Lewis and Wilkins make a Hyundai 1-2
Michael Lewis and Mark Wilkins drove their Hyundai i30 N TCR cars to finish first and second for Brian Herta Autosport in the inaugural race of the Pirelli World Challenge TCR class at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas.
Lewis took a better start than pole sitter Wilkins and the two Hyundai cars led the field for the whole 40-minute race. However, they had a moment on the last lap, when Lewis locked the front wheels while overlapping a car from the slower TCA class and went wide. In the process, Wilkins found himself ahead of Lewis, but in perfect chivalrous behaviour handed the lead back to him.
“The car was great and I drove as smoothly as possible to preserve the tyres. Wilkins was pushing me all the way through, but we worked together well as a team,” said Lewis.
Ryan Eversley completed the podium in third position at the wheel of his RealTime Racing Honda Civic FK7 TCR; for most of the race he followed the two leaders at a striking distance, but he lost contact in the final laps and crossed the line with a gap of 4.2 seconds.
Martin Jensen drove his red Alfa Romeo Giulietta to a brilliant fourth place, ahead of Jérimy Daniel’s Audi RS3 LMS run by The Racing Company. Michael Hurczyn finished seventh, the best of the Volkswagen Golf GTI drivers.
An incident at the start involved Nick Esayan’s Honda and Jarett Andretti’s Volkswagen; Esayan rejoined at the back of the field and recovered to finish 12th, while Andretti retired.
The second race will start on Sunday at 12:25 local time (18:25 CET) and will be streamed live at www.tcr-series.tv.
