Pair of Solid Top-Fives for TeamSLR in Detroit Race No. 2

TA2 Rookie Thad Moffitt Brings Home Season-Best Second-Place Result, Justin Marks Fourth; Mechanical Issue Foils Dillon Machavern’s Victory Bid

Overview:

Date: June 4, 2023

Event: Detroit Grand Prix (Round 6 of 13)

Series: Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli

Division: Big Machine Vodka Spiked CoolersTA2 Series

Location: Streets of Downtown Detroit

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

Format: 60 minutes

Weather: Sunny, low 70s

Winner: Connor Zilisch of Silver Hare Racing

TeamSLR:

• Thad Moffitt – Started 16th, Finished 2nd (Running, completed 41/41 laps)
• Justin Marks – Started 13th, Finished 4th (Running, completed 41/41 laps)
• Dillon Machavern – Started 6th, Finished 22nd (Mechanical, completed 20/41 laps)

Noteworthy: M1 Racecars was represented on the podium for the sixth time in the opening six races this season by virtue of TA2 rookie Thad Moffitt’s runner-up finish. In Saturday’s first race of the weekend, Rafa Matos of Peterson Racing brought home the runner-up finish. 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 Rafa 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.

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

“It feels really good to get my first TA2 podium, especially after getting through all that craziness in those final laps. Before that, I thought it would have been good to run seventh. Kind of what we’ve been able to run all year, just haven’t put a whole race together, so for us to finally put the whole deal together and come away with a second-place finish and have a solid points day to make up for our bad points day yesterday, it feels sweet. Hopefully, we can just keep running like this, be in position, then you see what happens at the end of these things – there’s no telling who’s going to win it until we come around to take the checkered flag. I feel we deserved this podium finish. We were good enough for it, and we’ll take it every time we can get it. I’m also glad that we didn’t tear up a racecar and finally made it through one of these things without losing a lap and blowing a tire or getting spun. We’ll keep our heads down, keep working, go to Mid-Ohio and try to win a race. That’s the first track on the schedule so far where I’ve actually raced before.”

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

“It was a bit of a survival race, to say the least. We were fighting being really tight, for some reason. We were tight in the first race yesterday and made some changes to it and it didn’t seem to help it very much. These street races, there’s a lot of attrition, there are a lot of people who make unforced errors, so we had to just make sure we let the race come back to us. We didn’t make any mistakes, took advantage of some other people’s problems and came away with a top-five finish. Could’ve been worse, could’ve been better.”

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

“It’s definitely unfortunate, the team did such a good job all weekend and we had a car – now that the whole race has shaken out, we probably had a car that could’ve won this thing just based on where we were running and the speed we were picking up throughout. We definitely have a faster long-run car than we have a sprint car and I think that probably would’ve been the right strategy today if we would’ve finished out. It’s unfortunate, but mechanical things happen, so that’s just racing. It was the power steering rack, itself. It was aggressive out there, we knew it was going to be. We kept relatively clean all weekend, but sometimes those little gremlins get you.”

Next Up

Round seven of the 2023 Big Machine Vodka Spiked Coolers TA2 Series takes TeamSLR to the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, for the Permco Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio June 23-25. The weekend begins with a TA2 test session on the 2.258-mile, 13-turn circuit the afternoon of Friday, June 23. TA2 practice kicks off Saturday’s festivities with qualifying set for that afternoon. The 45-lap, 70-minute TA2 race is set for 10:55 a.m. Sunday with live streaming provided by 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 29.

-TeamSLR-