Series Staff

Heylan Tops World Challenge Touring Car; Ford Leads First Ever Touring Car-B Session In Honda

Apr. 26, 2012 - TOOELE, Utah - Jan Heylen, now living in Clearwater, Fla., used his international racing experience to top the opening Pirelli World Challenge Touring Car and Touring Car-B combined practice on Thursday at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah. Connor Ford, of Carson City, Nev., topped the first ever Touring Car-B session in Pirelli World Challenge competition, driving a Honda Fit B-Spec machine in preparation for this weekend’s Privacy Star Utah Grand Prix Presented by Bondurant.

Jan Heylen was quickest on Thursday at MMP (Weber photo)

The weekend will feature a total of three combined races for the Touring Car and Touring Car-B classes.

Heylen topped the 30-minute session on Miller Motorsports Park’s 2.2-mile west course, turning a time of 1:38.926 (80.059 mph) in the No. 43 HPA Motorsports/Brimtek Volkswagen Jetta GLI.

Heylen, making his first Pirelli World Challenge start, was more than a second faster than Michael Cooper, second on the time sheets. The Championship leader turned a lap of 1:40.312 (78.958 mph) in the No. 03 Atlanta Motorsports Group MAZDASPEED3.

Todd Lamb was third quickest during the session, posting a time of 1:40.752 (78.608 mph) in the No. 71 National Karting News/HPD Honda Civic Si. A fourth different car cracked the top-four in the practice session with the No. 97 Don Walker Racing Mazda RX-8 driving by JD Mobley, who turned a time of 1:40.955 (78.450 mph).

Ford’s fast lap of 1:53.597 (69.720 mph) in the No. 93 Honda Racing/HPD Honda Fit led the debut of the Touring Car-B class. Running combined races with Touring Car at three Pirelli World Challenge events this season, the class will run two 30-minute races on Saturday, with a 10-minute break in between, and a 40-minute race on Sunday for the tripleheader weekend.

Second in the Touring Car-B class was the No. 86 CapaldiRacing.com Ford Fiesta driven by Craig Capaldi. Capaldi turned a lap of 1:53.765 (69.617 mph) to fall just short of the benchmark set by Ford.

Road & Track Associate Engineering Editor Shaun Bailey was third in the practice with a time of 1:55.417 (68.620 mph) in the No. 0 MAZDASPEED/Road & Track MAZDA2. Like the Touring Car class, four different makes composed the top of the Touring Car-B practice. Running fourth was Michael Literas in a time of 1:55.657 (68.487 mph) in the No. 92 Xtreme Indoor Karting/Gunther Kia Rio.

The Pirelli World Challenge GT and GTS drivers take to Miller Motorsports Park’s Outer Course for their first official practice on Friday morning at 8:50 a.m. (MDT). The Touring Car and Touring Car-B machines qualify on the West Course at 5:20 p.m. (MDT) on Friday afternoon.

More information is available at www.world-challenge.com. Follow Pirelli World Challenge on Twitter @WCRacing.