Castro Earned Two Runner-Up Finishes, Hard Charger and Pole for Race Three at Mid-Ohio in Tripleheader Weekend LEXINGTON, Ohio (September 26, 2020) – TPC Racing’s Efrin Castroleft Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course with a host of IMSA Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama hardware and an opportunity to pick up even more on Sunday. Castro scored a pair of Gold Cup runner-up finishes in his No. 65 Fine Fare Supermarkets/TPC Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup during the double-race day. His performance in the afternoon round included the Yokohama Hard Charger after starting 14th overall and improving four positions during the 45-minute race, and his best lap of 1:27.149 (93.274 mph) on lap 25 of 30 was quick enough to earn the class pole position for Sunday morning’s race. The runner-up finishes came in two different styles. Castro started Saturday morning’s race third, moved to second on the start, and found himself in a three-way battle for the lead for most of the race. Though he was able to bring the car home with a successful second-place finish, the battle meant that Castro was never in clean air to set a solid lap to serve as qualifying for the next race. Without the clean lap, Castro started the afternoon race fourth in class. He immediately went to work climbing the standings, moving to third on lap three and second on lap five with a clean deep-braking move at the end of the back straight. That early battle allowed the class leader to break away, however, and Castro held on for second place.  In addition to the two second-place trophies, the Yokohama Hard Charger earned Castro a custom, wood-carved Yokohama skateboard and a set of race tires. Castro will begin Sunday’s race, which takes the green flag at 9:15 a.m. ET, at the front of the Gold Cup class and try to hold the lead for the full 45-minute race distance. The race can be seen live on IMSA.tv. Sunday is round nine of the 16-race season, where Castro currently sits just six points behind in the point standings.Saturday morning’s race is already available to watch in its entirety on IMSA’s official Youtube channel here. Harris Levitas, Director of Race Operations: “The TPC Racing guys really did a good job with the setup of the car. Every time you come to Mid-Ohio, it seems to always change. That’s always been the history at Mid-Ohio. We test here, we find a setup, and we always have to change that setup, even though the track has never physically changed. Efrin did a really good job today adapting to the changes of the surface and gave us really great feedback. The guys did a really good job going over the data and came up with a really nice setup for him and it got the fastest lap of the race. He drove really smart and didn’t put a wheel wrong. I’m proud of him.” Efrin Castro, Driver, No. 65 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (Gold Cup): “We came to Mid-Ohio with high hopes of coming out very strong. At the beginning of the weekend, we had a hard time with the setup because the track changed so much from the last time we were here. The crew from TPC Racing constantly continued working to get the right setup and we finally got something we could work with. We got the fastest lap of the race in race two, so that means we have a good position tomorrow for race three which could give us an advantage. I just want to thank the team. I can’t thank them enough, they’ve been working hard. The track has been giving us a very difficult time but we’re going to come out strong, God willing.” About TPC Racing: TPC Racing is the Mid-Atlantic’s premier maintenance, service, tuning and modification center dedicated solely to Porsche sportscars. TPC Racing specializes in R&D and sales of high-performance modifications for Porsche sports cars and race cars, offering a wide range of vehicle upgrades. Best known for a line of forced induction solutions for the Porsche 911, Cayman and Boxster, a long-time focus on only one make, Porsche, has enabled TPC Racing to become experts in Porsche service, tuning, and racing. In 2000, TPC Racing began entering races under its own banner, scoring an SGS-class Championship in 2004 in the Grand-American Rolex Series and was a class winner in the 2006 Rolex 24 At Daytona, and captured the 2013 and 2016 IMSA Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA Gold Cup Championships. More information can be found at www.TPCRacing.com. |
