Grattis Nicklas



SPEED World Challenge at Infineon Raceway - WCTC Round 5 Race Report

Nic Jonsson wins his first WCTC race.

If you follow the Touring Cars of the SPEED World Challenge Series you know it was only a matter of time until Nic Jonsson would get to the top of the podium in his beautifully prepared Tecmark Corp. BMW 325.

It took a flawless race but Sunday July 18th was the time and Infineon Raceway was the place as Nic Jonsson of Sweden via Buford Georgia held off a race long challenge from the potent Turner BMWs of Bill Auberlen and Justin Marks, both driving those potent Turner Motorsports/H&R Springs BMWs, to claim the victory in Round five of the WCTC series.

Pole sitter Bob Stretch got the jump on the field and had his Wheels America BMW 325 out front with Jonsson, Auberlen, Marks and Turner Motorsports driver Dino Crescentini close behind. Jonsson applied pressure and due to a greasy situation in turn ten got along side Stretch going into turn 11.

Actually they were 3 wide going into 11 and about 5 deep, thus is Touring Car racing in the SPEED World Challenge Series. Jonsson got the edge and maintained the lead for the rest of the race.

A lap later Auberlen got inside of Stretch going into turn 4 and the resulting contact sent Stretch's #98 off course and also allowed Justin Marks to slip past both of them.

Early in the going Peter Cunningham's NISMo/TeamRTR Nissan Sentra SE-R began smoking while battling with Kleinubing and Sofronas and soon retired due to mechanical ailments.

As Peter was pitting his Sentra things got ugly at turn ten as an oil slick had been laid down and the unfortunate Paul Lambert in his STaSIS Audi A4, who had spun out of the top ten earlier, went hard into the wall at ten.

Matt Richmond, in the Bimmerworld/Ground Control BMW, who is definitely having a good weekend, hit the same oil and also spun into the tires and then into Lambert. Brandon Davis, A-Spec/RealTime Racing Acura RSX and Nick Woodhouse (Woodhouse Associates BMW) also hit the oil and joined the pile on the tire wall.

only Richmond was able to continue and Matt actually finished 14th after the contact.


Clean restart

After a several lap l=clean up the field got a clean restart and the race settled into a pattern where Jonsson, Auberlen and Marks ran in formation with Crescentini a few seconds back in 4th.

Behind them was a battle royal.

With the order being Jonsson, Auberlen, Marks, Crescentini, Plumb, James Sofronas and Stretch Matt Plumb in the RealTime Racing/SANZ/Sun MicrOSystems Acura TSX must have been feeling like a party crasher in a BMW festival.

Sofronas, in his #29 LectricAir/Tecmark Corp BMW, and Plumb and later Stretch would have a great race as Sofronas and Plumb swapping positions several times with James coming out on top and finishing 5th as Matt had pretty much used up his car trying to maintain contact with the lead groups.

"I was driving the wheels off the car," Plumb said later. "James raced me clean the whole way!"

"I had no practice all weekend so I was learning the track during the race," Sofronas said. "It was a great race for me. And the team!"

When Sofronas got past Stretch came up on Plumb and the two went door to door for the last two laps with the two cars racing to the checker. Stretch finished 6th by 0.016 seconds!

Pierre Kleinubing in the A-Spec/RealTime Racing Acura TSX came back to finish 8th after plenty of early rubbing here and there. Jeff Maki finished a very strong 9th in his STaSIS Audi A4 just ahead of Jeff Altenburg in the brand new Tri-Point Engineering/MazdaSpeed Mazda 6 who was tenth.

Jonsson won as Auberlen took a late run but had nothing for Nic as it was definitely his day. He was up until 11 last night looking at data and was making changes on a car that was strong but not quite strong enough on Saturday.

Nic Jonsson and his Tecmark BMW were plenty strong on Sunday!

When did Jonsson think he had it won? After the flag fell baby!

"You never know because a race car is a mechanical thing and you don't know if it will last," replied Jonsson with a smile. "And I had Bill and Justin behind me!"

"My car was great," said Auberlen of his car that has to carry the maximum 250 pound of rewards weight. "It's just fat!"


The end

The WCTC race two was the end of a great weekend at Infineon Raceway. Plenty of great racing plenty of side stories and sunny and warm weather. This place is pretty good.

Pederb skrev:

Grattis Nicklas

Kan bara hålla med, alltid roligt med svenska motorsportsegrar utomlands.

Som Bankerydsbo känner jag mej ju extra delaktig!