TCR / 22 April 2024
JAS Development Drivers on podium at Vallelunga
JAS Motorsport Development Drivers Ignacio Montenegro and Marco Butti showed their class aboard their Honda Civic Type R TCRs as the Kumho FIA TCR World Tour and TCR Europe both began at Vallelunga.
And with the JAS-built NSX GT3 also showing excellent speed and recording its best result of the IMSA season at Long Beach, it was a superb weekend for customer crews globally.
TCR Europe
Fresh from his TCR Spain Winter Series crown and a pole position in last weekend's TCR South America opener, new JAS Driver Development Programme member Ignacio Montenegro was in fine form at Vallelunga.
The ALM Motorsport driver qualified second overall and finished third in Saturday’s season-opener; the Argentinian also winning the Rookie class. He added a second Rookie victory to lead the standings with sixth overall on Sunday.
ALM team-mate and fellow DDP driver Levente Losonczy was 10th and eighth as he recovered from a hard hit up the rear from a rival in Race Two that dropped him out of podium contention early on.
Ruben Volt, in the third ALM car, started 12th after track-limit violations stripped him of all his qualifying times, but he fought back superbly to finish fifth on Saturday. Early contact put him out on Sunday.
GOAT Racing’s Felipe Fernandez recorded his career-best finish in fifth on Saturday and went even better 24 hours later to come home third and score a maiden series podium; netting Diamond Trophy honours at the same time and leading the category points.
His team-mates Ruben Fernandez and Dusan Borkovic scored best results of ninth and seventh respectively during the weekend.
TCR World Tour
Marco Butti showed his undoubted promise at Vallelunga as he capped off a weekend of excellent pace with a third-place finish and a maiden podium finish for new team GOAT Racing.
Butti made an exceptional start from fifth on the Race-Two grid and survived first-lap contact and the resultant performance loss from a front tyre rubbing against bodywork for the duration of the race to hang on to third, which added to fifth place on Saturday.
Team-mate Esteban Guerrieri, back in TCR after a year away, qualified third and finished there in Race One before adding eighth from Race Two’s partially-reversed grid.
MM Motorsport's Jacopo Cimenes qualified on pole in the Coppa Italia Turismo, which ran inside the TCR World Tour races. He was third on Saturday but did not start Race Two due to a technical issue. Team-mate Tony Verhulst was fifth and sixth.
IMSA
Gradient Racing recorded the best finish of the season for the NSX GT3 Evo 22 with a stunning comeback drive on the streets of Long Beach.
Sheena Monk and new full-season co-driver Stevan McAleer – who was fastest in the GTD class in practice – missed qualifying due to a technical issue and started 17th and last as a result.
A strong charge from Monk brought the NSX to 11th by the mandatory driver changes and McAleer continued to climb the order; overtaking three cars in one go around the outside at a blocked hairpin to finish a magnificent fourth.
The NSX was competing as part of the NSX GT3 Customer Racing Programme; a global collaborative project with JAS Motorsport responsible for assembly of all cars.
Honda Performance Development (HPD) and M-TEC handle sales and technical support in North America and Japan respectively, with JAS responsible for these areas across the rest of the world.
