BACK-TO-BACK, TOP-FIVE FINISHES FOR TREFETHEN AND ANSA AT ROAD AMERICA
Lorenzo Trefethen came to Road America with a primary goal in mind: Race hard to finish as high as possible in the GT-Cup class to maintain his second place in the Pirelli World Challenge GT-Cup championship. Following two tough races on the legendary, 4-mile, 14-turn Road America road course, Trefethen was able to score two back-to-back, top-five finishes and maintain his second place in the ranking after eleven races.
After the promoter test day and the first, official practice session on Thursday, Trefethen was not at his best and was feeling a bit under the weather. In qualifying on Friday, despite his cold, Trefethen was able to qualify his No. 13 Trefethen Family Vineyards/ 750 Group / BRM Chronographes / PitStop Furniture Porsche in fourth, only one tenth of a second from third place on the grid.
In race 1 on Saturday, Trefethen had a demanding race, due to the very difficult and unusual track conditions, experienced by all the Pirelli World Challenge competitors. The driver from Napa, Calif., tried everything to maintain a competitive pace during the second half of the race. At the last, full-course caution, Trefethen was behind the pace car and never received a wave-by, requested multiple times by his team, so at the restart, he was a little confused, lost the fourth place, and had to settle for a fifth-place finish.
On Saturday night, Trefethen and ANSA Motorsports’ engineer and executives spent over two hours reading and analyzing data and video to make sure the driver got some answers, as far as the difficult drivability of his car during race 1, and ideas on how to approach race 2, scheduled on Sunday.
Sunday afternoon, Trefethen started fourth, again with high expectations. As the driver sitting second in points in the 2015 championship after race 1, he was looking to score his fifth podium finish of the season. Once again, the race was not as he expected. Despite trying hard throughout the 50-minute race, Trefethen finished fourth, but was lucky at the end, when Sloan Urry, his direct competitor for second place in the championship, spun in the last lap, allowing Trefethen to finish fourth, saving his second place in the 2015 Pirelli World Challenge GT-Cup ranking after 11 rounds.
The one-month break, before the next rounds at Mid-Ohio on August 1-2, in Lexington, Ohio, is going to be very beneficial for Trefethen and ANSA Motorsports.
ANSA Motorsports will be busy during July, as the team prepares for a hectic summer. ANSA Motorsports will return to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada, July 7-9 to compete with a customer in the Canadian round of the IMSA Cooper Tires Prototype Lites event. Alain Nadal’s team will also be back to Road America July 16-19 to compete with multiple customers and cars in the HAWK International Challenge with Brian Redman, one of the largest vintage racing events in the United States and featuring over 400 cars, competing in several groups.
The Road America GT-Cup race weekend will air on CBS Sports Network Sunday, July 5, at 2 p.m. EDT.
The next rounds of the 2015 Pirelli World Challenge are set for July 31-Aug. 2 at Mid-Ohio.
After the promoter test day and the first, official practice session on Thursday, Trefethen was not at his best and was feeling a bit under the weather. In qualifying on Friday, despite his cold, Trefethen was able to qualify his No. 13 Trefethen Family Vineyards/ 750 Group / BRM Chronographes / PitStop Furniture Porsche in fourth, only one tenth of a second from third place on the grid.
In race 1 on Saturday, Trefethen had a demanding race, due to the very difficult and unusual track conditions, experienced by all the Pirelli World Challenge competitors. The driver from Napa, Calif., tried everything to maintain a competitive pace during the second half of the race. At the last, full-course caution, Trefethen was behind the pace car and never received a wave-by, requested multiple times by his team, so at the restart, he was a little confused, lost the fourth place, and had to settle for a fifth-place finish.
On Saturday night, Trefethen and ANSA Motorsports’ engineer and executives spent over two hours reading and analyzing data and video to make sure the driver got some answers, as far as the difficult drivability of his car during race 1, and ideas on how to approach race 2, scheduled on Sunday.
Sunday afternoon, Trefethen started fourth, again with high expectations. As the driver sitting second in points in the 2015 championship after race 1, he was looking to score his fifth podium finish of the season. Once again, the race was not as he expected. Despite trying hard throughout the 50-minute race, Trefethen finished fourth, but was lucky at the end, when Sloan Urry, his direct competitor for second place in the championship, spun in the last lap, allowing Trefethen to finish fourth, saving his second place in the 2015 Pirelli World Challenge GT-Cup ranking after 11 rounds.
The one-month break, before the next rounds at Mid-Ohio on August 1-2, in Lexington, Ohio, is going to be very beneficial for Trefethen and ANSA Motorsports.
ANSA Motorsports will be busy during July, as the team prepares for a hectic summer. ANSA Motorsports will return to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada, July 7-9 to compete with a customer in the Canadian round of the IMSA Cooper Tires Prototype Lites event. Alain Nadal’s team will also be back to Road America July 16-19 to compete with multiple customers and cars in the HAWK International Challenge with Brian Redman, one of the largest vintage racing events in the United States and featuring over 400 cars, competing in several groups.
The Road America GT-Cup race weekend will air on CBS Sports Network Sunday, July 5, at 2 p.m. EDT.
The next rounds of the 2015 Pirelli World Challenge are set for July 31-Aug. 2 at Mid-Ohio.