Paul Fix and Tony Ave shared the spoils with overall victories at Lime Rock Park; as the Trans Am Series held two independent races, The 3-Dimensional Services Muscle Car Challenge and Next Dimension 100, constituting Round 4 of the 2015 Trans Am Championship.
For Fix, driver of the No. 4 StopFlex.com/TheCarCoach.com Chevrolet Corvette, the victory marked his third in a row at the Connecticut track where he showed his east coast dominance with yet another flag-to-flag victory.
“I love Lime Rock,” said Fix. “I’ve been racing here since the 80’s; it’s a home track to me. When you get into a rhythm here, you can have a fantastic time. I know it so well; but while it’s a busy and complicated track, I’m very comfortable and relaxed on it—so that’s a big bonus to me. When I’m on pole, I know that, unless the car has issues or there’s something unforeseen on track, I have a strong chance on winning. Amy still has a lead on us, and I’m still a little deficient on points; so we’re going to keep on focusing on getting better and better and keep on in our pursuit of the Championship.”
The victory was Fix’s first on the year, but his fourth podium. He closed the gap on current points leader Amy Ruman to 12, removing 9 points from his deficit.
Cliff Ebben, in the No. 36 Stumpf Ford/ McMahon Group Ford Mustang, finished several car lengths behind Fix, securing second place in the race, strong enough to move him up to third in the Championship points standings. Current points leader Amy Ruman, in the No. 23 McNichols Company Chevrolet Corvette, completed a strong charge from the back of the field, courtesy of contact on the first lap of the race, with a third place finish—salvaging a podium finish and a solid increase to her points total.
John Baucom in the No. 86 Roadraceparts.com/ Baucum Motorsports Ford Mustang, finished fourth; while Simon Gregg, in the No. 59 Derhaag Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette, finished fifth.
In The 3-Dimensional Services Muscle Car Challenge, it was Tony Ave, driver of the No. 70 Lamers Motor Racing Ford Mustang, who emerged victorious in the 23-car TA2 class field, capturing his first win of the year and first career victory in the TA2 class. Ave, a two-time TA class Champion, transitioned to the TA2 class at the beginning of the 2015 season and has, until now, worked towards building momentum on the season.
“Our race went about how we expected,” said Ave. “But this class is super competitive; it’s not like with Paul (Fix) where I know if the car is ok he’s going to win the race because he’s so good here—I was relaxed about his race. But with my race, it’s a little different. There are ten or twelve guys who are all really good, and they all have about the same plan. We run bias ply tires so you want to wait until the end, and it just worked out that I was able to pick my way through when other guys had trouble. We’ve been fast enough to win before this year but have ended up having issues; fortunately, here it seemed that other guys were using up their tires earlier than we thought, so with about 16 laps to go I was able to take the lead and hold it.”
Ave was followed past the checkered flag by 20-year-old Dillon Machavern, in the No. 24 Unifirst/ PPG Ford Mustang, who celebrated his 20th birthday by securing his third consecutive second place finish of his rookie year. Kevin Poitras, driver of the No. 73 Post Plastics Ford Mustang, was third in the session after a very strong outing where he led 28 laps of the 67-lap race.
Poitras’ Mike Cope teammates Scott Heckert, driver of the No. 52 Mike Cope Racing Ford Mustang, and JJ Haley finished fourth and fifth. Both drivers are rookies to the Series and Lime Rock was Heckert’s first Trans Am appearance; together, they and Machavern made a strong showing for the younger contingent of Trans Am drivers, with all three under the age of 25.
Paul Fix’s and Tony Ave’s victories saw Tony Ave Racing sweep both TA and TA2 class victories, becoming the first Trans Am team to win both classes on a weekend.
Featuring alongside the TA class was the TA3 class, with both the International Group and American Muscle Group participating.
Ernie Francis, Jr., driver of the No. 98 Breathless Performance Chevrolet Camaro, claimed his second consecutive victory in the American Muscle Group, piloting the No. 9 to his second win of the season—and by a wide margin.
“Lime Rock is one of those tracks where you can get into a rhythm,” said Francis. “And when you get into that rhythm and you start turning those consistent laps you can build up a pretty big margin. I was able to keep everything under control and build up a large margin; then it was a clear path to victory. It’s great to get a win and great to share the podium with my teammate Mel Shaw.”
Christopher DeSalvo, in the No. 61 Baucom Motorsports/ Ford Mustang, finished second to Francis for his third podium of the year; while Francis’ teammate Mel Shaw, in the No. 22 Bay Investments Ford Mustang, finished third as Breathless Performance captured two of the three podium spots for the American Muscle Group.
TA3’s International Group saw another team dominant on the podium with Epic Motorsports’ Randy Mueller, in the No. 0 Epic Motorsports/ MCM Holdings BMW M3, and Michael Camus, in the No. 08 Epic Motorsports/ MCM Holdings BMW M3, taking first and second for the duo’s first podium appearances of the year.
“Although we didn’t qualify where we wanted, the race certainly ended up going our way,” said Mueller. “We had to work to manage traffic for sure; this track is always busy just with all the turns, but we also had to constantly mange the TA cars going by and some of the lapped traffic. We had to manage some slower, lapped, traffic as well.”
Defending TA3 International Champion Jason Berkeley, in the No. 67 BMG Management Chevrolet Corvette, captured third in the race—securing his second consecutive podium and additional points towards his title defense.
The 3-Dimensional Services Muscle Car Challenge:
Trans Am and Lime Rock Park legend Sam Posey gave the driver’s start to begin the festivities with the 23-car grid of Ford Mustangs, Dodge Challengers and Chevrolet Camaros rumbling forth to begin the day’s Trans Am festivities.
Adam Andretti, driver of the No. 44 Engineered Components Ford Mustang, began the day on pole, followed by Kevin Poitras in second position; two time defending Champion Cameron Lawrence in third; JJ Haley, in the No. 99 BraunAbility Chevrolet Camaro, starting fourth; and the No. 70 of Ave in fifth.
Lawrence immediately made his move, overtaking Poitras and Andretti on the first lap of the race, although Andretti was quick to retake his position on the second lap. Likewise, Ave and Dillon Machavern made their own moves up through the field securing fourth and fifth positions in pursuit of Poitras, who overtook Lawrence for second on the third lap of the race.
After an initial shuffling of the top five in the first three laps of the race, the leaders eased, content to hold their positions for the early portion of the race.
During the 12th lap of the race, the track went under a full course caution to retrieve the No. 91 and 90 TurnKeyIndustries CommStateBank Chevrolet Camaros of Joe and Justin Napoleon, which were stranded off course just past turn one.
Two laps after the restart Poitras successfully made his move for the lead, charging on inside of the No. 44 of Andretti into turn one. Subsequently, the rest of the top five made a similar move with Andretti falling back into sixth position; and Lawrence assuming the chase in second position. Reports quickly followed that the No. 44 of Andretti was stuck in third gear, limiting his ability to compete for the rest of the race.
The race continued in a steady fashion with the top ten in TA2 running close until lap 49 of the race when Ave, running in third, made his move on Lawrence moving into turn one. The two drivers’ cars made contact, deemed a racing incident by series officials, causing Lawrence to go off course and back to 14th position.
Ave continued chasing Poitras with Machavern in third, while Scott Heckert and JJ Haley moved up into the top five. Ave would then overtake Poitras for the lead on the 53rd lap of the race and, subsequently, began pulling way and opening a gap on the rest of the leaders. Likewise, Machavern passed Poitras for second with three laps to go; and the top three continued across the finish line in that order.
The Next Dimension 100
The Next Dimension 100, featuring TA and TA3, followed the TA2 race in the afternoon’s feature event slot and began with Paul Fix in pole position; two-time defending TA Champion Doug Peterson, in the No. 87 3Dimensional.com Chevrolet Corvette, in second position; Amy Ruman in third; Cliff Ebeen in fourth; and Simon Gregg in fifth.
The race began with an immediate change; as the No. 23 of Ruman was contacted from behind, forcing her off course and into dead last in the race—all on the first turn of the first lap. Ebben assumed third position, Gregg fourth and the No. 47 of Adam Andretti, also competing in the TA class, assumed fifth.
Further contact was made shortly thereafter; as the No. 59 of Gregg made contact with the No 47 of Andretti, forcing him off course and into contact with the No. 39 of Todd Napieralski, competing in the TA3 class.
TA3 began with both subgroups intermingled at the start, with Ernie Francis, Jr., in pole position and in the lead of the American Muscle Group; while Steve Streimer, in the No. 42 Lux Performance Dodge Viper, started in second position and in the lead of the International Group. Randy Mueller and Jason Berkeley began in second and third position in the International Group, with Todd Napieralski, in the No. 39 Tremec/SKF/Backstreet Chevrolet Camaro, and Chris DeSalvo in second and third. However, the incident with the No. 47 of Andretti effectively ended Napieralski’s race.
In TA, Fix meticulously continued to turn lap after lap of consistent times, despite already having to manage lapped traffic and fending off the challenges of Peterson and Ebben as the top three continued in close succession.
Meanwhile, Ruman was mounting a recovery effort, already having charged up to fourth position by the 20th lap of the race; however, she still had a large amount of ground and lapped traffic to cover before engaging the top three.
In TA3, Mueller and Francis continued to lead their respective groups, with DeSalvo and Shaw in second and third in the American Muscle Group, and Streimer and Camus holding the same positions in the International Group as the field entered the 32nd lap of the race.
Paul Fix was forced to deal with an unexpected challenge on the 39th lap of the race; as he was nearly forced off track by lapped traffic on the front straight and, while he managed to control the car through the turn and retain the lead, his teammate Doug Peterson was not as lucky. The No. 87 of Peterson was contacted from behind, damaging the left rear—forcing the defending champ to pit and to eventually retire.
The course once more went under yellow to retrieve the 47 of Andretti. On the restart, the beginning of the 58th lap, Fix and Ebben continued on course while Ruman took advantage of the opportunity, sling shooting forward, passing five lapped cars and the third place driver John Baucom for the lead all on the front straight and resuming her pursuit of the leaders as she completed her return from dead last to third place.
However, Fix immediately began to power through the homestretch, increasing his speed and lap times, opening up a gap on both Ebben and Ruman that saw the remainder of the TA class race end without further change in the top three.
In TA3’s International Group, Michael Camus and the No. 08 BMW had overtook Streimer for second position, shortly followed thereafter by Jason Berkeley who entered the top three for the first time all race—likewise, the top three continued in that fashion to the checkered flag. The win was Mueller’s first ever in only his second Trans Am appearance.
By that time, Ernie Francis, Jr., had opened up a large lead on all other American Muscle Group competitors, a lead that saw him coast to his second consecutive victory; while DeSalvo and Shaw finished second and third with large gaps as well.
The event also stood as Leg 1 of the 3-Dimensional Services Triple Shot Showdown, a select, three-event segment of the 2015 Trans Am Championship that highlights some of the finest racetracks on the Trans Am circuit, including: Lime Rock Park, Road America and the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Drivers who accumulate the most points throughout the three events will be awarded additional silverware for their performance in the mid-season showdown.
When to watch on CBS Sports Network:
Saturday, June 6, 12:00 PM ET
Next Dimension 100
Leg 1 of the 3-Dimensional Services Triple Shot Showdown
Round 4, 2015 Championship featuring TA and TA3 classes
Saturday, June 13, 12:00 PM ET
-Dimensional Services Muscle Car Challenge
Leg 1 of the 3-Dimensional Services Triple Shot Showdown
Round 4, 2015 Championship featuring TA2 class
About Me: Adam has been a race fan since the first time he went through the tunnel under the Daytona International Speedway almost 30 years ago. He has had the privilege of travelling to races all across the state of Florida (as well as one race in Ohio), watching nearly everything with a motor compete for fame and glory, as well as participating in various racing schools to get the feel of what racecar drivers go through every week. Adam has spent the last three years covering motorsports for Examiner.com., where he had the opportunity to see the racing world from behind the scenes as well as the grandstands. He invites everyone to follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus, and looks forward to sharing his enthusiasm for all things racing with the readers of SpeedwayDigest.com.Be sure to tune in for his weekly sports talk program, Thursday Night Thunder, where he discusses the latest in motorsports news with drivers, crew members, and fans. The show takes place every Thursday at 8:00 pm EST on the Speedway Digest Radio Network.
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