| Mason Filippi and Mark Wilkins drove to Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta in a Hyundai Veloster N TCR, equipped with a set of new MICHELIN® Pilot® Sport All Season 4 tires. A portion of the drive included the “Tail of the Dragon,” a 318-turn, 11-mile stretch of road in North Carolina, where the drivers could check out the grip, handling and performance of these all season tires in cool, fall conditions (above photo courtesy Mason Filippi).
The epic drive set the stage for an even more epic finish to Friday’s MICHELIN Pilot Challenge Fox Factory 120, when Filippi’s teammate Michael Lewis made a daring late-race pass to score the TCR class win.
Battling 16-year-old series debutante Tyler Maxson in another Hyundai, Lewis powered past Maxson on the outside entering Turn 10, then held back the teenager’s determined advances on the final lap. Filippi, who was watching from the pit lane, recapped the incredible week.
“It’s been a crazy week,” Filippi said. “We drove on the ‘Tail of the Dragon’ in the Hyundai Veloster N. The MICHELIN® Pilot® Sport All Season 4 tires gave us so much grip and confidence through that windy course. It was a beautiful road and beautiful time of year. And the tires were great through variable conditions; wet in the morning and dry in the afternoon.
“And then the race was great, and we ended up winning! Michael Lewis jumped in and drove one of the craziest last laps I’ve ever seen. We came here and ended up on top of the box in TCR!”
For more on the drive, check out Michelin’s, Wilkins’, Filippi’s and Bryan Herta Autosport’s social media accounts.
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