TCR World and life

31 Mark Wilkins and Michael Lewis ended the IMSA Michelin Challenge season in style as they won the last race at Road Atlanta, their third victory of the season, and so clinched the title of the TCR class. Their Bryan Herta Autosport teammates, Harry Gottsacker and Mason Filippi finished the race in fourth position and moved into second in the standings, securing a 1-2 for Hyundai. The race started with the Audi RS 3 LMS of Britt Casey Jr. taking the lead from pole position, while Lewis made a cautious start from P2 and dropped to sixth. Casey was chased by Shelby Blackstock’s Honda Civic and the Alfa Romeo Giulietta of Alexandre Papadopoulos, who had leapt from tenth on the grid to third, but was soon given a drive-through penalty for jumping the start. Lewis recovered and passed Blackstock for second on lap 7, just before the first safety car intervention to allow the Honda Civic of Tyler Stone to be towed off the gravel. After the first two rounds of pit stops and another safety car period, Colin Mullan and Brian Henderson were placed first and second in their Honda cars, followed by Nick Galante’s Audi and Lewis’ Hyundai. A third full course yellow period ended halfway through the two-hour race and ten minutes later Lewis and Casey overtook Mullan, moving into first and second. Positions were reshuffled again following the third and final pit stop and a further safety car intervention to recover Mullan’s Honda that had stopped in the middle of the track with broken suspension.