Chris Haldeman Leads Civic Si Results in VIR Touring Car America Races
• Haldeman scores his first podium result of 2019 in Sunday’s event
• Taylor Hagler battles to fourth-place run on sunny Sunday
• Haldeman also leads Honda’s Saturday effort with a fourth-place result

ALTON, Va. (April 28, 2019) – The 2019 SRO Touring Car America season headed to verdant Alton, Virginia this weekend as the Honda Civic Si quintet from X-Factor Racing visited the fast, challenging Virginia International Raceway road course.

Chris Haldeman led the charge for the five-car X-Factor Racing Civic Si group over the two-race weekend, finishing fourth on Saturday and following that up with a third-place result in Sunday’s nightcap.

X-Factor Racing leader Haldeman paced the Texas-based squad in Saturday’s opener with his fourth-place run, followed by Cole Ciraulo in sixth. Taylor Hagler, who earned a podium in Austin, recovered from an early-race spin to finish ninth.

Hagler rebounded nicely on Sunday, using a strong start to make up positions and slide into fourth in the opening laps. From there she chased the third-running Civic of Haldeman all the way to the checkers. Ciraulo had a promising run blunted by contact with the barriers with just three minutes left in the race.

Next:
The 2019 Touring Car America championship now moves from VIR on the east coast of the United States to Sonoma Raceway, north of San Francisco, for Rounds Five and Six on June 8-9, as part of the Blancpain GT World Challenge America race weekend.

Social media content and video links from this weekend’s Honda Racing activity from Virginia International Raceway are available on Facebook at (https://www.facebook.com/HondaRacingHPD) and on Twitter at (https://twitter.com/HondaRacing_HPD).

Quotes:
Chris Haldeman (#69 X-Factor Racing Honda Civic Si) 4th in Saturday’s race, 3rd on Sunday: “It was great racing out there. Each of the other manufacturers were strong and weak in different areas of the track, which made for a lot of fun in both races. The Honda Civic Si is so good that you can really push and battle in tight spots, but you always feel confident that the platform is under you and you aren’t intimidated by any situation. We tried to take advantage of that and push hard.”

Taylor Hagler (#77 X-Factor Racing Honda Civic Si) 4th in Sunday’s race: “It was great to get some more seat time in the Civic, especially Friday [practice sessions] in the rain. I had not run the car in the rain, and that experience will pay off for us later in the year. The car is really good and we are starting to see things with our engineers that we are able to turn into improvements on the track. We are very excited to see how good this car is going to get.”