Raphael Lessard Shines At Winchester 400, But Is Forced To Retire

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Raphaël Lessard had a fantastic race at the Winchester 400 in the ARCA CRA Super Series, at the Winchester Speedway until he had to retire on lap 188 because of a mechanical issue which caused him to crash.

The St-Joseph-de-Beauce native had an excellent qualifying session on Saturday, obtaining the 8th best time towards the 400-lap race of Sunday. Starting on the outside row for the race, Raphaël made his way up the leaders pack right away.

The Toyota Camry #99 FRL Express/Toyota-TRD/JBL Audio prepared by David Gilliland Racing performed great all weekend long. But a few laps before the half-way point, the left rear axle broke, which caused Raphaël to hit the wall. The entire rear wheel detached from the car and rolled down the track.

Before the fateful moment, Raphaël’s performances were suggesting a possible podium finish. Climbing-up until the 4th place, Lessard imposed himself as one of the fastest drivers on the track, and as one of the possible winner of this race. Having great battles on the track against the other drivers, Lessard and the leaders offered quite a show to the audience with a lot of overtaking.

“I was very careful with the car because I knew we had a long race ahead, I was taking my time and not taking any risks. The car was not 100% to my taste, but we were trying to make it better during the pit stops. I had two pit stops during which we changed the tires and put gas in the car,” says the Toyota Racing Development (TRD) driver.

“As for the accident, we couldn’t control it, there is, unfortunately, nothing we can do about it. I want to thank my parents, my partners and Toyota for supporting me at every race. And special thanks to the crew who made the car better all weekend long. We have to keep our head high and move on.”

Raphaël’s next race will be on October 14 at the South-Boston Speedway in South-Boston, Virginia, for the SoBo 250, a 125-lap race part of the CARS Tour series.

RLR PR

Speedway Digest Staff
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