Liefooghe, Filippi lead Utah PWC TC practice

BMW's Greg Liefooghe and Mason Filippi led the two Friday Pirelli World Challenge practice rounds for the Touring Car class at Utah Motorsport Campus in the Security National Mortgage Supercar Grand Prix of Utah.

Liefooghe, a TC race winner at VIR in May, recorded the fastest TC lap on Friday in the No. 20 Stephen Cameron Racing/ART Racing BMW M235iR at two minutes, 4.437 seconds for an average speed of 88.17 mph around the popular 3.048-mile, 14-turn UMC road circuit.

• Results

Filippi, a TC winner at CTMP, was fastest in the afternoon in his No. 12 Winding Road Team TFB BMW 235iR with a 2:05.959 (87.11 mph) as the 90-plus degree heat took its toll on the racing surface for the 48-car overall TC field.

Second overall for the day went Justin Raphael in the No. 29 Classic BMW M235iR at 2:05.723 (87.27 mph) followed by defending TC series champion Toby Grahovec in the No. 1 Classic BMW M235iR at 2:05.857 (87.18 mph), Filippi at 2:06.100 (87.01 mph) and current TC point leader Paull Holton in the No. 71 C360R Audi RS3 LMS Club Sport at 2:06.108 (87.01 mph).

"The guys prepped a good car for us. I was running really well in the morning," said Liefooghe. "The balance was really good which is important here with all the long corners. We ran into some issues in the afternoon but we are going to be working on them. This class is so competitive and with 22 BMW's in TC everyone has the same equipment and you only have a few things to adjust. It makes it super fun because it comes down to driving and also the little details in setup that make a big difference because if you can't change big things, you have to focus on those little details."

Kenny Murillo paced the TCA action Friday at Utah with a 2:13.154 (82.40 mph) over defending TCA champion Elivan Goulart in his No. 70 S.A.C. Racing Mazda Global MX-5 Cup car to a 2:13.656 (82.09 mph) followed by Craig Stanton in the all-new No. 86 DG-Spec Toyota TMG 86 car with 2:13.763 (82.03 mph).

Young Canaan O'Connell, son of four-time GT champion Johnny O'Connell, led TCB driver in Friday practice with a 2:28.698 (73.79 mph) in the No. 24 TechSport Racing Chevrolet Sonic over Jasper Drengler at 2:29.225 (73.53 mph) in the No. 01 Drengler Racing Honda Fit. Both drivers set their quickest times in the morning session Friday.

The Touring Car division will have two 40-minute Sprint races on Saturday with Round 7 scheduled for 12:30 p.m. MDT and Round 8 set for 5:10 p.m. MDT.