Dillon Machavern Finishes Ninth; Contact Not of His Doing Ends Thad Moffitt’s Day Early

Overview

Date: May 27, 2023

Event: Memorial Day Classic (Round 4 of 12)

Series: Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli

Division: Big Machine Vodka Spiked Coolers TA2 Series

Location: Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Connecticut

Layout: 1.48-mile, seven-turn road course

Format: 68 laps or 75 minutes

Weather: Sunny, low 70s

TeamSLR:

• Dillon Machavern – Started 9^th, Finished 9^th (Running, completed 68/68 laps)
• Thad Moffitt – Started 13^th, Finished 29^th (Accident, completed 35/68 laps)

Noteworthy: M1 Racecars was represented on the podium for the fourth time in the opening four races this season as Mike Skeen of Peterson Racing brought home a runner-up finish. M1 Racecars swept the podium at the season-opening race at Sebring (Fla.) International Raceway with the race-winning Rafa Matos of Peterson Racing, his teammate Austin Green in the runner-up position, and TeamSLR driver Connor Mosack finishing third after qualifying on the pole and leading 20 of the 27 race laps. Matos scored back-to-back third-place finishes in rounds two and three at NOLA Motorsports Park in Avondale, Louisiana, and Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, respectively.

Dillon Machavern, Driver No. 17 Heritage Automotive/Unifirst SLR-M1 Racecars:

“Our TeamSLR car was pretty good, actually. We were fighting the setup all weekend with only two practice sessions to get it done, and hot temperatures today made it tough to nail the setup. Our car got really good in the middle of the race, but then tire degradation on the fronts was holding us up a little bit, so the car was just a little too tight to be where we wanted to be. We still moved up, but at the end there it got aggressive. Maybe having so much time off, everybody was a little bit excited. And Lime Rock is so tight, there’s just not a whole lot of room. There were guys out there trying to go three-wide, and that doesn’t necessarily work here. Everybody’s so close in speed and it’s so hard to pass. Guys just get a little bit aggressive and sometimes over their heads. All in all, a good points day for TeamSLR. Just need to get the car buttoned up and ready to go for Detroit.”

Thad Moffitt, Driver No. 43 Safety-Kleen/Victory Impact Chevrolet Camaro:

“I feel like we just didn’t have fire-off speed, but our cars were really good on the long runs. The ones that did fire off good, I let them go, but then we ran them back down. By the time we caught them, Misha (Goikhberg) just ran right through us, unfortunately. He didn’t race us, he just decided that we didn’t need to race. I think that overall had we gone the distance, we were a seventh- or eighth-place car. Lap time-wise, we were sixth on the board most of the time when we were running by ourselves. Long-run speed was good, we just need to find some fire-off speed. It all starts on qualifying day, we’ve got to qualify better. With the way we qualified this week, I felt like it was going to be interesting, anyway. All our team cars ran about the exact same lap times, we just need a little bit for qualifying. I can’t thank everybody enough – Safety-Kleen and Victory Impact for getting us here, and Scott Sr., and Jr., and M1 Racecars. Everybody works so hard and for us to have our days ended like this is really unfortunate. We’ve run four of these things and been wrecked three times. I asked the team what I have to do to not get wrecked and they just said you need to be faster. We’ll just go to Detroit and try to make that happen.”

Next Up

Rounds five and six of the 2023 Big Machine Vodka Spiked Coolers TA2 Series takes TeamSLR to the downtown streets of the Motor City next weekend for a Saturday-Sunday doubleheader that’s part of this year’s IndyCar Series Detroit Grand Prix. The weekend on the 1.7-mile, nine-turn temporary street circuit begins Friday, June 2, with a pair of TA2 practice sessions at 9:50 a.m. and 1 p.m. EDT, respectively. Qualifying is set for 8:15 a.m. Saturday, June 3, followed by TA2 Race No. 1 at 10:35 a.m. TA2 Race No. 2 on Sunday, June 4, is set for an 11 a.m. start. Both races will be 60 minutes in length and will be live streamed via the Trans Am Series and SpeedTourTV channels on YouTube, with a delayed re-broadcast on MAVTV set for 8 p.m. EDT on Thursday, June 8.

-TeamSLR-