- HPD Honda Civic Si FE1 wins the TCA Championship with Spencer Bucknum
- Honda earns a clean sweep Sunday winning all three classes in SRO TC America
- VGRT Racing victorious in both TCX races, with Dai Yoshihara taking the Civic Type R to the winners circle twice
Honda teams and drivers dominated an exciting final two races of the season in TC America Powered by Skip Barber at the Racing Capital of the World, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Cloudy cool weather greeted the 26 drivers hoping to achieve a bucket list victory by winning at the famed “Brickyard”. The weekend ended with a pair of victories for Dai Yoshihara in TCX, the first ever win in TC for Celso Neto, and a win and the drivers’ championship title for Spencer Bucknum in TCA.
TCA Honda Civic Si
Some of the best racing all weekend took place in TCA both Saturday and Sunday. The Honda Civic Si FE1’s of Specer Bucknum with LA Honda Word Racing, and William Lambros with Skip Barber Racing School, provided one of the closest finishes in SRO history. After a clean battle all race and swapping positions throughout, the race literally came down to a photo finish with Lambros winning by 0.001 as they crossed the yard of bricks side-by-side.
Race 2 on Sunday was another spectacular nail-biter. It began like Saturday’s race ended with Bucknum and Lambros competing for the lead. Then Devin Anderson was able to get around Lambros and challenge for the lead, when a win would give Anderson the title over Bucknum. Once again, there was hard, clean racing throughout, with the pair never more than 0.5 seconds apart and some incidental side-to-side contact. On the last lap, Bucknum covered the inside in Turn 7 (the last real passing point), Anderson tried going around the outside but slid wide. Bucknum took the win and the championship and helped Honda secure the TCA Manufacturer Championship as well.
TCX Honda Civic Type R
Dai Yoshihara put his VGRT Racing Honda Civic Type R on pole, and after losing the lead on the first lap, was able to regain it and never look back. Yoshihara was ecstatic to get a victory at the Brickyard, his second of the season.
Sunday’s race saw Yoshihara once again take control early and stay in command the rest of the way, building a lead of +10 seconds until a last lap off (“I missed the brake pedal!”) nearly cost him the lead. He still held on for a three second victory and his third win of the season. This gave the Civic Type R back-to-back wins to close the 2023 SRO TC America season, its final races in TCX competition before being replaced by the Acura Integra Type S DE5 for 2024.
TC Honda Civic Type R
Celso Neto qualified on the outside of row one and was able to make the pass for the lead on the first lap. The Skip Barber Racing School driver looked to be in control of the race until contact with a lapped driver caused significant damage to his Civic leaving him unable to finish. Team DRS’ Kris Valdez earned the hard charger award as he worked himself from 8th place all the way to a podium finish in 3rd. Jeremiah Burton had his best finish of the season coming from 7th to 4th.
In Race 2, Celso Neto took a rebuilt car (after Saturday’s crash) and pulled away to a well-deserved 5 second victory, his first in the series after knocking on the door of a win all year long. The victory gave him 3rd overall in the yearend standings.
Quotes
Spencer Bucknum (#5 LA Honda World Racing Honda Civic Si FE1), TCA 2nd place after Saturday’s finish: “Yeah, it was clean, it was hard, it was everything you want in racing. It was a great battle and Will [Lambros] was awesome. It was soooo close at the [finish] line, but he just barely got me. But second is a good [championship] points day for me, absolutely.”
Williams Lambros (#77 Skip Barber Racing School Honda Civic Si FE1) TCA winner Saturday: “Spencer and I battled the whole race. The cars stayed consistent, they were awesome, they were fast. It came down to the last few laps. We were side by side for a good part of the race. This is the perfect place to do it at. If there was a place to get a second win this year, it is at Indy.”
Spencer Bucknum (#5 LA Honda World Racing Honda Civic Si FE1), TCA 1st place after Sunday’s race: “Oh my gosh, you can see the emotion on everyone’s face [in victory lane]. It was a hard-fought battle all season long, and it literally came down to the wire today. I owe everything to my team at LA Honda World, HPD and my family. It’s been an incredible year.”
Celso Neto (#7 Skip Barber Racing School Honda Civic Type R), Sunday TC winner): “This has been a long time coming, I’m so happy to be here [victory circle]. I’ve been working really hard with everyone on my team at Skip Barber Racing; they’ve done an amazing job. We had no practice this weekend, but headed straight into qualifying and put the car P2. Led the entire race yesterday until a lapped car took us out. That was frustrating, it was a hard hit. But the team worked overnight and got the car ready for today. They did an amazing job, not many teams could’ve done the work required in the time they had. It was perfect today, I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
Daijiro Yoshihara (#99 VGRT Racing Honda Civic Type R) Saturday and Sunday TCX winner: “Our car was just so fast all weekend. We were fast in traffic, and fast running on our own. It was perfect. This has been a great two days and I love winning here in Indianapolis, it means a lot.”
Next
This weekend’s races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway closed out the 2023 SRO TC America championship season. The 2024 season gets underway April 5-7 at Sonoma Raceway in California.
TCX America presented by Skip Barber Racing School Indianapolis Saturday Race Results
1st TCX - #99 Dai Yoshihara, VGRT Racing Honda Civic Type R TCX
6th TCX - #93 Christopher DeFreitas, Ian Lacy Racing Honda Civic Type R TCX
TC America presented by Skip Barber Racing School Indianapolis Saturday Race Results
3rd TC - #11 Kris Valdez, DRS Honda Civic Type R
4th TC - #34 Jeremiah Burton, Skip Barber Racing School Honda Civic Type R
5th TC - #88 Ruben Iglesias Jr., VGRT Racing Honda Civic Type R
TCA America presented by Skip Barber Racing School Indianapolis Saturday Race Results
1st TCA - #77 William Lambros, Skip Barber Racing School Honda Civic Si FE1
2nd TCA - #5 Spencer Bucknum, LA Honda World Racing Honda Civic Si FE1
TCX America presented by Skip Barber Racing School Indianapolis Sunday Race Results
1st TCX - #99 Daijiro Yoshihara, VGRT Racing Honda Civic Type R TCX
6th TCX - #93 Christopher DeFreitas, Ian Lacy Racing Honda Civic Type R TCX
TC America presented by Skip Barber Racing School Indianapolis Sunday Race Results
1st TC - #7 Celso Neto, Skip Barber Racing School Honda Civic Type R
5th TC - Kris Valdez, DRS Honda Civic Type R
6th TC - #34 Jeremiah Burton, Skip Barber Racing School Honda Civic Type R
7th TC - #88 Ruben Iglesias Jr., VGRT Honda Civic Type R
TCA America presented by Skip Barber Racing School Indianapolis Sunday Race Results
1st TCA - #5 Spencer Bucknum, LA Honda World Racing Honda Civic Si FE1
3rd TCA - #77 William Lambros, Skip Barber Racing School Honda Civic Si FE1
6th TCA - #07 Mario Biundo, LA Honda World Racing Honda Civic Si FE1
8th TCA - #19 Cooper Broll, Skip Barber Racing School Honda Civic Si FE1
DNS TCA - #9 Maddy Lemke, Ascent Racing Honda Civic Si FE1
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