Mark Wilkins records another 2nd in Round 10 TCR Competition
The young Californian enjoyed a perfect weekend in Utah with two TCR race wins and two pole positions as he makes a run for the coveted inaugural TCR Drivers' championship with just two races remaining in the 12-event tour. Lewis now sits second in the TCR points, just seven markers back for point leader Ryan Eversley.
The final TCR doubleheader of the season will be held on Sept. 1-2 at the famed Watkins Glen International road course in New York state.
On Sunday, Lewis repeated his dominant performance from Saturday with a superb launch from the standing pole position and beat his BHA teammate Mark Wilkins to the first turn of the 3.048-mile, 14-corner road circuit southwest of Salt Lake City.
Wilkins, a three-time race winner this year, pressured his teammate throughout the 20-lap feature event in a hot Sunday afternoon sun. The driver of the No. 99 Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb-Agajanian Hyundai i30 N TCR hung just a few lengths off of Lewis' car's rear bumper before settling for the runner-up spot for the second straight day, just 1.065 seconds behind.
'The standing starts are a little more intense,' said Lewis. 'You have a few more things to do than when you have a rolling start. But our Hyundai's have a really good launch and a real handbrake to help with the launch. We were going hard for a while and then, all of a sudden, it felt weird as if I had a flat tire or had come in contact with some oil or something. It made me go really wide in the esses. It was definitely intense out there but I'm glad we got back some of the grip there in the end.'
Wilkins, currently third in the TCR standings, made sure that Eversley never really got close to Lewis, even after a late race yellow flag. And the Canadian racer is still in the point fight enter the Watkins Glen finale weekend.
'The i30 was great,' said Wilkins. 'We had some BoP adjustments last night which added some weight which we definitely felt, but we had a great start anyway. Both Michael and I got off the line dead even and the cars ran flawless for us again today, albeit sliding around a little bit more today so we had to be a little bit more careful with the tires, but another 1-2 for Bryan Herta Autosport.
'This is a great track, we had a lot of fun. The surface was a little bit different today for sure. It was pretty good for a few laps there but there were a few laps where both Michael and I felt like there was just no grip. There are always a few variables to deal with on a late restart, but our cars are able to handle it.'
The Utah TCR doubleheader races will be shown on CBS Sports Network on Sunday, August 26, at 4 p.m. EDT. The Watkins Glen TCR races on Sept. 1-2 will have live streaming on www.world-challenge.com and the World Challenge channel on YouTube.
Photo credit: Hyundai
posted on conceptcarz.com
GRANTSVILLE, Utah (August 12, 2018) – Sunday's TCR 40-minute sprint race featured the popular and unique 'standing start' at Utah Motorsports Campus and Michael Lewis timed it to perfection in the No. 98 Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb-Agajanian Hyundai i30 N TCR race car on his way to a fourth TCR victory of the year in the Pirelli World Challenge Grand Prix of Utah.
Today's BHA 1-2 finish was the team's sixth top-two performance in the first ten races of the year. The 1-2 showing also extended the BHA point lead in the TCR Team standings (177-140) and Hyundai's advantage in the TCR Manufacturers' championship.
posted on conceptcarz.com
