Championship Battle Tightens Entering Barber

Photo: Toyota

The battle for the Toyota GR Cup North America championship has tightened entering the penultimate weekend of the season at Barber Motorsport Park.

A retirement for Spike Kohlbecker in the second race at Road America has closed the gap between the TechSport Racing driver and title rival Jeremy Fletcher to just 13 points with four races to go.

Fletcher scored a sweep of the weekend last time out at the four-mile Wisconsin circuit, with his Copeland Motorsports team rebuilding his car following a fire in testing on Thursday of the weekend.

While the championship will likely come down to those two drivers, the fight for third has heated up between Will Robusto and Max Schwid.

The RVA Graphics by Speed Syndicate teammates are separated by just five points after a non-points score by Robusto in Road America Race 2.

A total of 31 cars are on the entry list for Rounds 11 and 12, including additions from both Copeland and BSI Racing, with Lucas Rowell and Will Conklin set for their first series starts.

Toyota GR 86 Cup cars will take to the track for the first time on Thursday for a pair of test sessions, followed by two practice sessions on Friday.

Qualifying 1 and Race 1 (3:40 p.m. CST) are on tap for Saturday, with Qualifying 2 and Race 2 (10:25 a.m.) set for Sunday.

Both 45-minute races will be streamed live on GRCup.com and SRO’s GT World YouTube channel.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John