Huyndai duo cruises to a second win in Utah

The Hyundai i30 N cars of Michael Lewis and Mark Wilkins encored yesterday’s 1-2 finish in the Pirelli World Challenge at Utah Motorsports Campus and sent the title fight to the wire.
RealTime Racing’s Ryan Eversley and his Honda Civic claimed another third place and so maintained the first position in the standings with 223 points, but Lewis has closed the gap to seven points only, while Wilkins is third, 25 points behind.
Lewis and Wilkins started well from the front row and began to pull away; Eversley stalled from third on the grid and dropped to seventh behind Michael Hurczyn, Matt Fassnacht, Jarett Andretti and JT Coupal. During the opening lap Anthony Geraci’s Audi and Nate Vincent’s Volkswagen collided and retired.
In a few laps the Brian Herta Autosport’s duo built a comfortable margin; behind them Fassnacht overtook Hurczyn for third, while Eversley began to recover. On lap 9, Eversley passed Fassnacht for third, but he was not able to close the gap from the leading pair.
However, on lap 17 the safety car was deployed to recover a car of the TCA class and the field regrouped.
When the race resumed for the two final laps, Lewis and Wilkins pulled away again, while Eversley and Fassnacht had a close fight for the third position; eventually Fassnacht made a slight mistake and settled for fourth ahead of Hurczyn and Mason Filippi in the second RealTime racing Honda.
Watkins Glen will host the Pirelli World Challenge’s final event on September 1 and 2.