Kaido HCR eSports racing driver, Hayden Thompson, has won the penultimate round of this year’s TORA TCF TASCAR season at Watkins Glen. The British driver, competing in a limited schedule of the championship, took pole position in his #11 Ford Fusion and went on to win the race, despite the field bunching up after a safety car.
It was a tale of two races for the relatively short forty-five lap event. Two well known “road course ringers” locked out the front row, with Thompson claiming pole position over Jack Shaia by just over two-tenths of a second. Daniel Pastor was the only other driver to set a lap-time in the 1:07’s, qualifying his Deep Lore Toyota in third place.
Thompson and Shaia would drive away from the field in the race, only being brought back toward the pack due to a caution period later on. Thompson would build an early lead, with Shaia closing the gap at various stages before dropping back from the lead soon after. The pair never really got into a battle for the win, with Thompson coming home to take the win in only his second start this season.
Shaia – the winner way back at Road America in round two of the season – would take second place in the #24 Chevrolet, with Ryan Butler putting in a solid drive to take third in the #19. It was somewhat of a lonely race for the Ax4x Throwback Racing driver, finishing far behind the two leaders but also quite far ahead of the pack behind him.
It was a crucial day for the championship. Entering the race, Kaido HCR’s Callum Hawkins boasted a sizable lead in the standings, with Ted Tooker and Ryan Butler his nearest challengers. However, for the first time this season, Hawkins failed to qualify for A Lobby after technical issues prevented him from turning a lap in the session. This meant that he could finish no higher than sixteenth place in the race, allowing Tooker and Butler the chance to close up on points.
With the aforementioned Butler in third ahead of Tooker in the Swordfish Motorsport Chevrolet in fourth, neither would be able to maximise the opportunity before them. However, even a win would not have really been enough to claw back decent points. Hawkins managed to scythe his way through the field to take the win in B lobby, taking away sixteenth place overall at Watkins Glen after starting thirtieth; a great save in what could have been a disastrous day for his potential championship aspirations.
Heading into the final round, Hawkins now has a lead of thirty-five points over Butler with the drop round factored in. One hundred and fifty points are on offer at Miami, so if things go really awry for Hawkins, it’s still possible for him to lose, but it is unlikely.
Behind fourth-placed Tooker would be his Swordfish Motorsport team-mate Liam McNinch, who took his best finish of the season so far in fifth. Martijn Rutte would finish sixth, with John Maltais seventh and Ben Williams in eighth place. Ultimate Autosport’s Corey Springer and Warparth Motorsport’s Jason Iverson completed the top ten.
Daniel Hawkins took eleventh place ahead of Mark Brown Jr. in the Ax4x Throwback Racing #8 Chevrolet. Mark said after the race that he had “hit everything but the pace car” in what was a frustrating race for the former champion.
It was an even more frustrating race for Ritchard Mead and Adam Watson. The pair came to blows on the circuit during a heated battle after qualifying inside the top five. Neither driver would finish high up the order, with Mead finishing thirteenth and Watson just behind in fourteenth after their hard-fought fracas.
After his superb qualifying effort, Daniel Pastor would wind up taking the last finishing position in Lobby A. He would take fifteenth place, with sixteenth going to the championship leader, Callum Hawkins, after winning Lobby B.
Just one race remains in this year’s TORA TCF TASCAR championship. The field will be back on track at Homestead-Miami Speedway on June 9 for the finale, with the three main championships still mathematically up for grabs. If you’re interested in signing up for this championship, run on Forza Motorsport 7 for Xbox One, please visit The Online Racing Association for more information.
Credit: Jordan Groves / Forza Motorsport 7
2018 TORA TCF TASCAR Series – TASCAR 110 at the Glen – Top sixteen race results:
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