Blackstock, O’Gorman Run Third for Honda at Laguna Seca
• Shelby Blackstock, Tom O’Gorman continue their TCR class championship chase with third-place finish at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca
• Brian Henderson, Todd Lamb combine to finish fifth in Atlanta Speedwerks Honda Civic Type R TCR
• Honda, O’Gorman and Blackstock take championship battles to next month’s season finale at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta
MONTEREY, Calif. (Sept. 14, 2019) – LA Honda World Racing drivers Tom O’Gorman and Shelby Blackstock kept their TCR class championship hopes alive today with a third-place finish in Saturday’s two-hour MICHELIN Pilot Challenge event at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
The fourth podium finish of the season for the pair moved them to second in the TCR Drivers’ Championship, 11 points behind leaders Mark Wilkins and Michael Lewis (256-245) with one race remaining. Honda goes into next month’s season finale at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta tied for second in the TCR Manufacturers’ Championship, just four points behind Audi (293-289) and tied with Hyundai in a three-way fight for the title.
Starting fifth, Blackstock moved his Honda Civic Type R TCR up to third in the opening hour, then handed off to co-driver O’Gorman at a pit stop during a full-course caution that jumbled the running order. O’Gorman resumed his chase of the leaders to the finish, but took the checkers just over three seconds adrift of race winners Gavin Ernstone and Jon Morley.
The Atlanta Speedworks duo of Brian Henderson and Todd Lamb brought its Honda home fifth to remain fifth in the championship; while HART racing returned to the series after missing the previous event at Virginia International Raceway to finish seventh with Ryan Eversley and Chad Gilsinger.
Also returning to TCR competition, Matt Pombo and Mike LaMarra saw their hopes of a strong finish ended by contact with a GS class competitor near the end of the race, dropping their LA Honda World entry to 11th. Paired with a new co-driver, Harry Cheung, Colin Mullan brought their LA Honda World Civic Type R home in ninth.
Social media content and video links from this weekend’s Honda Racing IMSA sports car action at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca are available on HPD’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/HondaRacingHPD) and on Twitter at (https://twitter.com/HondaRacing_HPD). Produced by the Carolinas Production Group, YouTube video packages can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV.
Next
The MICHELIN Pilot Challenge now takes three weeks off before resuming October 11 for the season-ending Petit Le Mans race weekend at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta near Gainesville, Georgia.
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Shelby Blackstock (#37 LA Honda World Honda Civic Type R TCR) finished third in TCR: “Overall, it was a pretty decent day. We qualified pretty well [fifth], and brought it up to third in our stint. The whole day was about managing tires; that was our game plan from the start. So I ran the pace [the team] gave me, then handed it over to Tom [O’Gorman]. Thanks to the team for all their hard work this weekend, and to Honda for all their support. It’s been an amazing year so far.”
Tom O’Gorman (#37 LA Honda World Honda Civic Type R TCR) finished third in TCR: “It was a tire race for everybody so, honestly, I think we did a really good job, managing tire wear. We came out [after the final pit stop] just a little too far back from the leaders to challenge for the win. But we moved up [to second] in the Drivers’ Championship, and Honda also is second in the Manufacturers’ headed to Road Atlanta, so we’ll see how things shake out there next month.”