Raphaël Lessard finished in the Top 5 during the LeftturnsandSunburns.com 200 in South Carolina.

Raphaël Lessard, 14-year-old driver from Saint-Joseph-de-Beauce, disputed this weekend his 5th race of the season in the Super Late Model class the CARS Tours. After qualifying 6th, he brought home his Toyota Camry #99 FRL Express/Team Coach Imaging / Toyota / JBLAudio prepared by David Gilliland Racing in 5th position.

 

The 100-lap race LeftturnsandSunburns.com 200 at Greenville-Pickens Speedwayin Greenville, South Carolina, took place without major incidents since there were only two caution flags during the race. The quality of the drivers present was such that the entire pack rode in the same second, with a time of 0:21.

 

Raphael remained in 6th position most of the race until the action begun around lap 82. The talented driver moved up to 5th place during the 86th lap, to finally stay there until the end of the race, since the leading pack had distanced Lessard too much for him to be able to catch up to it with 14 laps remaining.

 

“The race went very well at first, but this track is extremely aggressive on the tires, so you have to spare them from the beginning, if not, you will not be in the game at the end. This is what I did at the beginning of the race, but our mistake was maybe to start pushing too soon, because the other drivers didn’t push when I did, so I caught them all, but afterwards they had the advantage on me,” tells Raphaël on his performances.

 

As for the sparks seen under Raphaël’s car during the warm-up laps: “Because this track is so hard on the tires, we put the lowest pressure we could, so the chassis was touching the ground, but as soon as the first laps were in, pressure was back up in the tires because of the heat! There was nothing to worry about!” explains Raphaël, laughing. It’s worth mentioning that the commentators of the race didn’t think he would be able to run at all because they thought something was broken on the car.

 

“At least, I stay on top of the championship, because the 2nd and 3rd in the points finished behind me tonight! I would like to thank my parents who support me at every race, my agent Robert Desrosiers, Toyota, David Gilliland Racing and Team Coach Imaging who without them I wouldn’t be here today” adds Lessard.

 

Raphaël’s next race on the CARS Tour will be on July 30 at the Orange County Speedway in Rougemont.

Raphaël Lessard PR