Raphael Lessard finishes a fraction of a second short of the podium in Florida

Qualified 12th for this off-series’ race, the young driver from Saint-Joseph-de-Beauce had to fight hard to get back in the leader’s pack. In fact, until the very end of the race, Lessard was in 8th position on a 36 cars field, but, showing off once again his racing skills, he managed to pass four drivers with only 6 laps remaining in the race, to grab the 4th place.  
 
It was Raphaël’s first participation at the ”DEEP SOUTH CRANES BLIZZARD #2″ and he did sodriving his Toyota Camry Super Late Model #99 FRL Express/Team Coach Imaging/Toyota/JBLAudio prepared by David Gilliland Racing. This race at the Five Flags Speedway attracts the best drivers from the United States, since later in the year, the very popular “Snowball Derby” will take place at this track, thus, providing drivers some very useful practice on the track.
 
“For us, this 4th place is a little bit like a victory,” says Robert Desrosiers, Raphaël’s agent. “Here, it is like a big festival, and only the best drivers come on this track. Raphaël showed consistency right from the start, making sure he would end up in the Top 5.”
 
“We started 12th, everything was going great, I was careful. Not too long after the start, there was a yellow flag, and at the restart, I missed shift, which caused me to fall back in 15th position. But I was able to climb back up. During another yellow, I was on the outside and I was able to pass 3 drivers at the restart”, explained Raphaël Lessard after the race, relieved from all the stress of this amazing performance.
 
“I would like to thank Gilliland Racing who, once again, provided me with a great car from start to finish. I have to thank them a lot for working so hard on Thursday and Friday to prepare the car. I too worked very very hard during this race, it was a really good team effort!”
 
Raphaël’s next race on the CARS Tour will be on June 11, 2016, at the Tri-County Motor Speedway in Hudson, North Carolina.

Raphael Lessard PR