{"id":7365,"date":"2024-07-29T09:22:02","date_gmt":"2024-07-29T13:22:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/?p=7365"},"modified":"2024-07-30T09:23:22","modified_gmt":"2024-07-30T13:23:22","slug":"sean-creech-motorsport-looking-for-more-success-at-road-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/29\/sean-creech-motorsport-looking-for-more-success-at-road-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Sean Creech Motorsport looking for more success at Road America"},"content":{"rendered":"

2022 IMSA Prototype Challenge champion Tonis Kasemets to join team veteran Jo\u00e3o Barbosa in the No. 33 Ligier JS P217<\/em><\/p>\n

JUPITER, Fla. (July 29, 2024) \u2013 Sean Creech Motorsport (SCM) returns to Road America this weekend with a new face behind the wheel of the No. 33 SCM Focal One Ligier JS P217, as Tonis Kasemets teams up with veteran Jo\u00e3o Barbosa for the IMSA SportsCar Weekend.<\/p>\n

SCM owns the final LMP3 class track record at Road America, set last year when the LMP3 cars were still a part of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Kasemets, 50, has a lengthy and extremely successful record in the class \u2013 and he hopes that translates to this new ride, as he remains with Ligier but now drives the JS P217 in the LMP2 class.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a little bit of a different animal,\u201d said Kasemets. \u201cI\u2019ve never driven an LMP2 car, but I love the class. So this will be a new chapter, a new vehicle to try. But luckily, I’ll do it in the Road America, which I know really well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally from Estonia, Kasemets moved to the U.S. in 1993 and quickly earned a reputation for competing in a multitude of different series, including SCCA events, the open wheel junior series USF2000, Formula Atlantic and Formula Ford 2000 \u2013 culminating in five CART Champ Car World Series races in 2006. Kasemets added sports car racing to his repertoire in 2007 when he competed in his first IMSA Prototype Lites race in the Elan DP02, and later competed in what is now the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge. In 2010, he drove in four USF2000 races for Oconomowoc, Wis. based Pabst Racing, starting a relationship with the team that continues to this day.<\/p>\n

Kasemets has worked with Pabst Racing in the USF Pro Championships for 23 years, helping to engineer the team to three team championships and two driver championships, all while continuing his own racing career. In 2022, Kasemets dominated the IMSA Prototype Challenge series (now the VP Racing Challenge) behind the wheel of a Ligier JS P320, taking four of five victories, with podiums in all five races. He continued in the Ligier JS P320 last year, contesting three IMSA SportsCar Championship races. Now he turns his attention to a new challenge \u2013 his first race in an LMP2 car.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s wonderful to have an opportunity like this come along when you are half a century old and they call you and they want you to be part of a team,\u201d said Kasemets. \u201cI do think some of the experience with the LMP3 car will translate, so hopefully that will help me to get on pace more quickly. I know a lot about the Ligier mechanically, how the cars are built, and my relationship with the factory is good. And since I moved here, Road America has become my favorite track, I know every rock can crack there. So it will just be a matter of improving my driving and getting used to the team. Last week\u2019s test went well, everyone is really pulling in the same direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barbosa appreciated the chance to take the Ligier to Road America for the first time, and the chance to get to know Kasemets ahead of the race weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re always learning with this car,\u201d said Barbosa. \u201cWe had some issues, so it was a good chance to get those out of the way before the race weekend. There was plenty of good data that will help us understand this car better, to keep improving. Of course we\u2019re going to miss Lance this weekend, but it\u2019s good to have a driver as experienced as Tonis, especially given his relationship with Ligier.\u201d<\/p>\n

SCM thanks partner Focal One for its continued support.<\/p>\n

The IMSA SportsCar Weekend race takes the green flag Sunday at 3:10 p.m. Eastern. The race will be broadcast live in the U.S. on Peacock, and on IMSA\u2019s YouTube channel, with a rebroadcast on CNBC at 6:00 p.m. International viewers can watch via IMSA.tv, with IMSA Radio also available at IMSA.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2022 IMSA Prototype Challenge champion Tonis Kasemets to join team veteran Jo\u00e3o Barbosa in the No. 33 Ligier JS P217 JUPITER, Fla. (July 29, 2024) \u2013 [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7366,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-sean-creech-motorsports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7365","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=7365"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7367,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7365\/revisions\/7367"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}