PWC: Poland, Jonsson, Price claim Touring Car wins at Miller

Adam Poland (Touring Car), Nic Jonsson (Touring Car A) and Brian Price (Touring Car B-Spec) scored victories in Round 13 of the 2014 season, the Pirelli World Challenge Nissan Championship Finale brought to you by Motul.
Poland's win is his second, Jonsson's his first and Price his fifth this season. Jonsson also has three GTS wins and was making his first TCA start of the season. All three drivers started from the Motul pole position.

In TC, Poland, of Mt. Vernon, Texas, drove a flawless race in his No. 11 Texas Track Works/Eastex Motorsports Mazda MX-5. Off of the standing start, Poland outpaced Michael Pettiford, of Louisville, Colo., who started second in the No. 41 Pontiac Solstice through Turn 1 and never looked back winning the race flag to flag.

Behind Poland, Pettiford battled with Steven Doherty, of Plainfield, Ill., in the No. 94 Nissan Altima Coupe who started third. Doherty eventually passed Pettiford on lap 7, 25 minutes into the 40-minute contest, but was then never able to close the more than seven second gap that Poland had built up. Doherty's pass of Pettiford earned him the Invisible Clean Pass of the Race.

"We put a really neutral setup on the car and make it really stable and it showed on the track, the car was really hooked up," said Poland. "The track conditions got pretty bad toward the end but the car still had enough grip to pull through for the win."

Doherty finished second with Pettiford third, although he was later penalized all points and times for being found out of compliance in post-race technical inspection. He will start from the rear of the field in Saturday's Round 14.

Of note, Touring Car points leader Michael DiMeo, of Toronto, finished seventh in the No. 71 Children's Tumor Foundation Honda Civic Si, thus marking his first finish this year outside the top-two.

In TCA, Jonsson, of Buford, Ga., also drove a flawless, race to take the flag-to-flag win in the No. 38 Kinetic Motorsports Kia Forte Koup.

"It was a good, clean race for us and having the first Kia 1-2 in TCA this year is obviously good for the last weekend of the season," said Jonsson. "It's always good to have the Koups running that good and for Jason leading the championship leading going into the final race of the season tomorrow, hopefully we can help bring home the championship for Jason tomorrow and make everybody happy."

TCA class points leader Jason Wolfe, of Mt. Vernon, Ohio, in the No. 36 Wolfe Trucking Kia Forte Koup, will extend his lead after surviving a race-long battle with Ernie Francis Jr., of Dania, Fla., in the No. 98 Breathless Performance Mazda MX-5.

Wolfe finished second on the day closely followed by Francis Jr. in third. Francis Jr. tried a number of times to pass Wolfe at various points of the track only to be denied.

"It was a super tough race, close battles the whole time," said Wolfe. "Ernie and I were back and forth almost every lap. Awesome job to him, congrats to Nic on the win, and a great day for Kia. Overall a good day!"

"It was a great race from the beginning, said Francis Jr. "From the start we got behind Wolfe and we started battling with him and Jason Cherry for awhile. Once we got around Cherry, I was able to pull a little gap and chase down Wolfe. I made a couple of passes on him, but it wasn't enough to keep him behind us on the straights. Hopefully tomorrow we can get it done."

Wolfe's closest title competitor, Shea Holbrook, of Groveland, Fla., in the No. 67 Lucas Oil/The Center for Bone and Joint Disease/TRUECar/Radium Honda Civic Si, finished fifth in TCA.

Of note, Bryan Heitkotter, of Fresno, Calif., in the No. 93 Nissan/GT Academy/Skullcandy Nissan Altima Coupe took home both the Optima Batteries Best Standing Start Award gaining three positions off of the standing start and also the Sunoco Hard Charger Award for gaining the most positions at fourth overall in the race.

Price, of Middletown, Va., in the No. 51 Carsquare.com/Unlimited Racing/RP Performance Honda Fit extended his lead in the TCB Driver's Championship, after finishing just ahead of Nathan Stacy, of Owasso, Okla. in second place in the No. 14 MDG/Ford Racing Ford Fiesta.

"The race went well!" Price said. "We worked very long hours along with Johan Schwartz and the American Diabetes car this weekend to get both of our cars fast and that proved in practice, qualifying and the race. I can't thank everybody enough."

Finishing a season-best third, for his first career podium finish in Pirelli World Challenge was Andrei Kisel, of North Vancouver, B.C. in the No. 57 Racing.ca/LaptopScreen.com Mini Cooper.

Finishing fourth and extending his top-five streak was Tyler Palmer, of San Diego, Calif., in the No. 37 MINI USA/Mobil 1/Flying L Racing/ThePainter'sFriend.com/Discount Tire Mini Cooper with Johan Schwartz, of Denmark, recovering to fifth in the No. 12 Animas/ADA/American Honda Honda Fit. Schwartz qualified fastest but was found out of compliance in post-qualifying technical inspection.

Poland, Jonsson and Stacy set the fastest race laps in Round 13 and will thus have the Motul pole positions for Saturday's season finale, Round 14.

Round 14 of the TC, TCA, and TCB Championships goes green at 9:15 A.M. MDT/11:15 A.M. EDT on Saturday.