Harry Gottsacker clinches the title, as CUPRA wins again
In the last round of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge at Road Atlanta, Harry Gottsacker secured the TCR title for Bryan Herta Autosport and Hyundai, while the two-hour race was won by Tyler Gonzalez and Eric Powell in the #99 Victor González Racing Team CUPRA Leon VZ. This was the second consecutive success for the pair who had scored CUPRA’s first ever IMSA victory at Indianapolis.
Gottsacker and Mason Filippi co-drove the #98 BHA Elantra N TCR to a fourth-place finish, which was enough to clinch the TCR championship by 20 points over their teammates Denis Dupont and Preston Brown.
It was the sixth TCR title for BHA and Hyundai in the last seven seasons, and the second for Gottsacker.
After setting the second fastest time in qualifying behind the pole-sitting #98 Hyundai, the VGRT CUPRA took the lead in the early stages of the race and lost it briefly only after the mid-race pit stops before Gonzalez soon recovered it.
“I didn’t get the best of starts and lost a position, and I knew my job after that was to kind of conserve the tyres and little bit of fuel and let the race come to me, and that’s what happened,” Powell said.
Karl Wittmer and Louis-Philippe Montour in the #93 Montreal Motorsport Group Honda Civic FL5 led Gottsacker by 10 points heading into the finale, but they had a troubled day that ended with a retirement for mechanical issues just after the pit stops. They dropped to third in the standings behind Dupont and Brown.
Race
- T. Gonzalez/E. Powell (Victor González Racing, CUPRA Leon VZ), 77 laps
- D. Dupont/P. Brown (Bryan Herta Autosport, Hyundai Elantra N), 6.207
- S. Baker/J. Vance (Baker Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS), 10.464
Championship points
- H. Gottsacker, 2820; 2. D. Dupont/P. Brown, 2800; 3. L.P. Montour/K. Wittmer, 2710
Picture: IMSA/Jake Galstad
