{"id":2752,"date":"2020-11-07T14:54:17","date_gmt":"2020-11-07T19:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/?p=2752"},"modified":"2023-05-04T13:32:28","modified_gmt":"2023-05-04T17:32:28","slug":"said-captures-second-trans-am-pole-in-cota-qualifying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/07\/said-captures-second-trans-am-pole-in-cota-qualifying\/","title":{"rendered":"Said Captures Second Trans Am Pole in COTA Qualifying"},"content":{"rendered":"
Trans Am drivers go flat out at Circuit of The Americas in tight qualifying\u00a0<\/em>\n<\/div>\n
AUSTIN, Texas (7 November 2020) \u2013 Boris Said collected his second consecutive Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli pole position on Saturday, leading qualifying for Sunday\u2019s race at Circuit of The Americas.\u00a0(Stream Race Live)<\/a><\/p>\n

Said ran a fast lap of 2:08.747-seconds in the No. 2 Dodge Challenger prepared by Pancho Weaver. In his only prior 2020 start, Said captured the pole and finished second in the opening round of the VIR doubleheader. He has 12 career poles in the series.]<\/p>\n

\u201cPancho Weaver builds an unbelievable car,\u201d said the 2002 TA champion. \u201cIt\u2019s just a blast driving these Trans Am cars. They\u2019re so much fun with all the horsepower, without the ABS and other nonsense that the other cars run. These are old-school cars with a lot of horsepower \u2013 regular gated shifting like a NASCAR and 180 mph on the back straight. Circuit of The Americas is a Formula One-grade circuit and it\u2019s an unbelievable place to race. I pitted a lap early today. I had a little bit left, but I decided to save the tires.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defending series champion Ernie Francis Jr. was second, .195-seconds back with a lap of 2:08.082-seconds in the No. 98 ZF Custom Concepts Ford Mustang, with his session cut five minutes short when he pulled off course due to a cut right-rear tire.<\/p>\n

Chris Dyson will start from the inside of the second row, 2:08.161-seconds in the No. 20 Plaid Ford Mustang, joined by Tomi Drissi, 2:11.995-seconds in the No. 8 Lucas Oil Chevrolet Camaro. Drissi was not happy with the car\u2019s handling, feeling like the bodywork was flapping throughout his run.<\/p>\n

Amy Ruman was fifth, with a best time of\u00a0\u00a02:11.995-seconds in the No. 23 McNichols Corvette, followed by Greg Pickett, who earned the Trans Am West Coast Championship pole with a lap of 1:084-seconds in the No. 6 Pickett Racing Ford Mustang. Pickett is the lone driver entered in both the National and West series this weekend. It was the 28th<\/sup>\u00a0pole of a career that dates back to 1975.<\/p>\n

TA2\u00ae presented by AEM championship leader Mike Skeen captured his fourth pole position of the season, the fifth of his career, running a lap of 2:12.926-seconds in the No. 77 Liqui Moly\/Turn 14 Ford Mustang.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lot of strategy in qualifying,\u201d said Skeen. \u201cObviously, we have to use our tires for the whole distance. There is a little bit of tire degradation with these cars if we\u2019re abusing them for the whole time. You try to get it done in as few laps as possible in qualifying. Rafa (Matos) had a problem. He has had a lot of pace all weekend, but he pulled off after his out lap. I know he will have a lot of pace in the race. This puts us in a good spot to get a good start. Hopefully, we can keep in clean and get through Turn 1, and then go out and collect some points. But we\u2019re always out there to win races. We want to collect as many trophies as we can. But at the same time, we\u2019ve got to be careful and keep the car clean to get to the finish and get some points.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cameron Lawrence was second (2:13.586-seconds) in the No. 8 3-Dimensional Services Group Ford Mustang. He was followed by Matos, who pitted after his out lap for an adjustment in the pits. Matos returned in the closing minutes and turned the third fastest-lap, 2:14.238-seconds, despite facing throttle issues\u00a0in the No. 7 Silver Hare Racing Camaro.<\/p>\n

Champ Car legend Paul Tracy turned in the fourth-best lap, 2:14.589-seconds in the No. 87 3-Dimensional Mustang. He will be making his third Trans Am start, having raced twice with the series in 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cQualifying was good,\u201d Tracy said. \u201cWe had a lot of problems through the weekend\u00a0with every session there was something going on with the car. We finally got it sorted out for qualifying. It was my first time feeling the car under full power. I put a decent lap together, it wasn’t the perfect lap, but pretty happy to be fourth overall. I think a top three was on the table but Rafa (Matos) \u2013 who’s been fast all weekend \u2013 came out and jumped in front of us. But, I can’t be disappointed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Texas native CJ Cramm will start on pole for the TA2\u00ae West Coast Championship in the No. 04 CedarCreekBrewery\/EurekaEnergy Chevrolet Camaro.<\/p>\n

Making his XGT debut, Dan Knox won the pole with a lap of 2:09.224-seconds in the No. 80 Lone Star Racing ACS Manufacturing Mercedes AMG GT3. He was followed by Jason Daskalos, 2:09.426-seconds in the No. 7 Vintage 423 Audi R8 Ultra, and Justin Oakes, 2:10.951-seconds in the No. 11 G-Speed Corvette. Point leader Ken Thwaits, a three-time pole winner in 2020, will line up fourth in the No. 5 Franklin Road Apparel Audi Ro GT3 Ultra.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe appreciate the opportunity to race in Trans Am,\u201d said Knox, who has co-driven with Skeen in a Mercedes for Lone Star in IMSA competition. \u201cEveryone has been wonderful to us, and we\u2019re excited to be here. We had a perfect car for qualifying. It\u2019s the best the car\u2019s run all week. It\u2019s a brand-new car \u2013 this is the first time it\u2019s been out on the track.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coming off his first career victory in SGT, Adrian Wlostowski led qualifying for the first time, capturing the pole with a lap of 2:17.249-seconds in the No. 96 F.A.S.T Auto Racing Ford Mustang.<\/p>\n

\u201cCOTA is one of the tracks we know pretty well, we’ve been here three times,\u201d said the New York City-based competitor. \u201cWe are 26 points back from (Lee) Saunders so all of our attention coming into this weekend was to win qualifying. We treated qualifying like it was the race. We put so much attention in getting those three extra bonus points. Now we will reset and focus on tomorrow’s race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Texan Lou Gigliotti ran 2:18.778-seconds on his final lap in the No. 28 G2 Performance Corvette, followed by Aaron Pierce, 2:20.247-seconds in the No. 26 Logical Systems\/Sam Piece Chevy Corvette. Class point leader Lee Saunders had a part failure and will start seventh.<\/p>\n

Natalie Decker scored her first career SGT West pole of the season, 2:25.857-seconds in the No. 04 N29 Technologies Audi R8 GT4.<\/p>\n

In GT, Billy Griffin captured his first pole on his final lap, running 2:22.069-seconds in the No. 14 Griffin Auto Care\/Sheehan\u2019s Towing Ford Mustang. Austin\u2019s Sean Young was second and earned the Trans Am West pole, running 2:23.052-seconds in the No. 74 Corsair Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4. Tim Horrell, a five-time GT pole winner this season, was third in the No. 45 Breathless Racing Porsche GT4 Clubsport.<\/p>\n

The TA2\u00ae powered by AEM race is set to start at 11 a.m. CT, with 30 laps or 70 minutes. The TA\/XGT\/SGT\/GT event starts at 1:05 p.m. CT. Both races will be live streamed on the Trans Am by Pirelli Racing App available for download here:\u00a0https:\/\/nagrasports.app.link\/lIQjdAuxq7<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trans Am drivers go flat out at Circuit of The Americas in tight qualifying\u00a0 AUSTIN, Texas (7 November 2020) \u2013 Boris Said collected his second consecutive [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2753,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2752"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2754,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2752\/revisions\/2754"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}