A new addition to Pirelli World Challenge, Kenny Murillo took both rounds in Touring Car A at Circuit of the Americas in his MX-5 Cup car
Kenny Murillo of Santa Rosa, Calif., who joined Pirelli World Challenge’s Touring Car A class with a MX-5 Cup car and scored a win in his debut at Utah Motorsports Campus, followed that up with a double victory at Circuit of the Americas in Austin Texas, over the Labor Day weekend.
Murillo, in the No. 33 Murillo Racing Mazda MX-5 Cup car, competed in a spirited Round 9 race on Saturday with Matthew Fassnacht of Madison, N.J. in the No. 33 S.A.C. Racing Mazda MX-5 and reigning TCA champion Elivan Goulart of Shelton, Conn., in the No. 70 S.A.C. Racing Mazda MX-5 Cup car.
“The restart was kind of tough on me, since I kind of blew it,” said Murillo. “But, I just kept my head down to scout out what everyone else was doing and scan for any weaknesses. It was kind of a challenge to get around Elivan [Goulart]. It’s a little tough when you have 10 cars behind you and you’re not sure if that’s going to help you out. But I got a little lucky that I was on the last lap so they were fighting for second and third.”
MX-5 Cup cars not only swept the podium, but local racer Jeff Sexton, in the No. 89 Winding Road Team TFB Mazda MX-5 Cup, was fourth.
Murillo captured his third TCA division contest in the last four races in Round 10 on Sunday with a stellar drive over Sexton.
“The race…was crazy,” said Murillo. “There was a lot of action going on, especially early on. I was trying to stay out of it but it’s hard to do when you’re in the position I was in. I needed a little luck to get through – and from watching ahead to see how they were racing each other, it was pretty violent and I knew that something was going to happen so I wanted to be able to capitalize on it. Three wins out of four races entered – we’re really happy with how we’re doing with the crew. We’re putting in a lot of hard work and we’re happy with how World Challenge handles things. They welcomed us with open arms and made it real easy for us to participate with these great drivers and great programs.”
Murillo is preparing for a full run at the TCA championship in 2018. The next, and final, outing for the series will be at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on Oct. 13-15, where Touring Car is the headliner for Pirelli World Challenge on the same weekend as the 2017 Mazda MX-5 Cup Challenge and the Intercontinental GT Challenge eight-hour race for GT3 cars.