Ricca Scores Impressive TC Round 13 Win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Las Vegas, NV – Jeff
Ricca scored a dominating win in Saturday morning’s TC Round 13 at Las
Vegas Motor Speedway. The series closes out its 2019 season in Las Vegas
– the weekend is sponsored by R.U.N – The First Live Action Thriller
Produced by Cirque du Soleil. Johan Schwartz, the 2019 TC Driver’s
Champion, finished second, while Chandler Hull finished third.
Pole
sitter Schwartz led the 11-car field to the green behind the wheel of
his #80 Rooster Hall Racing BMW M240iR Cup. Ricca, in his #78 GenRacer
Hyundai Veloster N, timed the green perfectly and dragged race Schwartz
to nose ahead and into the lead through the first turn of the race.
Schwartz slotted into second, while Hull, in the Copart / BimmerWorld
Racing #94 BMW M240iR Cup moved from his fourth-on-the-grid start up
into third. Toby Grahovec in his #26 Classic BMW BMW M240iR Cup gained
two positions on the start slotting into fourth on the first lap.
By
the second lap, Ricca had built a .402 second gap on Schwartz, while
Grahovec closed on Hull looking for a way through and into third. Ricca
continued to build his lead over Schwartz by lap 4 setting the fastest
race lap.
Through
laps 5 to 13, Ricca continued to build his lead and gapped Schwartz by
three seconds. Behind them Hull defended effectively and held off
Grahovec in the battle for third. On Lap 19, Grahovec and Hull went
side-by-side through turns 3 and 4 but the driver of the #94 machine was
able to defend and hold off the driver of the #26 machine. Behind them
Auto Technic Racing’s Tom Capizzi piloting the #52 machine and Copart /
BimmerWorld Racing’s Cameron Evans in the #82 BMW M240iR Cup car has
joined to create a four-way battle.
Drivers
held their positions for the remainder of the race and Ricca took the
checkered to claim his second win of the season. Results are provisional
until posted final.
"We
came in early this morning and made some changes for the track
conditions and it paid off,” said Ricca. “My team put an awesome effort
into keeping the tires on the car and I just did what I needed to do to
manage the tires. We had a nice gap so I let off a bit so we could get
through the race and claim first place, love it!"
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