Greg Liefooghe, driving the #20 Stephen Cameron Racing M235i Racing, won Saturday's Pirelli World Challenge Touring Car Series sprint race at Circuit Of The Americas in Austin, Texas, and Nick Wittmer drove the #91 ST Racing M235iR to a win on Sunday. In both races, the top six cars were M235iRs.
Liefooghe and Wittmer swapped the lead in Saturday’s race, with Liefooghe coming out ahead at the end. Rooster Hall Racing’s Anthony Magagnoli finished third, while Classic BMW M235iR racers Toby Grahovec and Matt Travis were fourth and fifth, and Winding Road Team TFB’s Mason Filippi finished sixth.
On Sunday Wittmer led most of the race, with Liefooghe a close second in the early going and Magagnoli then getting by Liefooghe and running on Wittmer’s tail. After a long full-course yellow to remove Chetan Puranik’s wounded M235iR and another car, an intense battle for the lead developed among Wittmer, Magagnoli, Liefooghe, and Toby Grahovec. Contact between Magagnoli and Liefooghe eventually sent Liefooghe back to thirteenth and Magagnoli further down in the pack. Grahovec mounted a challenge to Wittmer, finishing just ,27 seconds behind him at the end. Behind Wittmer and Grahovec were M235iR racers Travis, Stefan Sajic (Zima Motorsports), Filippi, and Filippi’s Winding Road Team TFB teammate Jacob Ruud.
Wittmer’s win and Liefooghe’s thirteenth-place-finish had an impact on drivers’ points. Unofficially Wittmer and Audi’s Paul Holton (who finished tenth on Saturday and eighth on Sunday at COTA) gained an edge over Liefooghe going into the season finale at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in October. PWC had not published an official points update as of Monday evening, September 4.—Brian S. Morgan
