In this weekend’s Trans-Am race at Road America, Tony Ave led flag-to-flag en route to his second consecutive victory. The native of Hurley, WI, had to wait 16 years to score his first career Trans-Am win at Miller Motorsports Park, but only two weeks to celebrate win number two in Elkhart Lake..
"It was really good," commented Ave. "It shows that we’ve got our car sorted out. I can always qualify good, but we didn't have a great racecar. We seemed to have sorted that out. I ran it as hard as I could, just so I could see what our tire wear was like."
Ave had participated in the previous day's inaugural NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Road America. While showing well against the redneck racers, Ave's potential for a a top-five position ended after getting spun out on the last lap. His bad luck seemed to end there.
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The rest of the weekend in Minnesota belonged to Ave. In his first flying lap of qualifying, he set a new Trans-Am Series qualifying record. Ave then set another one in his only other lap in the session, taking P1 at 116.521 mph (2:05.066). It was Ave’s third pole in four races this season, besting his previous Trans-Am qualifying record of 115.674 mph, set last year.
RJ Lopez, of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, finshed second after a never-ending skirmish with defending series champion Tomy Drissi. Lopez is nothing if not consistent. He is the only Trans Am driver to take a podium position in every event this year. The battle with Drissi was a new experience for Lopez.
"Usually, when I'm driving, I'm thinking about not sliding the tires, being easy on my brakes, whatever, but I finally got into one of those battles that went on for laps and laps, where you're not even thinking about the car and conserving or whatever. You’re just like, 'I'm going to go for him here. I'm going to go for him there.' You just forget about everything else that’s going on within the car. It was just a blast."
The podium's final spot went to Amy Ruman, in the #23 McNichols/Goodyear/Cenweld Chevrolet Corvette. Ruman had fought her way back from the rear of field after a spin in Turn 14 on the third lap in the race. By Lap 15, she had worked her way back to fifth in the running order, battling with the best in the field to end up third at the end.
The 2010 SCCA Pro Racing Trans-Am Series will head east for a visit to the historic circuit at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, CT, on July 3.
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Trans Am: Two in a Row for Ave
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