AUSTIN, Texas – Tyler Maxson completed a weekend sweep in TCR competition on Sunday afternoon during the second of two TC America rounds at Circuit of the Americas.
Maxson started his No. 74 Copeland Motorsports Hyundai Veloster N TCR from the pole. Nikko Reger briefly pulled the nose of his No. 51 Copeland Motorsports Hyundai Veloster N TCR on the outside of his teammate at turn one, but would slot into second.
Michael Hurczyn quickly moved into the third position in the No. 71 FCP Euro VW Golf GTI TCR and went off in pursuit of the Copeland Motorsports Hyundai duo. Maxson was never challenged for the lead and would go on to control the race and sweep the TCR weekend at COTA.
“We knew race two would be a bit of a challenge, but were able to conserve the tires and control the race, it was really great,” Maxson said. “Hyundai has built an amazing Veloster N TCR overall and I’ve been able to squeeze a lot of speed out of it. What a weekend.”
In TC, 2019 Johan Schwartz, who started in the second position in class, was able to sneak the No. 31 Hard Motorsport BMW M240iR Cup past the polesitting No. 26 Classic BMW BMW M240iR Cup of Toby Grahovec to grab the lead as the field went through turn 11 on lap one. Joseph Federl and the No. 23 TechSport Racing Nissan 370Z, who started fourth, would slot into third in class.
Ten minutes later, Federl would then fly around Grahovec for second position at turn two, then stalk Schwartz for the lead for the next few laps.
Behind the hoard of TC cars the TCA field saw Mark Pombo and his No. 61 MINI JCW Team MINI Cooper JCW drop out of the lead in the esses after contact with another competitor, allowing his teammate, Tom Mejia, to take the top spot with Kevin Boehm and the No. 9 Boehm Racing Honda Civic Si in second. Mejia would control the field and take his first race victory of the 2020 season.
“It feels great to get my first TCA win, it’s quite the accomplishment. The Honda had a lot of speed behind me, but luckily I was able to pull away a bit at the end and grab the win,” said Mejia.
P.J. Groenke, who started eighth, would fight his way through the field to grab the final TCA podium spot.
With 22 minutes remaining on the clock, Federl would grab the TC lead from Schwartz going into turn one, with Toby Grahovec following Federl through, dropping Schwartz from first to third in two corners. The top three cars would run nose-to-tail as James Clay, race one winner, began reeling in the lead group in the No. 36 Bimmerworld BMW M240iR Cup in fourth position.
Texas’ Grahovec would then make a sneaky inside move on Federl at turn one with 12 minutes left on the clock and grab the lead. Race one winner James Clay would then slide past Schwartz a few corners later to claim the third position.
On the next lap Federl would repass Grahovec for the lead, running Federl, Grahovec, Clay as the top three.
With less two minutes remaining, Schwartz would then make a daring dive to the inside of Clay at the turn 11 hairpin to grab the final TC podium position. As positions two through four battled, Federl would pull out a four-second lead and cruise to the class victory.
“The Nissan has a lot of great straight line speed, but the BMWs are great in the corners,” said Federl. “Once I got out front, I was able to put on a little show for all my friends that are here at my home track. Thanks to TechSport and Nissan for giving me a great car today.”