- Scott Smithson earns his first two wins of the season in Civic TCR
- Kevin Boehm takes Civic Si to his first two TCA victories
- Victor Gonzalez scores two podiums and a pole in TCR competition
- Jonathan Newcombe earns TCA podium result for VGMC in Civic Si.
ELKHART LAKE, Wisc. – The three Civic race cars available from Honda Performance Development – After multiple podiums, the Type R TCR, Type R TC and Si – have been knocking on the door for their first wins throughout the early part of the SRO Motorsports Touring Car America season.
This weekend at Road America in picturesque Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, the Honda-powered machines blew the doors to victory wide open.
The DXDT Racing Honda Civic Type R of Scott Smithson earned his first-ever series wins, scoring victories on Saturday and Sunday. Smithson won Saturday’s race by nearly three seconds, while C.J. Moses snared a podium finish for his Honda with a third-place run. Sunday’s race was much closer, as Smithson had to fight off pole sitter and fellow Honda Civic Type R pilot Victor Gonzalez Jr. for the win.
Gonzalez had run the fastest lap of the race in Saturday’s race and appeared to have the race in hand, until he suffered a cut tire that promoted Smithson to the lead. Sunday, Smithson wrested the lead from Gonzalez and held him at bay over the final laps to win by 1.4 seconds.
"He (Gonzalez Jr.) had some pace, and I kept making mistakes. I was really wearing my front [tires] down," said Smithson. "Luckily for me, in the back section [of the circuit] I had the carousel and the kink to just pull on him. Otherwise, he probably would have gotten by me."
Honda power had similar results in the TCA class, as Kevin Boehm set the tone early in his Boehm Racing HPD Civic Si. Boehm won the pole for Friday’s race and led wire-to-wire in an event that was plagued by a pair of late-race cautions. Boehm followed Friday’s romp with another win, as he outdistanced the field by more than 11 seconds to take his second victory of the weekend – and his season.
“It feels overdue! It’s great to finally put it together this weekend. We had a great qualifying run, and luckily we were able to keep it together here today and grab the win!” said Boehm.
Jonathan Newcombe backed up his Honda stablemate in his own VGMC Racing Civic Si, claiming his first podium finish of the season with a third-place result on Saturday.
HPD has three ready-to-race Civic models for touring car competition. The line starts with the affordable and reliable Civic Si TCA race car, then leads to the Civic Type R TC racer that puts legendary Type R performance on track, and culminates with the no-compromise, championship-winning Civic Type R TCR race car. Our unparalleled trackside support at every level from HPD engineers is a unique benefit that no other manufacturer can offer. Find out more about these cars and our touring programs at: https://hpd.honda.com/Motorsports/Touring
Honda Racing social media content and videos from Road America are available on Facebook(https://www.facebook.com/HondaRacingHPD) and on Twitter at (https://twitter.com/HondaRacing_HPD). Produced by the CoForce Digital Media, YouTube video packages can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV.
The Touring Car teams will head to Texas for their penultimate race weekend September 17-20 as they will contest Round 12, 13, and 14 at the Circuit of the Americas just outside of Austin.
SRO Motorsports Group TC America Championship
Circuit: Road America (4.048-mile road course) Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
Weather: Sunny, 73 degrees F
TCR Race Results Friday
Pos. Class Drivers Team Chassis Laps
1. TCR Tyler Maxson Copeland Motorsports Hyundai Veloster 13 laps
2. TCR Scott Smithson DXDT Racing Honda Civic TypeR Under Caution
3. TCR Victor Gonzalez Jr. VGMC Racing Honda Civic Type R
4. TCR Olivia Askew DXDT Racing Honda Civic Type R
5. TCR C.J. Moses DXDT Racing Honda Civic Type R
TCA Race Results Friday
Pos. Class Drivers Team Chassis Laps
1. TCA Kevin Boehm Boehm Racing Honda Civic Si 13 laps
2. TCA P.J. Groenke TechSport Racing Subaru BRZ tS Under Caution
3. TCA Tomas Mejia MINI JCW Team. MINI Cooper JCW
8. TCA Jonathan Newcombe VGMC Racing Honda Civic Si
TCR Race Results Saturday
Pos. Class Drivers Team Chassis Laps
1. TCR Scott Smithson DXDT Racing Honda Civic TypeR 16 laps
2. TCR Tim Lewis KMW Motorsports Alfa Romeo Giulletta + 2.773sec
3. TCR C.J. Moses DXDT Racing Honda Civic Type R + 50.397
4. TCR Victor Gonzalez Jr. VGMC Racing Honda Civic Type R + 1:57.751
NC TCR Olivia Askew DXDT Racing Honda Civic Type R +16 laps
TCA Race Results Saturday
Pos. Class Drivers Team Chassis Laps
1. TCA Kevin Boehm Boehm Racing Honda Civic Si 21 laps
2. TCA Tomas Mejia MINI JCW Team. MINI Cooper JCW + 11.243sec
3. TCA Jonathan Newcombe VGMC Racing Honda Civic Si + 15.812
TCR Race Results Sunday
Pos. Class Drivers Team Chassis Laps
1. TCR Scott Smithson DXDT Racing Honda Civic TypeR 17 laps
2. TCR Victor Gonzalez Jr. VGMC Racing Honda Civic Type R + 1.401sec
5. TCR Olivia Askew DXDT Racing Honda Civic Type R + 37.854
6. TCR C.J. Moses DXDT Racing Honda Civic Type R + 1:04.955
TCA Race Results Sunday
Pos. Class Drivers Team Chassis Laps
1. TCA Tyler Gonzalez Copeland Motorsports Hyundai Veloster 16 laps
2. TCA Kevin Boehm Boehm Racing Honda Civic Si + 0.817sec
4. TCA Jonathan Newcombe VGMC Racing Honda Civic Si + 37.000
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