Photo: BHA

Michael Lewis leads BHA Hyundai 1-2 in Lime Rock Race 2

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Michael Lewis led team-mate Mark Wilkins to a Bryan Herta Autosport Hyundai 1-2 in the second race of the weekend at Lime Rock Park, with championship leader Ryan Eversley finishing the race in fifth.

Lewis launched into the lead from pole position, while Eversley slipped from second on the grid to third in his RealTime Racing Honda Civic Type R TCR, behind the second Hyundai i30 N TCR of Canadian Mark Wilkins.

The safety car was deployed at the end of the first lap after PJ Groenke failed to get away in his TCA class Subaru BRZ due to a driveshaft failure.

The race resumed on lap four, with the two Hyundais quickly pulling away from Eversley’s Honda, whose race was about to get worse when it was confirmed the Honda driver jumped the start and was made to serve a drive-through penalty on lap 11 which dropped him out of the top ten.

The safety car was out again on lap 16 when the M1 GT Racing Audi RS 3 LMS of David Ostella hit the barriers, by which point Eversley had already recovered to ninth.

The race resumed with 15 minutes on the clock on lap 22, with the safety car benefitting Eversley with the field now bunched up, with Eversley quickly moving up to seventh on the first lap, passing the Audis of JT Coupal and Matt Fassnacht.

Eversley made a move to pass Nate Vincent’s HRD Volkswagen on lap 26 to move up to sixth and then closed in on Mason Filippi’s Volkswagen, but the safety car was out again on lap 29 with another of the TCA class cars, that of Jose DaSilva in the Ives Motorsports-run Mazda MX-5, stopping on circuit.

The race resumed on lap 34 with just two laps left to run, with Eversley charging down the inside of Filippi’s Volkswagen on the final lap, running side-by-side for four corners before slipping ahead into fifth.

Lewis went on to secure his second win of the season by just over a second ahead of Wilkins, with Bryan Ortiz finishing third on his World Challenge TCR debut weekend for Copeland Motorsports.

Jerimy Daniel was fourth in the Racing Company Audi, with Eversley fifth and maintaining his championship lead heading to the next touring car round of the World Challenge at Portland International Raceway on July 13th-15th.