ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Michael Hurczyn claimed his first TC America TCR series pole as FCP Euro dialed in its cars for a 1-2 in qualifying ahead of Saturday afternoon’s race on the Streets of St. Petersburg.
In a reverse of FCP Euro’s front-row lockout last time out at Circuit of The Americas, Hurczyn led teammate Nate Vincent as the identical Volkswagen Golf GTI TCRs once again displayed a strong single-lap pace.
Hurczyn surged to the top of the timing charts with a record time of 1:20.838 late in the 15-minute session to jump into the pole spot.
Vincent pushed for a response in the closing moments and managed to shave off part of the gap with a late improvement, but it wasn’t enough to deny Hurczyn from achieving his first pole.
The FCP Euro drivers are currently tied for second in the TCR drivers’ standings after taking a pair of second and third-place finishes each at COTA.
Bryan Putt placed himself on the second row of the grid in his No. 15 eEuroparts.com ROWE Racing Audi Sport RS 3 LMS TCR, which also took pole in the TCR Cup class.
Putt rose out from the group of drivers jostling for the best grid spots behind the Volkswagens with his time of 1:21.543, which placed him third ahead of James Walker Jr. in the No. 34 Risi Competizione Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR.
Jay Salinsky completed the top-five overall but held the second-best grid spot in TCR Cup, with the No. 11 RS Werkes Audi driver lapping just 0.003 of a seconds quicker than the No. 27 McCann Racing Audi of Christian Cole.
Eighth on the grid will be Alain Lauziere, who swept the COTA weekend in his Alphasonic Motorsport-entered TCR Cup Audi, while his teammate Nelson Chan will start ninth.
Eric Powell dipped under the 90-second barrier to win the qualifying battle between the three invitational TCA class entries competing this weekend.
Powell, driving the No. 91 TechSport Racing Subaru BRZ tS, lapped quicker than Mike Ogren and Kevin Anderson in a closely-matched session between the identical Subaru TCA machines.