Wilkins and Lewis claim a late 1-2 for Hyundai
Mark Wilkins and Michael Lewis left it until the dying minutes of Round 7 of the Pirelli World Challenge event at the Portland International Raceway to claim a 1-2 for Hyundai. Pole-sitter Ryan Eversley finished third in a Honda Civic Type-R after leading for the majority of the race.
Eversley managed the race’s rolling start to perfection and led Wilkins and Lewis into Turn 1, but JT Coupal wasn’t so fortunate. He outbraked himself going into the corner and the Audi RS3 LMS was forced to take to the escape road, dropping several places as a result. Later on lap 1, Eversley’s new teammate Michael Cooper passed Matt Fassnacht’s Audi for fourth place.
In all, twelve TCR cars representing four car brands took part in the race, which formed part of the 58th annual Rose Cup Race meeting at the Oregon circuit. Only one car failed to finish: the Volkswagen Gold GTI of Jarett Andretti pulling off the track on lap18.
The race was largely processional, with Eversley, Wilkins, Lewis and Cooper running together as a pack for most of the forty minutes. On lap 29, and with only around three minutes remaining, the leaders encountered backmarkers and Eversley was slowed. Wilkins saw his chance and passed Eversley for the lead, with Lewis also passing the Honda for second place one lap later. Despite Eversley struggling with what appeared to be a lack of grip on the final lap, he held Cooper at bay to finish third – the top four drivers separated by just 3.506 seconds.
Behind the quartet, the Audi of Matt Fassnacht finished fifth ahead of Michael Hurczyn’s Volkswagen, however after the race he was demoted to eighth by a 30-second penalty.
The results meant that Wilkins and Lewis got closer to Eversley in the standings, as they now are four and 15 points respectively behind the Honda driver.
Race 2 at the Portland International Raceway takes place on Sunday at 10:40 PDT (19:40 CET).
