Cameron wins PWC TC Round 6 at Lime Rock

Dane Cameron delivered the win for Turner Motorsports and his No. 96 BMW M235iR on Saturday morning at Lime Rock Park in the second Pirelli World Challenge Touring Car race (Round 6 overall) of the weekend.

Cameron charged to second on the standing start and took the lead on lap 11, but spent the race locked in an intense battle for the lead. Paul Holton and Cody Ellsworth completed the podium. Cameron took the lead over Friday winner Elivan Goulart, who appeared to slow on lap 11, which also allowed Paul Holton's C360R No. 71 Audi RS 3 LMS Club Sport threw to the second position.

The race came to a key point on lap 16, with a three-car battle for the lead heading for turn one. Goulart had rebounded and was on the outside of Cameron in a challenge for the race lead and exiting turn two, fell back to second battling with Holton.

The two made contact, which sent Goulart's KRUGSPEED Lotus off course and into the barrier. Goulart would emerge unhurt, but the incident brought out a short full-course caution.

On the restart, the action intensified as Cameron held off a challenge from Cody Ellsworth's No. 11 RacerInk Motorsports Porsche Cayman, while at the same time, Nick Wittmer took third in the ST Racing BMW M235iR.

Another caution followed with a restart taking place with just seven minutes to go in the 40-minute timed race. The lead pack stayed glued together to the checkered flag, with Holton rebounding past Wittmer and then pulling a daring pass on Ellsworth for second on the last lap at Lime Rock to finish ahead of Ellsworth and Wittmer.

"It was pretty wild start to finish, good, hard, touring car racing," said Cameron. "I got a really good start and made up a few spots. The Lotus (Goulart) was out front but I noticed a few guys on new tires and a few guys on used tires. I was hoping it would come back to us later in the race. I don't know if he had a problem with his tires or not but it seems like we were able to track him down a little bit with a ton of pressure from Paul (Holton) in the Audi. The cars are just so different it makes for a pretty interesting chess match around the track. It was pretty tough start to finish - a lot of good hard battles, a lot of good passing, good clean racing and a lot of fun.

"I was just trying to get there in the first place and then trying to see if we had something (to pass the Lotus) or not. I had so much pressure from Paul that I had to keep pushing and trying to go forward; otherwise I was going to get passed and start going backwards. Everyone was so tight, with the low-horsepower and momentum cars, if you make a mistake or you go a bit wide, when you get passed you usually go back two or three spots, not just one."

"The one thing Audi is really good at is keeping the tires really well," said Holton. "You're just biding your time until the end of the race until the mistakes start to happen and that's when you can really start to make the moves. On the second restart, once I was able to keep the guys at bay and some of the guys started making mistakes, I had to capitalize on that and it was all we could do with the time we had left. The cars are so different, they're a lot of fun to race with.

"I trust Dane on track; where he brakes, I can brake; going through the corner, I can see through his window and basically drive through his window so I can't say anything bad about [Dane]."

"I wish we had a few more laps," said Ellsworth. "Our car just got a better and better as we kept on it. I got a little too anxious and tried to make a pass around Dane on that last lap and [Paul] Holton capitalized on that and nabbed it but it was still a great race today. We thought we wouldn't be quite as strong this weekend compared to the past few tracks. And we've been chasing a little bit of a battle trying to keep with the Audi and the BMW and now to see five, six, seven manufacturers all within a couple of tenths [of a second] it's pretty cool racing."

Anthony Magagnoli, in the Rooster Hall Racing BMW M235iR, completed the top five in a large 33-car field.

JT Coupal, in the BERG Racing Audi RS 3 LMS Club Sport, set the fastest lap of the race, running a 56.597.

Touring Car class competitors now enjoy a summer break, and are next set to take to the track at the Pirelli World Challenge Grand Prix at Utah Motorsports Complex, scheduled for August 11-13.