Mason Filippi secures the TC America pole at Portland

Mason Filippi secured the pole for Saturday’s TC America TCR race in an exciting qualifying session Friday afternoon at Portland International Raceway, part of the 59th Annual Rose Cup Races, while Bryan Putt will start on pole in the TCR Cup division.
The 15-minute session was held under sunny and hot conditions. Early on, FCP Euro’s Michael Hurczyn in his Volkswagen Golf GTI jumped to the top with a 1:20.293. Filippi, piloting the Copeland Motorsports Hyundai Veloster N soon after slotted into the top spot with a 1:19.137 followed by Hurczyn’s teammate Nate Vincent who posted a 1:20.098.
In TCR Cup, Christian Cole in the McCann Racing Audi RS 3 LMS led the division with a 1:21.292. Putt, driving the ROWE Racing Audi though moved to the top soon after Cole posted his time with a quick 1:20.915 of his own.
Vincent would then post a 1:19.187 only fractions of a second off the top mark set by Filippi. James Walker in the Risi Competizione Alfa Romeo Giulietta would then match Vincent’s mark with an identical lap of 1:19.187. Hurczyn, the division’s championship points leader coming into the weekend, then posted a 1:19.240 to slot into 4th for Saturday’s race.

Qualifying
1:19.137 Mason Filippi (Copeland Motorsport, Hyundai Veloster N)
1:19.187 Nate Vincent (FCP Euro, Volkswagen Golf GTI)
1:19.187 James Walker (Risi Competizione, Alfa Romeo Giulietta)
1:19.240 Michael Hurczyn (FCP Euro, Volkswagen Golf GTI)
1:19.320 Michael McCann (McCann Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS)

Championship points
1. Hurczyn 145 pts; 2. Vincent 109 192; 3. Filippi 85