Tight battles going into the last race of the season.
The last weekend of competition in the United States Touring Car Championship is going to be intense for many competitors. Round 7 will be a double points race; therefore, nobody can afford to relax thinking that they have a large cushion. No driver championship has been clinched yet so anything can still happen.
In the Touring Car class, the battle will be between the GoGoGear.com/Konig Wheels teammates of Gary Sheehan and Art Nersisyan. They are driving identical Hyundai Genesis Coupe race cars and Sheehan leads the championship by 15 points which is about one position. Sheehan can be a bit more comfortable knowing that he holds the tie breaker going into the last race with one more victory than Nersisyan. Sheehan is the defending champion while Nersisyan is last year’s Plastex Top Rookie and he is very hungry to win.
The GT class is where the leader can be the most comfortable since he has the biggest lead. Swedish driver, Carl Rydquist, has a significant lead on second place Rob Harper who has had many misfortunes this year. Rydquist just needs to start the race in order to clinch the championship for the second time in three years.
The Super Touring class is another two way battle, this one between two BMW M3s. Doug Makishima is leading the championship with Larry Bani 45 points behind. Bani has had great starts all season long and Makishima has been quick but has had mechanical issues. Will Makishima be able to get one more win out of the Summit Tech BMW M3? We will have to wait a few days to find out.
The tightest class by far is the Sportsman class where five drivers have a shot at the championship. The leader is Hong Kong’s Edgar Lau but Ireland’s Michael McColligan is tied with Andrew Gardner for second place and behind them Reza Arsham and Pete Bovenberg have shown that they can run up front so they can easily spoil the party.
The Plastex Top Rookie title is between two of the rising stars of touring car racing. Sean Milburn and Reza Arsham have been impressive all season and Milburn leads by 4 points with one race left.
The Top team award is one of the toughest and most demanding titles and the AR-G Motorsport team has been tough to beat this year with a 22 point lead over the defending champions, GoGoGear Racing.
Be sure to follow the action online and on social media and watch the entire season exclusively on Final Drive TV on NBC Sports BA available on Xfinity, Dish Network, DirecTV, AT&T Uverse and Hulu Live.