(Full Race Replay) TA2 Race Gets Heated at Lime Rock Park

[Music] hey race fans this is a replay but to be able to watch live and hear from the drivers and see the pre and post race reaction download and subscribe to the trans am app available on both android and ios this is the only place to watch the 2021 season of trans am live with 10 hours of coverage each and every weekend live timing results and news as well as pre and post interviews as our global live stream takes you to the heart of the action to subscribe download the transam app or scan the qr code to be part of the fastest growing series in america subscriptions for the race weekend are just 9.99 and 59.99 for a full season so come and join us for the 2021 season on the trans am app the only way to see the racers live and get your muscle car media [Music] so i am here at the beautiful lime rock park lime rock fans let's hear you we are now live on our live stream and here we are with the man skip barber that would like to welcome everybody to his beautiful racetrack here in connecticut skip thank you and i want to thank everybody for coming but give me two minutes to tell you about the race you're about to watch these are all american muscle cars mustangs camaros dodge challengers what's unusual is they have about the same amount of power over 500 horsepower they're kind of traditional cars live rear axle and it's formula ford racing with big cars and the races they've had so far this year have been wonderfully close this this really should be good the class is called trans am t2 and think traditional trans am cars which of course have been so popular at line rock nice well skip before you go welcome everybody to your beautiful lime rock park and tell us about the improvements that you've made well that's what i just did so welcome everybody again thank you for coming uh if you noticed as you came in um the mud um which is beside our rebuilt skid pad autocross courses extended autocross course we're now calling that area the fcp euro proving grounds they have joined us as a partner as a significant sponsor and by mid-summer if you're camping here by the imsa race that will be grass not mud and by the end of the year when it gets curbs and painted curbs it'll look like a little formula one track that's the plan i love it i love it skip barber thank you everybody we're going to come out here and do a little bit of the fan walk for everybody one of one of the cars that we're going to point out tony if you can come around here we've got adrian lostofsky and adrian told me a great story where is uh where is adrian he's he's giving away some t-shirts right now but he had a buddy just last weekend he's racing in honor of right here amt motorsport number 265 who had an incident at new jersey motorsports park just last weekend and adrian was actually the first on the scene so he's going to be racing for him then we're going to walk down here through this group of cars because you guys have been here you've seen the conditions here this weekend they have not been ideal correct but these guys are out here fighting for it and starting about here with edward cevagin it's a really mixed group of cars because everybody was trying to do their best to get the right setup now going by the rules everybody has their pirelli that i've seen the pirelli p0 slicks on they qualified in rain tires with different setups so now everybody's on their slicks and they can do that per the rules they've got brand new pirelli p zeros which should last all 100 miles but now we're going to go talk to some of the fans you want to talk some of the fans this dude right here you don't want to talk huh tell us who you're who you're rooting for and how many times have you been to lime rock park oh i've been here about 10 years and not really sure who i'm rooting for i like the young kid on the end evan slater right as i hear you're rooting for 15 years old new to the trans am series evan slater from new england i believe new hampshire this is his first time in a ta2 car he's usually in the scca sports racers all right you guys look at you you look like a bunch of racing fans you've got your m or adrian lostofsky you're hiding you don't want to talk no mom how about you who are you rooting for in this um i also like the young guy down there who you just said the 15 year old i think that's pretty impressive so i think i'm gonna go for him nice we've got a lot of evan slater fans here we've got tony perella walking around like a fan tony ta2 at lime rock i think we've both talked about this in 2019 that was the best crowd we've ever had at a trans am race in 2019 would you say this is the best so far in 2021 i would say so especially given the elements i mean it felt like we were in february uh yesterday but uh these fans are are special i mean to battle these elements it's been cold and damp but the sun's just breaking through i think we're going to have a great show we got a huge turnout in let's face it this place is trans am and memorial day weekend is a special time and it almost like kicks off the season up here and uh look at just look at the turnout these people are really passionate about the racing so it's a privilege to be here ben nice i'm gonna put you on the spot tony how about next year you and i come out here and we do a little camping and do some campfire stuff with the fans you down for that i'm not camping then ben i like room service how about how about camp fire will you do some campfire s'mores with us i will do a campfire but don't make me sleep in the tent tony perella says no to tense but tommy dreacy has promised he'll be in a tent next year come down here to former champion doug peterson look at everybody that is signing doug's car doug this is usually this is kind of counterintuitive usually uh you know people are getting your autograph now you're getting the fans autographs tell us about this well we figure the chances of this being in pristine shape by the end of the race is pretty slim so we thought we'd get the young people to come and sign and uh just have some fun nice so if you're making your way down here to the three-dimensional services group number 87 you can sign doug peterson's car i am on probation for this race though what does that mean well tom sheehan wanted to talk to me about it from the last race so i i am in trouble so i'm going to have to drive clean this race you're on you're on thin ice this race as his teammate rafa matos passes by kind of wagging a finger rafa you had pole position up until mike skein came in he changed the pressure just on his left so how do you think when the green flag drops what's your strategy to get around him yeah but we almost had a pool position we had fuel for 15 minutes left only and uh they extended the session so we didn't have enough feel for the for the entire session but we have a very strong race car uh it's a long race the track is very slippery so we're going to play safe at the start and hopefully i'll have enough for him at the end nice i love it rafa matos he was telling me earlier he's kind of new to lime rock park but loves all the fans so rafa matos's car is right down here we'll kind of move up if you don't mind tony here we are thomas merrill thomas merrill won the race in 2019 the last time that we were here he is disappointed by his starting position here this year thomas tell us what you're going to do to get up ahead well i'm going to move forward the hard part today is going to be putting temperature in the car it's a really short lap we only have two pace slaps so we got to get the car up to temperature early and i don't know how well we're going to do with that so turn one could be pretty interesting so hopefully there's some rgbargin it opens up some holes for us to move forward so when you're talking about temperature are you talking about tire temperature or engine temperature tire temperature and brake temperature yeah turn one's gonna be difficult if we can't stop the car right so that's gonna be our first goal nice and i've heard from so many drivers thanks thomas that this track more than any other track positioning is so important and the drive from green flag to the end of big bend is half the race just that first lap first turn as we come down here talk to keith prochuk again currently starting fourth super happy as he's talking to michael self who couldn't be here this weekend because sinclair isn't sponsoring on memorial day but he's talking to his coach how are you feeling yeah selfies just kind of uh hyping me up for the race here i feel good uh i'm glad the race uh the rain stopped um i think we're gonna be just fine in turn one you know i like i said earlier the car is really good and i had more in it in qualifying so i think we're gonna be battling for the front here nice michael self you're usually a driver in ta2 but you're also a coach what are you telling the drivers about green flag drops they're starting a little bit behind everybody what advice do you give drivers well when the green flag drops you're racing right so you got to go you got to make moves and it's been a fun weekend working with with maurice tyler's you know back there and and having keith come in this morning is uh always nice to have him be a part of it but awesome conditions i love mixing it up between the wet and the dry you know it throws something at him especially for guys like maurice you know it's very important that you learn how to drive and adapt to those positions it makes you a better driver all around especially in the dry conditions so it's fun you know i've enjoyed coaching i've enjoyed being a part of the ta2 series as a coach for years now and i love the bit that i get to drive but still enjoy it when i don't nice i love it i love it oh connor mosak connor is this your first time to lime rock park and tell us about starting third you're doing so well in the series and i know you're a nascar guy and you're using this for nascar and this is pretty close other than that one left hand turn this is almost a short track oval it is and uh our m1 race cars camaro uh has been really fast and i think we really had enough for the pole there just didn't get a clean lap at the end but um you know i'm happy to be starting up here in third i think it'll give us a good shot in the race and we'll have a good race car nice i love it there goes connor mosak i'm going to come back up here for our starting ceremonies dylan mcaverne right there he's shy he doesn't like to talk on the camera but dylan mcaverne's going to be in this car watch for him to be moving up in that number 92. he had such a great showing here as i'm coming over for our invocation with the reverend heidi truax from trinity church and you did such a fantastic job that was so much fun yesterday it looks like you have a lot of fun doing this a motorsports fan yourself is that correct i asked yesterday i said how many times has she done that and somebody said probably over 70 times so thank you so much for being here if we can take off our hats and bow our heads for the invocation from the reverend heidi truax let us pray god bless us today on memorial day we remember all who have fought valiantly and died for our country we remember all veterans who are with us today or who are with us in spirit we remember the sacrifices that patriotic women and men have made for us and for our children's children and we remember the sun too its brightness and warmth have given us light and life and because of god's promises and science the sun will return we may yet see more of a glimpse of it today and our focus is on the races ahead at this weekend's trans am it continues to unfold and we focus our minds on the enjoyment of our sport and the roar of the cars god bless the drivers and crews today god bless the employees and volunteers of lime rock park god bless the fans who have endured challenging weather to be here at the place we love on this memorial day amen amen great stuff thank you reverend heidi truax we're going to move a little bit over here and if we can bring the casey sisters down and if you guys were here yesterday you are in for quite a treat if you don't mind i'll give you the microphone again oh say can you see by the dawn's early light what so proudly we have at the twilight's last gleaming who's brought stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight or the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming and the rockets red glare the bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that our flag was still there oh does that star spangled or the land of the free free [Music] and the home of the [Music] [Applause] [Music] brave [Applause] hold on a second here we've got about a minute you guys i got where are you from are you all truly sisters and what's the age range we are all sisters we are from avon connecticut and the age range is 24 to 17 year old twins wow unbelievable ladies and gentlemen let's hear it for the casey sisters very good and then where is charles mallory all right charles we've got just a few seconds you're about to say the most famous words in motorsports but tell us about the greenwich hospitality group we love good food and good at night a good night's sleep and good food is what we we do nice well who doesn't love that i hope i hope everyone loves it and we do it in connecticut first and foremost is where we started and we're very excited about being involved with lime rock i can tell you that but that's as a car fan racing fan since i was six years old nice i love it charles mallory i'm gonna have to come back to you because i just got word from our grid marshall we need about two minutes for everybody so skip i'm going to come back to you if you don't mind come on over here so tell us about this fcp euro that you're involved with they are an online seller of european car parts almost all oem parts what's unique is they guarantee everything you buy synthetic oil from them change your own oil you can take the oil back and then they use that oil to heat their building they are going to be a very big partner of ours and a really good sponsor you'll see a lot of them here on the imsa weekend it's a connecticut company it's a terrific company and we are really happy to have them as a partner nice i love it all right we're going to come back now to charles mallory ceo of the greenwich hospitality group for the most famous words in motorsports take it away charles drivers it is my great pleasure to ask of you to start your engines nice i love it well jonathan adam ernie i'm gonna send it back up to you guys up in the booth thank you very much great stuff and cecil as always to light up the ta2 grid and give us all the info and excitement of that grid i'm delighted to be joined by our seven-time ta champion ernie francis jr and of course once again adam andretti both have been down on the grid getting some gossip for us as these cars roll away from the grid right in front of us i'll pause for a second to let them roar into life and we'll hear from both gentlemen alongside me jonathan green beautiful day here lime rock sun is finally poking out for what has been atrocious conditions here in the north east but we are ready to repeat history because back in 1967 we came here as only our second year of trans am peter repson winning in a mercury cougar back for bud moore and so many greats have been here over the years from sam posey they've even got a name of a straight after him parnelli jones tommy kendall they've all been here mark donahue came here with roger penske i'm sure roger just might be having a day off today after his great day yesterday at indy and tuning in to the old time trans am series now in its 55th year and as we go on board with rafa mattocks big day for him and ernie francis jr you saw what rafa could achieve at uh laguna seca last time out is he is he on the same form today do you think i think so i think he should have a pretty good race out there track dried up really nice uh should be interesting if they can get the tire temp in the cars i think that's the main thing to see uh if you get the tr the tire temp and then get the track position because this track is so hard to pass on if you can get a track position in the beginning of the race and try and hold that lead i think that's what he needs to do adam a really interesting point from thomas merrill about getting brake temperature and tire temperature uh because it's only such a short run before they actually go racing how worried are you i mean that's ideal like ernie was just alluding to is can we get these things up to temperature and i'm sure ernie's a lot like me and so many drivers out there you find a lot of your tire temperature comes from brake temperature uh you know when you heat the tire up internally internally it's almost better than scrubbing it back and forth honestly so i know that that's definitely on everyone's mind out here when the youngster evan slater's car right here the teenager out here taking on the ta2 challengers but absolutely it's all about that temperature so that when you go into turn one big bed here turn one and two i know the rafa's gonna want to hang it on the outside because that's his best opportunity is to have the insight into the left-hander so i'm looking forward to a really exciting starbucks yeah i found that out the hard way that uh the outside seems to be a pretty good path around turn one uh chris chris tyson being a local around here i guess he knew that and uh we're right around my outside yesterday in the race i kind of reminded rafa that i said i hope you watch the ta race because it might have taught you how you want to start your ta2 race while they're warming up ernie we got a quick glimpse of ethan slater 15 years of age you've spent most of your adult life here in this series but to be thrown into this series having never done trans am having done scca before that this is a big big ask isn't it yeah it's a big step up it's uh a big step up from racing just club racing scca these cars are fast the field is very fast and competitive and these guys don't give an inch they're going to run you hard no matter who you are well the championship's on a knife edge i mentioned uh before that uh obviously rafa matos looking to improve on his position of second at the moment he's only three points behind thomas merrill but merrill didn't qualify that well and he's got work to do and he spoke to ben on the grid saying i just got to go forward mike skeen on the other hand starts poll and mike skeen third in the championship at the moment in that chevy camaro for liqui molly at 77 points and then there's a bunch of others keith project got to put a shout out to him fourth on the grid he was absolutely tickled big i spoke to him this morning i don't know if you did but he said maybe if i have some time off i'm better that's exactly right this isn't the first time he's mispracticed completely just showed up to qualify and raise a car i know that he came from the back of the field wants to win to come up to fourth place so here we are for the start here jonathan here we go then t82 as it should be memorial weekend it's the memorial weekend classic and we are heading down the sam posey straight to the roar of muscle car racing side by side rafa matos challenging for the lead ski very very tight but somehow mike skeets managed to squeak through into the lead good start from rafa but he'll be satisfied with that good clean going into uh turn two after the big bend as we go into the right hander here on the no name straight rafa is anxious he wants to get around mike here uh definitely important points but it's a long race rafa really feels good about his car over a long run so i know that ralph is just going to put that pressure on hoping that he's going to open up in here edward savage or is that scott borchetta it's got more shedder in the 48. that grass is definitely not as grippy as the track right now what worries me though if he's stuck there that could bring out a full course yellow mike skin though hooting down the front straight again that's how quick a lap is here at lime rock as we go on board with the youngster evan slater a lot of fans wishing him a good run here in his first ever trans am race and then doug peterson there is the 48 that's the point to drive on the outside of the track that might bring out yellow very vulnerable position that he's in there it's a very fast approach to that so he looks stuck i mean it just seems spinning the wheels there it's a really shame hate to see that for scott that's you hate for your race to go by that early for something as simple as um we were talking earlier there's no way it's so wet we've had what three or four inches of rain in the last 24 hours full course yellow and here's the full plus yellow so fair enough uh and now we have to do it all again i would have thought rafa will be licking his lip for another chance yeah this one goes this will punch the group back up again and give rafa another chance to try and make a move because this place like i said it's so hard to pass on you really have to wait on either a restart or a lap traffic to make a move so this would be another chance for him to try and make a move or the guys behind him to get by him well let me ask both of you have got experience here where do you try to pass turn one brake zone you could try and get it in there you can try and stick it around the outside or stick it up the inside of turn one uh and then in a turn two uh that's pretty much it i was making some moves coming into the uphill um yesterday in yesterday's race but really it was in the rain that i was able to do that in the drive there's only one line you can really run and i can't make a move too much there exactly the restarts as you said ernie very well said and and rafa one of the best all time at restarts i mean when you see him do restarts uh he's definitely a person that you you're very aware of your surroundings when you have him around but definitely it was it was clean you know and with it was clean it was a little like a clean breakaway for the top two and then the next two were in line with connor mossack and uh keith prochuk and they were kind of in those two little groups there but uh misha seemed to make a pretty good uh step forward and thomas merrill up to sixth already so that's pretty good and this is good news because uh we don't need a truck out to go and get him now he's managed to get out of the largely soaked grass has scott more shedder and they'll be disappointing scott's been doing a lot of racing this weekend in the historic svra groups uh got two cars back out in uh svra and of course is running in ta2 as well so this car that evan slater's in uh that looks familiar that is the car franklin futrell one and in road atlanta so it's definitely a worthy car and evan i believe is a worthy driver has a lot of cars to fight through i went and talked to the youngster beforehand and reminded him what a long race this is and compared to club racing and um to just let this kind of patience thing happen and that cautions happen kind of frequently more frequently in ta2 so hopefully he's taking in some of that strategy but i'm looking forward to him having a nice day here with us in ta too yeah ernie me and adam were talking yesterday the thing about lyron it seems to me with with such a short lap less than a minute you're working all the time there is no respect i mean you were coming back through sliding through yesterday but i think you didn't have time to catch your breath yeah there's no time to rest around this place uh you're running in uh in green flag with open with no traffic ahead of you you're just constantly into turns and then uh every two or three laps you're running into lap traffic again you're having to make passes trying to figure out how you're gonna get by so it's just constantly working at it it's like a short track and you're just going at it from start to end well it's a good experience for your srx stuff coming up right you know it's a good thing you know you're doing this right before your first event coming up i believe that's june 6th right is that june 12th up in connecticut again uh i'm over at stafford oh right oh yeah going to be in the same state hopefully the weather's a little bit better for us than what it was this weekend you were doing some of the most magnificent four-wheel slides yesterday coming through the field it was it was phenomenal to watch so you keep up that kind of car control that srx is going to be great restart here jonathan here we go then the safety car about to pull out of the way again as they hit the sam posey straight one more time skein has it all to do now because he knows rafa's coming and coming hard because the temperature in the brakes is perfect now rafa looks to the inside this time somebody going into the pits one of the berryman cars but it is going to be my scheme who holds them off everybody holding positions spinning around oh no thomas barrel up championship leader and he's taking savage and with him oh please don't get stuck you know we just saw this with uh the same exact same spot yeah oh he's good he's got a fire and he's gonna be around and good to go again now we've seen thomas merrill drive super inspired like at sebring and come back through a field yeah yeah he did he spotted three at seabreak he got a tap from behind and they then side his way through the whole field including on the last corner to overtake matas for the win exactly so it's not count thomas thomas merrill out just yet because we got almost an hour left in this race and i know that he's going to mount a comeback for sure doug peterson didn't do any of the practice it was out of vancouver who set the car up literally for him in the wet and uh peterson's had one prize session and that was qualifying this morning but he looked really good he looked fresh as a daisy didn't he oh he looked incredible and this race team did a fantastic job i really all i had to do was be the monkey that steered the wheel and they they put out a great razor bar contact between the knives of that wasn't he looks like uh yeah got together there yeah so there's there's a great column uh won't be uh great talking back at the team because of that no that would be a rough ride oh yeah definitely on that one um you know for sure and i know we know keith didn't mean to do that i think that was probably maybe even cold tires are called brakes that might have caused that any guess on what evan slater came in for that's a good question i would have no idea other than um you know maybe possibly a vibration might have thought that he punctured a tire uh something along those lines you know you know sometimes you can pick up as ernie will know you pick up some some clatter on the tires and you really think you got a puncture or something too uh sometimes you need to ride that out a little bit and see if it is indeed some scrub on the tire or if you have actual air coming out this race starting to settle down now still an hour to go and the two legacy boys side by side almost in third and fourth place and at the moment it's mike skeen raffamatos connor mosak just holding off dylan mcavoy mcaverne jumping into the seat as a local man got runner up here two years ago in 2019 so dylan knows exactly what to do here as we go back on board with doug peterson that doug right there doing a great job holding this position his qualifying spot in eighth place right there behind adrian vosklowski oh no actually misha goingberg is where they got him scored but it didn't look like that on track up here at the front again vatos just right there pressuring ski making sure that skein can't relax a bit something i know this kid ernie likes to do running behind andy lally for a while there trying to pressure him do you know why scott lagasse decided not to run you know i think it was a business decision with dylan mcavoy you know this is a this is the track that dylan gets around really really well um so it's it's really a smart move on on scott's part to put someone until the skill level inside that car and uh it's showing right here him and connor in third and fourth just doing their own thing looks like they're cooperating with each other just to hunt down those top two there yeah and it makes sense for the 92 scott legacy currently in 18th position that's not where we're used to seeing him first real glimpse of the number five that is of tyler cassera and tyler's looking for a good race here he had one good clean session and then one bad session uh he was running in the top five in the dry session and then uh just went backwards and didn't really put his finger on it but said now in race trim he's happy to get going and really take it to them so we look forward to seeing him come through currently in sixth place as we look back at the 87 of doug peterson yeah doug peterson in a heated up battle here with rhett barku and that dodge the one and only dodge out there so this ought to be a good good battle between that three-dimensional services ford mustang and uh and that really cool uh general lee painted up uh dodge challengers out there with i think i read somewhere red bark who's also attempting lime rock for the first time so we've got some complete novices out there in many ways we've got some massive experience in the likes of doug peterson mike skeen and several others obviously misha goeckeberg's had a few rounds here well i'm sure what do you think ernie a great weekend to have your first weekend at lime rock right yeah definitely a bunch of rain barely any dry practice and then the race in the dry kind of learning every lap luckily they get a lot of laps around here short track and a lot of time absolutely that's why it's such a cool a great place to do a driving school at like what ernie just alluded to you get so many laps here in a short amount of time that they can really work on your skill and your abilities here so it's a fantastic place we love lime rock yeah there's our first real glimpse of the all orange rhett barker as you mentioned in that classic colors he's running in 10th position behind doug peterson well he's almost inside the back doug peterson commentators light on peterson because just as soon as i mention the fact that he's all over the back of him he actually touched and took peterson out now can peterson get out of the mud and maya i do believe the stewards are going to take a look at that one that seems to be so that seemed to be they did hand out a rule bulletin after uh what happened at laguna and on on how they're going to handle this situation that's probably going to be a drive-through penalty unfortunately for rhett barku a little bit of impatience it's going to cost him dearly for a pretty good run that he was building up for himself got a feel for peterson because he was having a good run given that the amount of time he's had here at live rock flew in over the weekend was on holiday and got in last minute effectively but the field's starting to spread out now and i'm sure a few of them wouldn't mind a uh a caution now certainly this man the championship leader thomas merrill and a lot of work to do from 12th at the moment he's got steven lustig he's got a few drivers he should overtake fairly quickly but it's getting harder as he gets into the top eight but i'll turn to a man who's tried this yesterday how hard is it honestly i think it was a lot easier for me being it was in the rain out there guys we're going a little bit slower i can just make a move and slide my car right through once it's dried up everybody's going so fast around here it's real hard to make a move real hard to get a pass done he needs a caution to try and get the get the passes done that he needs to but i think he has really good pace right now he's running uh times that are as fast as the top three so uh given a caution i think he can work his way through good battle here also uh in the midfield with the number nine yeah what a battle for fifth here yeah with with keith prochurch and and he got pro-chucking he got tyler kasira and he got miesha cookbook so this is a battle this one is me for the ages none of these drivers like to give an inch i know keith is looking for a great run here he's definitely after i know he really wants his first ta two podium he told me down there on the grid that maybe this is his day so i know he's not going to give an inch to this so this is going to be a great battle for fifth yeah miesha goykenberg one of the busiest men in motorsport i saw him at ibsa a couple of weeks ago at mid-ohio he's always every weekend he's in some car somewhere his misha he loves his racing and so he remains very sharp although he doesn't do necessarily the whole season but whenever he jumps in the trans am he is quick quick quick lay side is a really great operation bc race cars they they put out a great product and blaze is one of the paddocks favorite uh favorite people to be around for sure for good reason on board with adrian here he's having a good weekend for himself pretty decent weekend sitting p8 right now uh looking to try and chase that he wants that pack in front and start racing a little bit more don't you think ernie yeah definitely they can start racing more trying to battle with each other go side by side in some places it's going to close up that gap and he can uh get right back on that group and see if he can uh work his way through yeah lostoski is one of the great stories uh of this championship in that is this is his first year in trans am ta2 the toughest of the lot in many ways and yet he was the runner up in sgt last year so he's jumped into these big powerful monsters and it's doing a heck of a job to be fair absolutely trying to make a move for uh fifth place there kyle like his hair going side by side and tyler pulls it off nicely done good overtake there oh keith project very good very good takeover i mean that's that's textbook here at lime rock that's exactly what what ernie was talking about the dive to the inside there and make a nice clean pass nice smooth release of the brakes and also back to adrian he's racing in honor of his buddy mark petronas who was just captured last sunday in iraq and he was the first one on scene with the with the fires and was able to to extract him for the car so our thoughts are out to mark there and get well soon buddy yeah no kidding to go on board with lost husky and uh yeah like i said good story for him and learning his way in ta2 oh the dreaded traffic of lineup it's getting heavy out there this is the big challenge of lime rock this is almost as good as a caution for punching a field up because as ernie alluded to if you catch traffic you could be five seconds a lot faster than somebody if you catch up to the wrong place you will lose that time this is good racing though pro chuck won't give up quite rightly yeah it's all about where you catch the traffic at if you can get by him in a pretty clean place you'll be set but if you get stuck behind them like where these guys are right now through uh turns three four and five you're stuck behind them for the whole rest of the lap exactly and boy what a challenge that is i mean we're seeing this right here right he's your leader mike's skiing the first time we've seen him in a while but he's got a good gap of 1.2 seconds but now starting to hit that traffic rafa doing the same rapha sliding his way through that place and everyone's run down down the long street i know that was something rafa and i were really working hard on in practices trying to time traffic to work out a strategy for him in this race because we knew so much of this race was going to come down to traffic and and basically the strategy as you know is you got to go like you just have to take the chance yeah you can't wait you got to try and make the move yeah and these guys aren't really leaving the door open for you so you got to try and work your way around and make it happen it almost makes you look crazy a little bit the moves that you have to make and but that's lime rock and that's why the fans show up to see this it's great great stuff doug peterson has rejoined he's currently in 16th position and nothing uh until to the car from that spin-off uh but he's okay and but got some work to do a little further up the field you just saw morris hull of course uh former boss to uh matas last year rafa coming back to the team he won the championship with in 2018 and i think he's got the fit between his teeth right now probably uh channeling his inner elio castroneves who got his fourth indy 500 win the brazilian yesterday matos i'm sure pretty inspired by that oh i could tell you i could confirm he's inspired by we were watching the 8500 together in the peterson hauler and he immediately picked up his phone and sent helio a text message in portuguese so i actually had to have him translate for me so i made sure that i wasn't being talked bad about you know okay without me no no i'm just teasing no he did it i love the way uncle mario gave the kiss to elio yesterday yeah right i mean it was it was a beautiful sign of affection that's for sure i'm really proud of the man but uh what a great race here again this this this fight for position between conor mcstack the team cars that's that sketchy traffic oh tight place to pass right there really hard to make it through really it's really that definitely gave dylan the run and i just got word that uh keith porchak uh numbered position number seven out there he uh has no brake lights might have to come in and get that fixed it's a really tough situation had that same thing happen to me uh two years ago at road atlanta had to come in and kind of ruined our race and really frustrating when something like that lets you down well i guess rules wise you have to have those great lights working because both it's off-putting but also by the rules you have to have them working yes it's become i know that it was definitely brought to the attention of the stewards during the drivers meeting in ta2 i wasn't in the one for ta but in the 2 i was and it was brought to the attention of the stewards there that that brake light seemed to be getting a little bit faded or faint or or disappear all together on some cars so i know that they're keeping a close eye on that so it doesn't surprise me that uh that would have got caught it's great to hear lostoski just [Music] feathering the throttle as he goes through it and that's that's the game here isn't it you're kind of just you want to be powerful but you don't want to be too quick there's those lights we were talking about on project's car and they are not lighting up at least they weren't at that moment anyway let's have a look as we look on board now from lostoski they might just very be very hard to see very hard to tell right now and that and that could be the thing too they got to be highly visible or maybe you should stop breaking [Music] well we'll see if those lights work now he comes over the start finish down towards big bend and i don't see any lights lighting up oh it looked like he went in there flat out and we know he didn't so uh i agree i don't see any brake lights there which i'd be ashamed like ernie said you don't you hate the little things like that to get in the way of your race so it's pretty intense out there lime rock park memorial day weekend as it should be here at live rock every year we've had two years waiting 2019 was a bumper year and we obviously with covert had to miss a year but we're back we're delighted to see the fans who have come in their throngs once again to this fantastic historical circuit well it's funny jonathan i was down on the grid and i was trying to get some dirt and only thing every driver wanted to talk about and it was fantastic was the fans are back yeah you know the grid walk is back and the fans are around and we're all celebrating being here together on memorial day and celebrating why it's possible for us to be here it was quite emotional i was at koda last week with fans with nascar and again you know you you forget just how much apart fans are and how much they make the event and you know genuinely so and i'm sure as a racing driver you you want those guys there all the time yeah this is one of my favorite events to come to because the fans that are all out here i mean we saw it on saturday it was pouring rain on the grid and fans were still out there doing the fan walks still trying to come up to us trying to get autographs trying to trying to just see the drivers out there and that's just true dedication that the fans have well bike skein we haven't seen a lot of him but he's doing a great job out front his best lap at 52.6 on lap 10. it's now lap 20. we've got oh no drama that's a left front that at least looks that's edward savage in the man from dallas texas trouble at the big d as he comes off at turn one and that looked like a front left puncture to me it did as well yeah and as we know from you know what ernie did yesterday if you pull off in that area it saves us from a full course caution so a good heads up i know he didn't really have any option but uh some people might have tried to limp that around and make it around for a lap and he didn't do that so great sportsmanship for for uh adrian but very or very very was that adrian yeah i'm very bummed to see that happen for him so edward savage out of the race as we look high above lime rock park with his wonderful drone shots we're staying low this weekend it's pretty cool i think mike skeen continues to lead his gap 1.9 seconds ahead of raphael matos in second place dylan mcaverne i tell you keith prochuck there looked like a motocross rider he just caught so much air on the uphill and that uphill section is so much fun to drive every single lap in the dry and the ta cars i'm just uh laughing and smiling the whole time up that hill i asked our photographer chris clark i always ask him at every one of our races there goes the the tire blow out oh wow it almost looks like a rotor it almost looks like a rotor or a caliper failure agrees a bunch of sparks out of the side yeah that was really might have taken the tire with it because then the car dipped out i think that's what it was yeah he just broke and there was nothing there and it just sparked off and broke up lucky that didn't go worse if you go back on board with second place rafa matos now rafa at this point i think is is just trying to save his stuff he doesn't doesn't have quite the pace of mike mike's been working the traffic quite well and uh i just think he's right now i'm sure just waiting out what we talk about is the inevitable here at lime rock another caution which is probably gonna another caution or lap traffic that gap right there can close right up within uh two turns if they run into lap traffic so i think he's just uh trying to wait and save his equipment for for a chance to try and make a move well on the grid wall ben sissel did a great job because he basically confirmed that strategy saying that you know he's gonna try and stay as close as he can to scheme but his opportunity will come up at the race trying to save the tires and then go at the end so he's playing to his strategy at the moment anyway but we've had no real cautions we've had a few offs but no big caution so far just one doug peterson he's recovered up to 13th place already as well and he got thomas merrill up in the top ten he's in the ninth place making a nice recovery we're on board here with adrian glossowski they're in eighth place too so do have a nice run here for adrian now and we drop the yellow flags out rafa took the lead rafa just took the lead for my scheme my skin is now p2 wow good point and that's something somewhere we missed well we've got a full course of yellow as well uh so everything's changing very quickly very quickly that's motor racing folks that is motor racing uh mike skeen ran uh 106 his last lap so something there happened yeah whether he went off track or uh got held up well good eye on that ernie safety cars picking up rafa rafa is our leader so rafa matas the brazilian now leads this race in the 88 three dimensional services ford mustang i wonder if there's some sort of lap traffic issue with mike skeen if he went on and tried to make one of those moves that ernie and i were talking about you can't be patient here you have to make risky moves and if one didn't pay off you know i think that could have been a possibility there rafa's waiting there i believe for the pace car to get out come out the safety car yep there's the there's our cat is that our honda safety car this was in of course we saw that i don't believe that would be the reason for our full course but i don't see any other reason for a full course because mike's still making laps he's uh holding in second so i don't think he's off the track stuck somewhere all right let's take a look at what happened here's skeet coming over the hill and oh he gets touched or he touches the 34 i should say but uh the 34 i think was unaware just like we were saying lap traffic you got to try and make those moves and if the guys that you're coming up on don't see you for that last second when you dive in there you know you have contact and it's really easy to go off around this place you were out with the mike's skiing earlier in the weekend it's not easy to see because you're going side by side yeah but that was definitely and and i don't think this is the first time the 34 car has been in contact with the faster car and doing the exact same thing driving to the apex completely unaware one of the things as a slower car i i love when people are out here because not everyone's fast right out of the box right i can appreciate learning the craft and getting the laps but when you are and you know you're off pace before you turn into a corner you need to check those mirrors and make sure that you're not affecting because that was really effective too to my schemes rate so unfortunately there but i know that i know ernie's been given a little bit of news here evan slater had to come in to fix a transponder that was his issue why he had to come in so another tough break there just something you can't control uh something so simple that uh that kind of ruins your day ruins your race right so so again i um you know i i hate that for mike i think uh you know lab cars definitely when the blue flags are up especially get in the mirrors if you know you're off pace um you know it's important to be in your mirrors i think every race driver would definitely you know support that theory so lap 26 40 minutes to go mike skeen has lost the lead to rapha matos dylan mcaverne's in the hunt we're under caution at the moment connor mosak's there tyler cassara after fifth mitch goeckberg in sixth position and keith project's seventh velocity uh lost in eighth position and that's rounded out by thomas merrill ninth and rhett barco in tenth position i definitely yeah i definitely keep your eye on thomas merrill yeah this uh this caution punch the whole field back up this will be his chance to try and make some moves happen try and get up towards the front you can get back into that top five and uh and sit there for the rest of the race and try it's got time hasn't he and don't look now but you know the spoiler and the lime one of the lime rock masters here dylan mcavoy the local boy i mean he is right there in third he is in a great race car prepared by scott lagasse racing uh those m1 chassis they're definitely a worthy more than worthy chassis and ta2 and this is this is definitely heating up to be a really good mid-race battle for us to watch here on this restart doug peterson's back up to 13th position having been down in 16th after that off it certainly doesn't hurt right with these this caution for people like doug peterson and thomas merrill i think ernie brought up too is you know thomas got a great break here uh to come back up here and and work his magic through the field and this caution even helped out mike skeen you know had that off with the lap traffic car and uh able to punch him right back on the on the back of uh of rafa again if you can try and make a pass happen and get back to the lead you can you can do that ernie i i offer i think i asked you this question about oh great you know under caution at least you can relax and you can catch your breath back you said no way i'm moving the steering wheel harder physically than i would be uh if i wasn't racing because you're trying to keep temperature you're trying to do it you're actually getting hotter because you're going slower if this is not a fun time for a race yeah the adrenaline kind of cools off when you get under under caution and you start to realize well the car's pretty hot uh you realize how how stressful the situation you are right now especially for some of these guys in the front uh mike skeen's probably pretty frustrated after that incident with the lap traffic he's trying to calm himself down and get ready for this restart and rafa is looking to try and just take off and get out if you're rafa you hated the caution because you had a nice lead if you're everyone else you're like yes caution we're in this thing and we can get the fight but yes to the point physically from a physical standpoint you absolutely despise the caution the air quits moving through the car like ernie said you're working almost harder than that just by running the laps because you're doing this by keeping temperature up let's head down to the grid where ben is with joe stevens uh stephens miller racing so here i am with joe stevens joe it's such a tight track mike was leading the race got caught up in lap traffic what's he saying on the radio yeah unfortunately mike skein got into patrick paul on the last turn on the straightaway we presented ourselves early we were wheel to wheel with them patrick may not have saw him i can't i can't say for him it's an unfortunate for both cars patrick turned in as if mike wasn't there well before the center of the turn and they hit wheel to wheel and they both went off the track we did lose the tow out of the left front so the car is not steering as designed and as set up which is really going to hurt us because all we're doing is turning right here at line rock park but um mike says we still got a shot we're gonna try to get right on raffa's tail at the restart and fight for this win nice and you can see patrick paul is down there so we might have done some damage to patrick paul new to the series so that's that's unfortunate for patrick paul but i'm going to send it back up to the booth thanks joe good work ben thank you so much gentlemen you're both drivers how would that affect you if you're a mic scheme do you think i think the main thing is just trying to calm back down again yeah it's a long race you got a lot of time trying not to let it bother you too much you think about it and it's going to frustrate you and you're just not going to drive the way you need to exactly and if you have now if you have an ill handling car because of a bent toe link uh you know you're only going to exasperate it by overdriving the car and heating up the tire that doesn't want to be heated up so you know that that's something that is i know running it mike's a professional mike is a champion he knows what he's doing he's gonna you know rafa's not out of the woods yet and rafa knows it so rafa's gonna put his best foot down and we're gonna see qualifying laps from from our little brazilian buddy there all the rest of this race yeah it really is a case of that isn't it i mean with one point five uh that one cars coming back out of the pits and there is is that scott borchetta that is bruschetta yeah yeah scott barcelona has he got the big machine vodka for mustang going he's strapped in and ready to go but as you can see quite a lot of damage they're still looking at it he might add a tire rub or something or i don't know but well they've pushed him out again so scott borchetta of nashville tennessee hits the road again time for rafa because he's now leading this race and uh is there a different perspective when you're chasing someone like mike skeen and then suddenly you get gifted the lead do you change your headset a little bit in terms of our mindset a little bit in terms of how you approach the race yeah i think once you're in the lead you want to try and control the pace to what you need to do to keep your car underneath you uh you don't want to burn off the equipment before the end of the race i think rafa's going to try to uh hold the pace where he can keep a gap to uh to the guys behind him in case there is some lap traffic that he gets to slow down him but he also wants to uh conserve his car enough that he has something to fight with at the end yeah and i think i think mike is probably with you when you have a bet totally mike right now has probably looked more in his mirror than he is looking in front of him yeah um you know i think he's right now concerned because he's got two two cats behind him damage damage control yeah hold the position he has and collect what points he can actually leaving line up with as many as he can so do we do one more lap i think we do no the pace cars coming off and we are racing again here at lime rock park away they go good defensive driving from rafa yeah live traffic did a good job getting out of the way there too to free it up for everyone that has actually a dog in this fight that was great great to see evan slater in fourth position at the moment at least on the road no he's down there in p17 so he'd be one of those that would be a lap down so he did a good job of making sure that he did get in the way of these races and that's that's a that's a skill set in its own and this is the time now for this youngster to glue onto the back of this fast group and see what he's got yeah exactly uh no harm no foul if he's not slowing anybody down um but it is a double-edged sword because he doesn't want to get in the way of the race itself but uh like you say he's got the pace to kind of stick with the leaders if he can rafa away scheme second here's the 92 we haven't mentioned too much of dylan mcavoy he said he's a track expert and as you say he's motivated to try and get a win here at home he's such a talented kid and he loved being around dylan and his whole family and his i believe his dad dave is here and it's just it's just a fun group and you can see look at he is chomping at the bit yeah inside outside showing mike each way and it shows like this damage ernie is getting to mike maybe a little bit up in the front yeah he definitely doesn't seem to have the pace as much to be right on the back of rafa seems to be trying to uh just control what he can and he has well you mentioned uh dylan mcavoy's father david yep he did one trans and race right here at line brock in 1989 so there's a bit of a family thing going on as well so we wish up the 2019 runner up here atline rock all the best as he tries to take on our 2021 field on board with peterson again trying to haul his way back up to the front peterson currently in 13th he's behind stephen lustig and tommy shearham where the fact is tommy see the old yellow as they come under the bridge the haggardy bridge and downhill one more time yeah i believe there you go so uh this could turn out to be another exciting race between doug peterson and tom sheehan let's see how that really uh pans out media nice to see it come out clean hopefully and i mean that'd be a nice one the foreshadow has returned to the track in 18th position and as you can see 194 is out surveying likewise and rafa matos leads this race high above adrian here right on board with him he's still hanging tough in the top 10 here [Music] you can see thomas merrill trying to get by his teammate there looks like he's going to let him biking in the uphill that's and you know that could have been one of those things too is he's also a team player and those thomas is in this thing for the championship and make it make life easier on your buddy there in the tent next year even though uh it got a little dicey earlier right with a little bit of contact so that might have been a little apology from keith uh to to thomas let me ask you a question boys you often talk about managing the the the machine underneath you you said it earlier ernie when do the tires start to go at a small track like this or because you've had a couple of cautions and it's cooler than normal would you manage to maybe keep the grip all the way through i think these guys can run a little bit harder than they're used to being that it's a colder day out here track camp's not too hot and they also started on new tires yes one of these guys had to qualify on these for lap zeros so they were brand new tires at the start of this race they should last this race distance and they should have a good time uh by the end of the run i agree 100 they're ernie i couldn't have said it better myself and as they're showing evan here evan's doing a really good job of hanging on to this league group he's not holding up the group that's behind him but tyler cassero and misha goyford are getting ready to have a good battle here a good classic ta2 battle for a top five position and i know that that's a really good you know start of a result here at the halfway point for that bc race cars group with misha going for behind the wheel you listen to the words of adam and ready and ernie francis jr our ta champion in action yesterday and you can catch him on june 11th cbs uh srx oh well formula one off road on road nascar indy it's gonna be fun then yeah really excited for it all of us at transham are definitely pulling for ernie we'll be watching yeah we're so proud of you buddy and we know you're gonna do a great job in there you're definitely built for it it's time for you to show the world what you're definitely made of it's gonna be fun for us all of it but we already know about you all right mike cope racing 81 obviously not a good day for thomas merrill he didn't have the best qualifying and then it just went from bad to worse and now he's struggling in seventh position not where he needs to be as the championship leader by three points but he's caught up to that group right there and uh if he can uh make some moves happening get right through this pack he'll be right up there in fourth place ready to uh to pounce if there's another caution exactly you know he looks like he may take advantage of the impatience of misha goickberg right here but misha is not wanting to mess around with tyler casera tyler struggling a little bit you know and tyler's a great shoe he's got a lot of talent and uh so just struggling with a little bit of the setup on that car to get the forward fight it seems uh misha and thomas seem to have much more forward fight here another good story of course he won our e-championship winning uh sorry he was runner-up in the e-championship uh last year during covert kind of made a name for himself then went back out into the real world as it were he was doing miata races before that and uh he got in at virginia got himself a podium and a win and he's never looked back doing a full season this year just him and his dad and uh a few others brothers really deep misha set that up though that run up he set that up about the whole lap previous he led a little bit of a gap as ernie knows his momentum track and with momentum race cars and he said that now he's going to be impatient and this is exactly what's talking about merrell merrill's there thomas is there to just really pick up the scraps yeah that almost worked for him there he got on the brakes a hair too late and pushed him out a little bit too wide i think if he does that move again you're gonna see him uh make it stick next time well thomas doesn't want to sit there behind both of them though does he because uh that could also have gone wrong and therefore he didn't want to be part of it so we'll see how they mess it all around you see tommy sheahan the local man who's telling ben i think he's been in every lime rock race in the last decade here at uh limewell i mean you're not going to question the iron man on that army absolutely not i believe the guy's been in every race he could have ever been in his entire life so um absolutely here at lime rock i believe that about tom sheehan such passion he loves to be here in translam he's so proud to be here at this level and you know he's sitting there just just inside the top ten just for the top ten right now and uh running a nice race here behind adrian vloskowski and and p9 yep effectively his home race is tracked to where he's from yes it would be absolutely it would be uh he's the new hampshire man he is yeah i'm mistaken so that that's that is uh that's good news there clock ticking down then 27 minutes to go lost all over the nine oh this is gonna be a good move in the west bend and uh keith gave him the room look at that not every day that you'll find someone that'll want to give you that room and and it shows you really if you let someone on the inside of west bend you can carry some momentum on the outside and it's not the end of your day good point now when we get up the inside here though at uh turn one thomas merrill three wide down the front straight yeah he's got him i have a feeling after what we saw in the 34 car with uh with the leader that everyone's a little bit more patient around him and that might have bit misha and given thomas the run so this is great racing and now the traffic comes into play now with 26 minutes to go merrill trying everything he can and again the 34 involved in a situation that goes both cars off and patrick paul in trouble again and he's taken at some point you know the stewards have to look at uh the consistency of if there's one person involved and then slap lap cars faster you know it's something which cars the case of uh being new to this series and you know guys are coming up pretty quick and uh it's not club racing these guys are going for a race win they're going for a championship and uh they're trying to make these moves happen if you can't see the guys behind you that uh what should be really aware uh the main thing is if you're a lap traffic car you just need to be aware of the guys behind you you know you're not running for a race when you're not running for a position in the front for points um your crew needs to be on the radio also letting you know that these guys are coming up through and they've been battling for several laps and they're gonna try and uh make it make it work to get by you so uh it's all trying to be aware of it i would almost equate it to like if you're in a lower cast if you're in a lower class car here's the replay here um just again the 34 car kept turning left uh when when keith was up on the inside of him there on the outside of the left-hander and uh and that's just awareness right i like i was back to my point i equate it to an endurance racing if you're in a slower class car ernie you're driving more out of your mirrors than you are in the windshield so that you don't ruin someone's race so it's really no different when you're a lap traffic car and we're at a full course caution here so this is going to budge things up again and this is going to get spicy all right this is exactly what thomas merrill needed this is going to bunch him back up to that uh to that lead pack he'll be right behind tyler casera on the restart and look at that he went from uh last on the grid to sixth place what did we say earlier when he's done don't count out thomas merrill i mean the guy is exciting he's one of the most exciting talents in the ta2 paddock and we love the fact that he races here with us week in and week out well guys now we've got a full course uh yellow and we'll effectively have 20 minutes of racing we've already talked about the tires they're going to be okay especially with these porsches and let's have a look at what happens here yeah he just wasn't far enough by the way we just didn't see him there and kind of turned over left to set up for the uh for the right-hander and uh yeah there was a car there yeah it's a very fast car you know and that's that's the thing so hated for keith right keith came in with such high expectations he was looking like i said he was telling me i'm looking at my first podium possibly here and uh unfortunately the the day just keeps on slipping away from him but uh he'll come back and he'll bounce back and he'll be back to the next one so guys what's the strategy 20 minutes to go you've got good tires underneath you we think uh and the fuel load's getting lighter but is there any changing strategy or is it hell bent for leather all-out sprint race to the finish you got 20 minutes to make it happen you got tires underneath that are probably pretty good uh you got a pretty dry track i think it's just going to be all out do everything you can to try and pass these guys i think you're going to see some uh some rubbing you're going to see some rgbargy out here i think it's going to be some good racing yeah adrian still wants to be at laguna that was the track map from laguna the bottom of the screen there so the fans don't get that's what it was yeah yeah he's he's like i i do not like this new england weather it was much nicer laguna let's just get our mindset around it was gorgeous so there's our buddy you weren't supposed to spot that i didn't mean to i'm sorry you know i'm already i'm getting yelled at by the production crew here they're they're they're they're they're they're fish mob you don't want to upset them they just pulled my headphones off and flicked me in the ear like you know like i was in grade school and you're looking at our top carter right here so just be careful no it's a fantastic job you guys do honestly the production level that we have for our trans am races is second to none and and i always find myself very blessed and proud to be up here in the booth with you here jonathan and uh it's always fun to be up here with the seven-time champ ernie francis well uh it's great to have ernie in here we don't often get a chance and we weren't sure whether you were going to hang around or not but you've you've got some skin in the game you've got a breathless car out there in um an sbra today right yeah one of our other drivers dave ritchie was out there racing in svra group 10. uh he did really good got a second place finish actually just behind dylan mcavoy uh so yeah he had a really great day a good race for him overall not too bad of a weekend for uh for the for the team we'll bounce back to the next one though well that's what we love about you ernie is you're a true racer uh you know any of us that really know you and i've known you watch you grow within the sport we know what the kind of dedication you have and your family has and your entire group puts into this it's a lot of sacrifice and what i've been telling people too is when you have passion there's no sacrifice and you show that well let's head down to the pits where we got some latest action from what's going down in pit lane uh with rafa's team let's go down to ben sissel i'm here with ryan baldy the crew chief for three dimensional services group talking to rafa matos what are you hearing from rafa is he pretty calm yeah he's calm head's in the game car is good it's been a good day so far we'll uh got about 25 laps to go here we'll bring it home hopefully with a win so we heard from joe stevens earlier who's with mike skeen there's a little bit of damage having a hard time turning have you told your driver that yet well he just knows that skeen's behind him yeah and that's all he needs to know but then dylan mcavon's on a charge so you're gonna tell him as little as you can oh yeah he he's a pro he he knows what to do we don't need to tell him anything nice rafa matos is a pro we don't need to tell him what to do back to you guys up at the booth thank you man sometimes the least information is better out there yeah when i'm running these races i like to just know lap times and my gap to the guys behind me i don't need to know who it is what's wrong with their cars i don't care i'm just trying to run my race just let me know how far back they are yeah that's the challenge channeling your inner kimi raikkonen i've got this guys leave me alone yeah we don't need a lot of information as ernie said the more the more information you clutter a driver's brain with uh you know we we don't need more in there right we have enough going on in the race so just giving us those small little details are certainly important and ryan baldy he's an awesome engineer i got the pleasure to work with him this weekend and the decision-making and just the meticulous uh process that he has of pouring over data and the whole bit just a phenomenal group there doug peterson that he has filmed over there peterson racing so we await the restart and it's going to be 20 minutes as i said 20 minutes and 24 seconds left 43 of the 68 gone all sorts of drama here with mike skeen coming together with patrick paul but still able to continue then patrick paul again involved in another incident and rafa matos gaining the lead and mike skein though still with a slightly damaged car but it seems like okay at the moment and dylan mcaverne looking for a good result here in a one-off run conor mossack right behind him tyler casera in the top five and off comes the pace car rafa is in control out comes the hb tuners car and away there goes keene looks to the outside now back to the inside rafa's got him covered though the 92 of column of dylan mcavoy right there colin most set behind him tyler caseras in the mix all five getting a good restart guys yeah really good restart there i know that uh terry earwood came through all the competitors on the grid and let them know you don't wiggle until you see the flag man pull the green so that's why we're seeing some great restarts here and we're seeing some really challenging big challenges up front for the lead like you just saw with my speed and dropper so good clean start we're on board again with airplane mustang currently in a position they're doing a fantastic job again you know this race is about survival too this is lime rock here and uh as we saw with with as you get into live traffic anything can happen to any one of these cars thomas merrill right there sticks chomping at the bit by tyler casir to get into that top five rafa defending his position in the 88 into turn one through big ben a turn that seems to go on forever and what can merrell do from this position he is looking antsy and uh i'll tell you another one looking ants he's dylan mcavoy right there in p3 he's ready to pounce on mike's skein and i tell you maybe rotha didn't get the information that my skin's got a bent suspension but i guarantee you dylan mcaverne did yeah definitely one of that information is like a shark smelling blood he's hunting out there right now and it looks like mike steen doesn't really have the pace to run with rafa right now rafa was kind of trying to check out build a little gap there must be some sort of damage to the car having had a hit that fast and you know that heavy yeah definitely probably knocked the front alignment out a little bit and around this place you really need that there's so much turning there's very little stuff in a straight line you need the car to turn the way you wanted to to run lap times 100 and then totally just makes that turning unpredictable uh tyler cassero yeah last turn gave thomas merrill the chance to get on the inside of him yeah he pushed him into that kind of thing and cassera going wide touching the wheel onto the dirt and that's all that meryl needed that that might end up hurting uh tala casero later on in the race it looks like his front uh grill is all covered with grass might have some uh overheating issues throughout the race yeah i mean especially to the brake ducts here you know if you really clog up the brake ducts here that's that i mean they taped up the radiators a lot of these a lot of these teams did because of the cool weather but uh in the brake ducts nobody taped up the brake ducts because this is lime rock park you will murder the brakes here so that's definitely something that i would worry about good call to so merrill up to fifth place now there's cassava in the number five silver hair car effectively coming in when rafa moved out and went back to three-dimensional services to the ford mustang i tell you tyler's having a really hard time with forward bite off of the downhill and thing wants to kick out on him and when he's under full power and really free the back into the car up so he's got his hands full and tyler's doing a great job hanging on to that thing there in p6 just over 16 minutes to go this the business end of this ta2 round 4 20 21 race from lime rock park it's a traditional memorial weekend here at lime rock and the crowds are back yeah what a blessing that is it's fan fantastic to see the parking lot get filled up this morning i'm up there camping with them in the rv so i've been able to see how the how it filled in all day long and it was just awesome to watch this it really was yeah i did it properly yeah i like that yeah it was really brilliant well this has again been a good run from adrian lostowski ass raffert now [Music] to worse unfortunately for keith and uh well hang on is raphael at 100 i wonder uh raffle looks good over there you're just really patient with the car right there so i think rob is fine um he's going to definitely feel the car out make sure there's no issue but i don't think that was hard enough impact to make any changes to the car risky stuff huh definitely risky like we talked about that's that's the game at lime rock you have to take those chances to get a donut or two on the car to make sure that you don't uh you know you don't lose that gap that you worked so hard to gain yeah and here we're gonna see what everybody has if uh if rafa has something left in the tank trying to pull out a lap to pull that gap out again or if mike skeen's gonna try to uh reel him in and i mean it was it was uh rafa was committed that was 100 commitment there and i'm sure rafa was feeling like he saw the blue flags that were here at this at the flag man at the flag stand and uh and i'm sure that's where rafa put that move on matos looking for back-to-back wins currently second in the championship with 83 points and with thomas merrill fighting for as many points as he can get he's fifth at the moment it's a great opportunity for rafa to get the lead off the championship and likewise behind him i tell you dylan just looks mischievous right there to me i mean he looks like he is ready to just put a mix into this championship run for this group and uh and i think he's gonna make these last you know 14 minutes really really exciting for us fans yeah he's got enough to lose has he no absolutely not he's here to he's here to prove that you know he's he's a top talent in this country still which we all know he is and and if you're anywhere near the top three in ta2 uh that that's saying something this is one of the toughest fields i know ernie will do to that it's one of the toughest fields in all of motorsports yeah very competitive field i mean you look at their qualifying session these guys are separated by tenths of a second throughout the top eight top ten positions usually so uh yeah very very competitive field very good talent in the end makes it great for us fans of ta2 to watch this and uh a great memorial day classic for sure one to go down in the history books yep and it's been a huge part of our history in trans am this is our 30th year here of course trans am celebrating 55 years of racing this year thomas has caught connor like pretty quick and i know catching a passing are definitely two different things especially here at limerick oh is that doug peterson gets fun again oh man that looked like he was on his own there i didn't think he got a notch dude it looks like i think he got it regret maybe nudged him just did a good job of saving it oh it's beautiful save i mean the fans love that right there wow i mean i think he lost one spot off of that deal i believe uh rhett was the same person that spun him out last time also nice i think two for two out here he said he was on roman when he started the race because he was in trouble last time right exactly so um so i think there's a couple of people that maybe are going to go undermine now for what happened today or doug excuse me good run so far by michigan and he's chasing down hard on merrell at the moment yeah miesha looks like he i mean this is big for him he wants to get that top five at the very least for for blaze in the group they've come a long way uh not this is one of the closer trips that they come to canada look at the beautiful textbook pass beautiful job and i would look for misha to go ahead and set sail here yep yeah when he's in the mood me she can do anything yeah oh actually i'm sorry that went for position that was keith project those coke cars look very yeah they do look very similar i'm making the same that caught me off my apologies for that error aboard the adrian through the right-hander on the no name straight again like jonathan talked about you don't get much rest here even one of the straightaways here is you're you're constantly you know i mean it's there's simple turns but you can't let your guard down you have to actually navigate them evan slater again the youngster just 15 years of age from new england and he's in the top 15. he is running in his age right so he's 15 right now turning good lap times his last lap time was a 54-5 and you're looking at our leader you know was a 53-3 mike ski was a 53-4 so he's he's only a second behind them you're the perfect man to ask this but if you can get into a car like this at this age surely it bodes well for your future in trans am because you're going to be ahead of anybody else your own beer group no definitely if you get behind the wheel one of these trans mta 2 cars at a young age you're going to get so much more more development some of these other drivers out here and you've got a ton of years ahead of you to learn and uh the racecraft the racecraft you're going to learn out racing in ta2 is a second to none i think these guys are racing inches apart from each other the entire race so i think there's no better no better series no better class to race in as a young driver what we love about trans am too is there's three pedals there's still three pedals in the ta2 car yep teaches you the basics of racing a car before you uh try and drive anything else absolutely it's it's really and i think that's one of the things that makes it keeps the competitiveness around right everyone's gonna have a little bit of a different braking zone because they can work the gearbox a little bit differently or a little bit better than the other so uh i really love that style of racing i think it makes just really awesome pure racers and that d82 is developing well thomas merrill saving his blushes at the moment he's going to pick up some decent points in fifth he'll want more if he can but uh it'll at least be a way of leaving limerock with zero points because he was looking at the face of that a little earlier on in the weekend and in the race and he's up there in fifth place at the moment i tell you i i hate to say it but i'm gonna tell thomas i said you need to have someone spin you at the beginning of every race and then you just make it so exciting for us up here in the booth to call it and you know you make us look really smart up here too because it's easy for us to say don't count thomas merrill out because he's gonna be back because he is back and he's here and he's gonna show because if they get another one of these cautions that bunches us back up i think he's got some race car left now the gap between rapha matas and mike skin is only half a second what do you think boys yeah you can see it closed right back up again i think that a lap traffic car they just got back uh got by must have slowed off up a little bit because uh mike scene closed right up to the back of him again we'll see if he can uh try and make something happen this is another place too that i know we were talking about you can control the pace like if you've got a pace that you want to run that you don't want to burn your tires off it's a very difficult track to pass so as long as you nail the downhill here and don't give anyone a run into turn one you could back them up the rest of the track and really save a lot of tire per lap right ernie yeah that's the key that's a key thing around this track is that you can control the pace as much as you want as long as you keep that run down the downhill like you said uh you're pretty much golden nobody's going to make a move around you as long as you don't make a mistake that's what raffle is trying to do right now is just run a perfect race just run the line every single lap hit him hit all his marks and just uh try to run a perfect uh eight minutes to finish off this race well we saw david pentarick do that with chris dyson yesterday for quite a few laps uh he was in the lead or the head ahead of the leader chris dyson and he and chris just couldn't get past him you mean fastest crowd on the track by a half a second and you'll be stuck behind that car because this place is just such a challenge and you could be a half a second faster than everywhere else but the downhill they're just as quick or a little bit quicker than you and you've got nothing you have nowhere else that you can actually make that pass really safely a high percentage move as as as the stewards like to call it when they talk to us drivers as a high percentage or a low percentage move yeah well merrill's about to make a high percentage move i'm pretty sure on connor mosak before the end of this race is over could see the body language of the car he's trying to be as quick as he can through the turns yeah his team is definitely on the radio let him know there's eight minutes left uh this is go time he probably got less right around eight laps left it's really a little less than a minute left so uh we're thinking that we're probably at the point now that thomas is going to get really antsy to get around connor yeah i think if anybody has anything left they're going to show it now not much time left in this race so uh time to go yeah right now caution would basically put us to a green white checkered finish you know the promised tony perella made all his trans am fans was that we're always gonna finish under green so if we got a caution now that's what would happen and uh which could be exciting for us as well but uh let's not hope for that let's hope for this to go green to the end and a good exciting finish because that top three you throw a blanket on them you can throw a blanket on rafa mike and dylan really easily meanwhile on the main straight trying to give himself some fresh air and that's he's trying to show him too he's a lap down keeps the lap down this isn't for position uh keith's not in his own right and that's a case of just trying to time the traffic the way you need to you can saw adrian uh ran up on the back of him coming down the hill and uh kind of ruined his run down the front straight around this place you almost want to hang back as much as you can just get a big run because that's the only way you're going to get by some of these guys down the streets momentum track right ernie yep you got to carry the speed where you can so a bit of traffic ahead of rapper matas too with six minutes to go as he comes under the bridge and down the hill one more time mike skeed certainly not gone anywhere he's right there mcaverne is ready to pick up the pieces in the 92. you know they i'm sure peterson peterson racing has gone down to these these cars that they're coming up to lap here which is the silver hair this is the believe maurice so this could be a challenge for rafa but gets through cleanly maurice does a wonderful job getting out of the way of this race for the win here and uh that's that's really good job by the by the last traffic there yeah mcavoy got the worst of that because he's now stuck behind stuck on the outside yeah not where he wants to be is it and he's losing crucial time now yeah he sure did now that definitely maybe took him out of this battle a little bit unfortunately look how much time he's lost and that's what ernie and i've been talking about you could be so much faster and you just catch them wrong it just takes one car one turn and you'll lose like like you saw right here and you lost eight car lengths on the guys ahead of them you want to see how fast dylan is though watch how quick he catches these two now and you'll see the speed that nilla mcaverne has right now because your speed gets stalled really quick too once you get up to the car in front you lose that front downforce you can't come down that downhill like you want to and uh so we're gonna see how quick dylan is cause he has a little bit of clean air fascinating racing a hundred miles ta2 at its finest round four of the series it's been hell bent for leather we've had cautions we've had incidents but raffamatos somehow has made it through he's had to do some pretty good overtaking to stay ahead and in contention poor old merrell has not had the best of days but he's making best of it at the moment boy imagine thomas without that spin i mean he's there just fighting hard with with connor for this fourth place and uh it's gonna be a good one here i'm running out though i think we're gonna hit the white flag pretty much after this yeah it's you know about 54 seconds a lap so you know we get a lot done in four minutes actually here so it's you know it's like a regular track yeah yeah road america would be you know a couple laps to be out of this thing but uh these two have quite a bit of a battle yet to go and and thomas is just sitting there like chomping at the bit for the slightest mistake and and uh looking for that run but boy conor is doing a fantastic job these are two different chassis to an m1 chassis up against the cope chassis so two wonderful how do they differ oh you know i mean everyone's got the different philosophy so you know it'd be heart-telling with just me sitting here you need mike hope sitting up here yeah and you would need uh scott lagasse to sit up here and really tell you the technicalities of those differences i wouldn't be able to do it justice honestly all i know is they're both great race cars i've seen a lot of talent attracted to both of them wanting to drive them just crazy how cars can be built so different and still run the same lap times on the track right is that the coolest thing i i think that all the time about our streams especially a ta right yeah the cars are built so different some have some have sequential some have h pattern gearboxes chassis design is so different the way they work arrow power and they all just seem to run the same they'll run the same lap times and work the same around the track they'll make it up in different places but uh but it's always crazy how it always equals out pretty much yeah it's really cool i think it's truly what makes transant racing so great on every level is because of that uh it really makes it a lot of fun continuing to watch this battle to sixth place so that's hurting adrian right there what i just saw being on the rev limiter at the end of the french front straightaway that'll hurt an end of your run that's your place to really dive and make the pass you need the you need a little bit of that gear yeah and he's really been stuck behind uh keith crow truck for a while there yeah trying to get by him and it seems like tyler cassero's behind adrian now also so wonder how that move happened i wonder if uh caesar's car did overheat a little bit after going off track yeah it's very well put up very good very good eye very good memory there too as well so just two minutes and 50 seconds now to go rafa matos under massive pressure from mike skeen and even more so than previous laps now as they dive into one bouncing over the curbs the liquid molly car camaro vs mustang almost scripted here at lime rock running practice saturday behind rafa i'll tell you now rafa's really clean and tidy around lime rock he says he doesn't have a lot of labs here but oh there's a pretty vulnerable spin to the inside is that cool again i think they'll get away with leaving that right possibly i know that it's left in the race i think they might just i think david hoots really likes to keep these things green if it's not too vulnerable to spot i don't think that's too vulnerable of a spot it's pretty it's the slowest part of the racetrack it really truly is looks like they got some clear track right now but yeah lap car right there see if it slows them up down the truck straight this is gonna get interesting let's make a break for skiing if he wants to win this race at all oh my word lap traffic again that traffic and battle has gone back to third place now in a matter of inches oh what a shame oh what a shame we hate that he just ernie called it right like we said all it takes is one turn one uh ernie called that shot with the lap traffic and i know and then when i brought up blue flags that was just the point that rafa brought up in in the driver's meeting was was the blue flags and and really paying attention to the blue flag especially here at lime rocket i mean so unfortunate i know oh what a heartbreak well raphael's gonna be so upset oh he's steaming inside there and rightfully so i mean it's it's such a it's just it is heartbreaking he drive the race that he drove and have put in the weekend that they put in over there it is truly heartbreaking so a complete change of complexion to this race last time around rafa matas was leading now he's third and mike skeen is back into the lead the pole man final lap then will rafa try an audacious move i wonder on dylan mcavoy he might not be uh too smart to try because dylan wants this bad too yeah dylan is so fast and clean around here it would have to be it would have to be a mistake oh yeah just didn't see him on the outside there didn't think he'd be going to the outside that's for sure but i think rafa was trying to carry the momentum around the outside and keep that run down the front straight and uh that lap traffic car just didn't uh we were talking about it was going to take you're going to have to take chances out here and it's so tough for a lap traffic car too because they can't just disappear right they got to try and just pick a lane and hope that the leaders can get by and what do we always say as as faster cars what do we always want to just hold him and honestly that would have been his line would have been to carry it out to the curb like that and so he certainly would have been expecting rob from the outside but you're to your point ernie rafa saw where he needed to keep his momentum to win this race and uh that was just a racing deal and absolutely hated for rafa hated for peterson racing and three-dimensional services and what they put in this week and that whole entire group of men and women worked so hard as they all do there yeah but what a race for mike skeen getting spun out by a lap trafficking turn where uh yeah where rafa just got put off and coming back and very true now in the lead again trying to win this race very very true yeah yeah you forget that he came together with a 34 and spun right out of control i thought his race was done i thought he was uh spun out and out of this one what a valiant effort with the bent toe link and all that going on with the front end as we just discussed this he's definitely adapted to the car and what it needed didn't wear anything out and he's going to take the win liqui molly magic and lime rock for mike skein as he does it in style coming back from nowhere effectively to take victory here at lime rock park mike game third in the championship at the beginning of the day will now be vying for the lead surely in what has been a really really good ta2 race it had everything crossing the line in second place is dylan mcaverne who subbed effectively for scott lagasse junior and did a great job the local man and rafa matos will think of what might have been he had that race wrapped up until he got across the back markers and they just didn't see him coming round the outside of the last turn turned seven and uh well that's a great job done by given that he was out of the race almost effectively when he came across a back marker so that has been the tail of this race isn't it really yeah really uh up and down race uh heartbreak for different guys and uh yeah yeah you drove a great race and uh did we had to do to come back and get the win you obviously needed your bad luck to happen early in this one and and uh because everyone seemed to have something that they ran into the only one that really i feel had a clean super clean race was dylan uh who brought that thing home in second place i mean he's he's the king of second place here limerock and i know he wants more so he was there waiting if that last uh last turn happened a little bit differently he was ready to pounce for uh for the win yeah he's definitely i have a lot to talk about here towards the end of the day for for that but uh but congratulations to my skiing stevens miller racing did a fantastic job my skiing had a glimmer in his eyes he always does right he's almost robotic when he gets behind the wheel of the car and uh he definitely put in one of those classic mic scheme performances here today at lime rock all right let's take a look at the highlights of that ta2 race round four of the series and it got off to a charging start for mike skeen but wheel-to-wheel nudging each other skiing just gotting ahead of rapper matos at the start then drama for the championship leader merrill goes out as does edward survey peterson gets spun around then out goes the great road up we think but that was the moment of the race for skiing he came together with a back marker patrick paul and we thought that was it merrill making his way up with again the 34 pro chuck this time involved and there's another spin with the same car for peterson he gets back but it wasn't a lucky day for the three-dimensional services because raffle was leading and that he wasn't it was all mike skeen at the end mike skeen wins at limerock park and coming into part firm a ben directing traffic as always please get with joe for a little bit beforehand in a moment so we'll let's head down to ben because i know he's got uh joe stevens alongside him and while mike gets out we can talk to joe go go for it ben so here we are at winner's circle with joe stevens joe i know this does a lot for the championship run how was that for you man what an intense race here at lime rock park this memorial day event is so special for everybody in attendance uh it's hard not to get emotional great job from stevens miller racing josh stewart who's the car chief on this card did an excellent job start to finish we let a lot of laps here we unfortunately had a mishap you know in the middle of that race and that set us back and i was unfortunate to hear that driver made contact with another car out there as well but no injuries so no real big deal the car's okay rafa ran into trouble with lap traffic as well and uh we came out on top sometimes this is how it works what a crazy race i love this place uh yeah just glad to be here champ here we are with our 2020 ta2 champ wearing the number one mind you how was that that had to be so exciting yeah absolutely that you know super intense we got off to a great start nice and clean battling at the front and was able to put a little bit of a gap in traffic and then you know got caught out in the last corner trying to get by lap car uh you know hated for him hit it for us obviously i think we knocked the toe in a little bit on that one and so the car was never quite as good after the fact i thought we were going to kind of have to settle for p2 there but i started closing the gap up there at the end and just you know try to put the pressure on and do everything we could you know hope for something in traffic and it it happened that way so uh just yeah really excited for liquor molly turn 14 distribution these stevensville racing guys did you know gave me an awesome awesome car today it was super quick all weekend and uh just happy to come away with our first win of the year and hopefully we can get many more to come well like always ta2 points are really tight there we were on a tight circuit of lime rock park unbelievable performance from stevens miller and mike skeen nice job i'm going to send it back up to you guys in the booth thank you very much great stuff ben and congratulations to mike skeen he is a true professional and a true champion and uh just a great great uh race for him uh given the circumstances of almost being out of it carl wasn't perfect but he made it work and mike skin win mike's keen wins the liquid molly turn four distribution car here at lime rock ahead of dylan mcaverne and then rafa matos in third conor mossack fourth thomas merrill fifth misha goeckeberg six lostofsky casera tommy sheahan naked 9th position and rhett barco in his first run at lime rock park gets 10th you

Channel: TheTransAmSeries

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Id: 53AA7VFmmDI

Length: 93min 36sec (5616 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 06 2021