TCR / 15 July 2024
Civic Type R TCR victorious again at Mugello
A maiden TCR Italy victory for Paolo Rocca was the highlight of another successful weekend for the JAS Motorsport-built Honda Civic Type R TCR and NSX GT3 Evo 22, which netted five podiums on two continents.
TCR Italy
ALM Motorsport's Paolo Rocca became a first-time winner in the series with a dominant drive in the Mugello opener that also netted him an Under-25s class victory. From second on the grid he overtook the pole-sitting car at the start and was never headed.
Significantly, ALM now sit third on the Civic Type R TCR all-time winners' list with 24 victories; a figure bettered only by MM Motorsport and Munnich Motorsport.
Ruben Volt appeared to have made it an ALM one-two but a 5s time penalty for a false start dropped him to third. The Estonian was involved in a first-lap multi-car incident in Race Two that bent his steering arm and led to him crashing out a few laps later.
It was JAS Development Driver Levente Losonczy who was involved in a first-lap incident in the opener. While that put him out, the ALM driver was fourth on Sunday with Rocca ninth.
MM Motorsport's Jacopo Cimenes qualified a career-best fourth and won the Rookie class with seventh place overall in Race One. Involved in the same first-lap incident as Volt he dropped to 20th, but climbed back to 12th (and second in the Rookie standings).
Antonio Citera took his RTM Motorsport Civic to fourth and fifth in the Masters class; his Race Two result coming after a brief off late in the race.
IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge
Montreal Motorsport Group scored their first TCR podium as the series made its annual trip to Canada at the legendary Mosport circuit.
Qualifying sixth in TCR, Dai Yoshihara climbed to third on the opening lap and stayed there through the opening hour. A slick pitstop and a Full-Course Caution at two-thirds distance allowed Karl Wittmer to close onto the leaders' tail.
A superb run by Wittmer brought the Civic home second - less than 2s from the win. Louis-Philippe Montour and Jon Brel were seventh; their car losing time in the pits early on as a gearbox-sensor issue was rectified.
Italian GT Championship
A second Am class podium in as many races strengthened the title prospects of Nova Race trio Luca Magnoni, Massimo Ciglia and Rodolfo Massaro at Mugello.
Starting fourth in the category, the trio ran consistently and pressured the leaders throughout. They are now in a three-way tie for second place in the points.
The Pro-Am entry of Felice Jelmini and Vincenzo Scarpetta, who were joined by Filippo Berto at Mugello, were challenging for a top-three position in the class when contact between Scarpetta and a rival caused front-end damage that put the NSX out.
IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship
Sheena Monk qualified a career-best ninth in the GTD class at Mosport aboard Gradient Racing's NSX GT3 Evo 22, but saw her superb efforts undone just three corners in to the 2h40m race as she was spun around by a rival, who was penalised for his actions.
Resuming last, she climbed to 11th by the end of the first hour and handed the car over to Stevan McAleer, who continued the charge to finish eighth - and second-best of the bronze-ranked crews competing for the Bob Akin award.
TCR UK
Bradley Thurston was the only one of the Go-Fix Honda by Sport77 drivers in action at a torrentially wet Croft circuit, but he was still able to claim his best finish of the year.
Leading the field from pole position on Race Two's partially-reversed grid, he lost several places during the encounter but still finished a strong sixth.
This added to ninth in Race One - not aided by a trip down an escape road - and a non-finish following early contact in Race Three.
