Goulart holds off Holton for PWC TC win at Lime Rock

Elivan Goulart held off a charging Paul Holton for the better part of a thrilling 40-minute Touring Car round to score his first TC Class win at the Pirelli World Challenge Grand Prix of Lime Rock Park.

Goulart, a local driver from Shelton, Connecticut, was a late entry for the weekend in the KRUGSPEED Lotus Exige, and is also racing in the TCA class, where he is the defending Champion.

• Race results

Goulart prevailed from his third starting spot, leading every lap in his Lotus in the 32-car field. It wasn't an easy victory, however, as he spent the better part of the race being hounded for the lead and took the checkered flag by just 0.395 seconds.

Goulart first had to hold off Dane Cameron on an early-race restart, as the two went side-by-side for the opening four corners. Cameron had already moved up quickly, from fourth to second on the opening race laps.

A little later, it was Holton, the pole winner, and his C360R Audi RS 3 LMS Club Sport that had made his way into second with an aggressive pass on the inside of Cameron coming down the treacherous downhill at Lime Rock

It didn't take long for Holton to track down Goulart as he caught him by the 12-minute mark of the race.

From there, Holton was rarely less than a tenth of a second off the Lotus as the laps ticked away. Goulart expertly managed one late-race restart and held on for the win on Friday afternoon in a dry race following morning and mid-day rain.

Cameron's Turner Motorsports BMW would complete the podium behind Goulart and Holton, improving from fourth on the grid.

"I have been looking for the opportunity to run in the TC class but we didn't have the funding for the full season," said Goulart. "But when I heard they were splitting up the TC and the TCA, I was able to race both cars this weekend. I won the SCCA Runoffs with Krugspeed in 2013 and they had a car for me to race this weekend. This opportunity came about late but I was anxious to race the Lotus again. I think Lime Rock is a perfect track for this car. It is light and nimble. I knew Paul's Audi was right on me. His car was about twice as big at the Lotus. I love Lime Rock and it is always fun to win here."

"I knew that Elivan was going to get the jump on me at the start," said Holton, a TC winner at VIRginia International Raceway and Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. "I tried to put the pressure on him late in the event. I tried inside and flashing the lights too. But he didn't make a mistake. It's tough to pass here and he drove a great race. I thought I had a shot at him coming down the downhill, but the Lotus really comes off the corner well. It was a fun race for us."

Toby Grahovec, in the Classic BMW BMW M235iR, finished fourth ahead of the Winding Road Team TFB BMW of Mason Filippi, who completed the top five. Grahovec got past Filippi late in the race, with a gutsy pass around the outside in turns 1 and 2 (Big Bend).

John Weisberg and Tony Rivera followed in positions sixth and seventh, respectively.

Behind the lead battle, the attention was on the fight for fourth in the closing stages, as Grahovec, Filippi, Weisberg and Rivera put on a show for the fans at Lime Rock Park. Less than 1.5 seconds covered the four cars at the checkered at the end of the 37-lap race.

TC competitors close out their weekend at the Pirelli World Challenge Grand Prix of Lime Rock with a second race, scheduled for Saturday at 11:10 a.m. local time.