Fletcher Returns to Victory Lane in First COTA Race

Photo: TGRNA

Jeremy Fletcher returned to victory lane, scoring his second Toyota GR Cup North America win of the season in the first race of the weekend at Circuit of The Americas.

The Copeland Motorsport driver, who had a weekend to forget at Sonoma Raceway, claimed a flag-to-flag victory on Saturday, taking his No. 22 Toyota GR 86 Cup car to the win over points leader Spike Kohlbecker in the No. 15 TechSport Racing entry, after the race ended under full-course yellow.

While Fletcher led from pole position, the No. 78 BSI Racing Toyota of Ethan Ayars ran second until getting passed by Kohlbecker on Lap 5.

A late-race full-course caution for a suspected mechanical issue for the No. 98 RVA Graphics Motorsports by Speed Syndicate entry of Max Schweid, who was closing on Kohlbecker for third, resulted in the race ending behind the safety car.

Teammate Will Robusto crossed the line in third but as assessed a three-second post-race time penalty for multiple track limits violations, which dropped him to ninth.

It promoted Ayars to the final podium position in third, with Ethan Goulart and Beltre Curtis completing the top-five.

Goulart, however, was spun into the wall after the checkered flag in a knock-on effect from Robusto attempting to mitigate his post-race penalty.

The incident was under review by race control.

Parker DeLong finished 12th after the TechSport driver was forced to serve a drive-through penalty in the early stage for a deemed jump start while running in fifth.

The 45-minute race had three yellows in all, the first for an accident for the No. 55 Blackdog Racing entry of Liam Harrison and a second for the No. 77 BSI Toyota of Alcyr Araujo, who ended up in the wall.

Race 2 gets underway Sunday at 10:40 a.m. CST with live coverage on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel and on GRCup.com.

RESULTS: Race 1

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