Kohlbecker Wins After Costly Post-Race Penalties for Fletcher

Photo: TGRNA

Spike Kohlbecker held off Max Schweid for victory in the second Toyota GR Cup North America race of the weekend at Circuit of The Americas after Jeremy Fletcher was handed a total of 13 seconds of post-race time penalties for track limits violations.

The Copeland Motorsports driver, who led every lap in Sunday’s race, crossed the line more than eight seconds ahead of Kohlbecker, although was demoted to third in the results.

At the time of his first three-second penalty, Fletcher held a narrow 1.5 second lead, although an intense battle between Kohlbecker and the No. 2 RVA Graphics Motorsports by Speed Syndicate Toyota of Max Schweid for second stretched his lead.

He appeared to be set to overcome the initial penalty to take the win, but race control handed Fletcher an additional ten second penalty for repeated track limits offenses.

Schweid finished second, just 0.182 seconds behind the TechSport driver, who claimed his fourth win of the season and sees his championship lead extended.

Will Robusto passed Parker Delong in the closing ten minutes to claim fourth.

DeLong completed the top-five in his TechSport Toyota, while Niko Colby crossed the line in sixth but dropped down after also receiving a three-second penalty for track limits.

It promoted the No. 78 BSI Racing entry of Ethan Ayars to sixth in the final classification, with Colby finishing seventh.

Source: Sports Car 365