Sept 30 – Oct 2, 2015
The Series heads into the final stretch of it’s exciting 2015 season, held at Road Atlanta. Recognized as one of the world’s best road courses, the event at Braselton Atlanta is also known as the Petit Lemans weekend. This event is the jewel in the crown for the championship, the 12-turn, 2.54 mile circuit is one of the fastest and toughest on the Super Trofeo calendar.
With an impending hurican to hit the eastern seaboard, open practice was run wet. The team quickly made changes to the car to adapt to the wet conditions. Practice went well without issues, the team found themselves a little bit off pace, since both drivers Paul Tylor and Joe Chan has never race on the Road Atlanta road course.
Qualifying was also run in changing conditions, from dry to wet, back to dry again, no issues with qualifying, the team managed a P4 position on the grid in the Gallardo class.
Race One – With an aggressive start, cars were making contact upfront, team Paragon Competition managed to stay out of trouble, running its own pace and catching 2nd position, when the pit window opened for the mandatory pit stop, the team with a fresh driver managed to take P2, but along came the front runners in the Hurican class, unfortunately, Joe was hit from the side entering turn 12, causing him to spin and lost 2nd position. The team was lucky as there was minimum damage to the Gallardo LP 570-4. Joe Chan managed to hang on to P3 for the podium finish.
Race Two – Was declared a wet race, after making repairs early morning from the previous race, the team was ready to battle for the podium once again. The first caution of the race was triggered when the no.69 of Tom O’Gara made heavy contact with the wall in Turn 5, the race was red-flagged for extensive cleanup on the course, O’Gara was admitted to local hospital for observation, he was awake and alert and we wish him the best and a full recovery. The race resumed after two laps and a pit stop for driver’s change, the Gallardo return to the track with Joe Chan on wet tires, but the conditions started to change, the track was drying quickly. “I knew if I continued to push hard on the rain tire, I would eventually overheat them and destroy the tires.” Said Joe Chan, I had to hunt for puddles of water at all the corners to try and cool the tires down”. We will look forward to seeing that on the TV broadcast! With the tires in good shape, Joe held onto P3 and managed another podium finish. This is the team’s 7th podium finish for the season, collecting much needed points that were lost during round 3 and 4 of the Virginia race.
Team Paragon competition-Blue Chem Canada will head into the final round at Sebring International Race way with a two points deficit to 2nd place in the team championship. The final round will host the world finals where all the top teams from Europe and Asia will battle for the grand champion title, stay tuned!
Photo Credit: Jamey Price