC Racing, heading by 2019 multiple-time race winner Victor Gonzalez Jr. The VGMC squad runs the Type R and the Si in each of the three TC classes. The VGMC Racing squad started its season with a top-five result in TCR from the team owner and a pair of sixth-place runs by Juan Diego Hernandez in TCA.

DXDT Racing showed promise in its opening weekend in TCR with the Honda Civic Type R, as Scott Smithson finished fifth Saturday and followed that with a sixth-place run on Sunday.

Teams will have very little time to rest on their laurels as they must head from Texas to St. Petersburg, Fla. next weekend for Rounds 3 and 4 of the 2020 TC America campaign, running on the bill with the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

Next
TC America TCR and TC competitors are back in action next weekend, March 13-15, on the downtown waterfront streets of St. Petersburg, Florida for the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, third and fourth rounds of the 2020 season.

Social media content and video links from this weekend's Honda Racing activity at the Circuit of the Americas are available on HPD's Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/HondaRacingHPD) and on Twitter at (https://twitter.com/HondaRacing_HPD).

Quotes:
Kevin Boehm (#9 TCA Boehm Racing Honda Civic Si) finished fifth in TCA on Saturday, second on Sunday: "We had the Honda Civic Si completely hooked up today. The car had good braking, great balance and turned well all day. It had great power and it's really rewarding to get a second- place finish in just the second race of the year."

Victor Gonzalez (#99 VGMC Honda Civic Type R TCR) finished seventh in TCR on Saturday, fifth on Sunday: "We [the VGMC team] went from a one car team in 2019 to four cars across three categories [TC, TCR and TCA] this year, and a lot of people have put in a lot of effort to make this happen. This was a promising start. It shows that if we work together across all three classes, we can accomplish our goals."

SRO Motorsports Group TC America Championship
Circuit: Circuit of the Americas, Austin, TX
Weather: Partly cloudy, cool, 70 degrees F Saturday and Sunday

TC Race Results Saturday

TCR Results Saturday

TCA Results Saturday

TC Race Results Sunday

TCR Results Sunday

TCA Results Sunday

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