Up and Down Day for TeamSLR in Detroit Race No. 1

Dillon Machavern Earns Solid Top-Five; Justin Marks Rebounds for Near-Top-10; Early Cut Tire Costs TA2 Rookie Thad Moffitt Shot at His Season’s Best Finish

Overview

Date: June 3, 2023

Event: Detroit Grand Prix (Round 5 of 13)

Series: Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli

Division: Big Machine Vodka Spiked Coolers TA2 Series

Location: Streets of Downtown Detroit

Layout: 1.7-mile, nine-turn temporary street circuit

Format: 60 minutes

Weather: Sunny, low 80s

Winner: Brent Crews of Nitro Motorsports

TeamSLR:

Dillon Machavern – Started 8^th, Finished 5^th (Running, completed 39/39 laps)

Justin Marks – Started 19^th, Finished 13^th (Running, completed 39/39 laps)

Thad Moffitt – Started 17^th, Finished 23^rd (Running, completed 37/39 laps)

Noteworthy: M1 Racecars was represented on the podium for the fifth time in the opening five races this season as Rafa Matos of Peterson Racing brought home the runner-up finish today. Last Saturday at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Connecticut, Mike Skeen drove his Peterson Racing entry to a runner-up finish. M1 Racecars swept the podium at the season-opening race at Sebring (Fla.) International Raceway with the race-winning Matos, his Peterson Racing 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:

“As we expected, the race kind of came to us. We had more speed in the long runs than we did in the short sprints. That’s how we always design the car, that’s how we want the setup to be. Unfortunately, that sprint at the end hurt us a little bit. My fastest lap was my last lap of the race and I was starting to get better and better and better, but we just ran out of time there. It was super interesting. It’s tight, and those restarts made me nervous. It’s hard to pick a line through (turns) three and four because it just wasn’t consistent, there wasn’t like a straightforward, ‘This is the line to go for.’ You’d think the outside would almost work better because then you’re switching back to a righthander, so that was the biggest struggle, just making sure you didn’t get balled up on those restarts. But it was really fun. Our car was strong – I think we had pace to be on the podium, we ran a fast enough lap. But I think we’re in the mix for tomorrow, so we should be pretty strong. It was cool, I just wish we had more time out there.”

Justin Marks, Driver No. 8 Trackhouse Chevrolet Camaro for TeamSLR:

“Today was a challenge with the balance of the car. I made a mistake and went off and basically went to the back of the pack and had to come back through there. I think after that, really, just paid attention to where the handling was and started thinking about what we’re going to need for tomorrow. We were still knocking on the door of the top-10, but I think there’s a lot more in the car and in me. It’s a really, really tricky place, and it was a little bit of a race of attrition, which I expected. We definitely want a car that’s going to stay underneath you and one that you’re not going to make mistakes in. But it was a good learning experience. Tomorrow is going to be a long race, so we’re just going to give it everything we got. Today, people were pretty aggressive. If you can go fast and not make mistakes – obviously, I made a mistake today – these races really have a tendency to come back to you because a lot of people don’t know how to dial it back and be smart when they race. That’s going to be my challenge tomorrow, just making sure we can go as fast as we can while keeping the car underneath me. We have a decent starting spot, not a great starting spot, but we have all the opportunity in the world to put a good race together and get a good finish for the team.”

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

“The first street course for me – man, this is really cool being here on the streets of Detroit. We were really coming at the beginning of the race. Before the first caution, we came from 19^th to 13^th or thereabouts. We were coming on strong there and I felt like we were really fast, driving away from the people behind us. I guess we got into the concrete wall just enough to cut the left-front tire but give us no body damage, which I don’t understand at all. So we blew the left front and had to pit under green, lost a lap, and you’re kind of in a box in this series once you lose a lap because there’s no lucky dog, no free pass. After that it was a matter of trying not to get wrecked so I can run tomorrow. The car’s really fast. We’re a little tight in the front, but you saw how good Dillon ran and I felt like we could’ve been there right with him. I was looking for a really good day, thinking we could at least get up to seventh or eighth before I cut the left-front tire. Looking forward to tomorrow, the car’s in one piece, which is more than half the field can probably say, so we’ll try again.”

Next Up

Round six of the 2023 Big Machine Vodka Spiked Coolers TA2 Series brings TeamSLR back Sunday for the second half of this year’s Detroit Grand Prix doubleheader on the downtown streets of the Motor City. TA2 Race No. 2 on the 1.7-mile, nine-turn temporary street circuit, scheduled for 75 minutes in duration, begins at 11 a.m. EDT 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-