Abbate Earns Top 5 & Cool Move of the TA2 Race at Watkins Glen
The Trans Am series took on the iconic Watkins Glen track this past weekend. “This is one of my favorite tracks on our schedule,” driver Michele Abbate shared as she anticipated a great weekend was ahead.
The Nitro Motorsports team moved Abbate into a different team chassis and she was looking forward to making some progress with the upgrade. “The team and I decided we should try a proper stock car seat with a custom seat insert, and this is something I haven’t had before”, she shared. Driver comfort is very important and this is the answer when you are looking to get the best fit in a race seat.
Unfortunately, due to the lack of experience Michele had with this type of process there were some fitment issues with her seating position, but the Nitro Motorsports team worked hard to get her as comfortable as possible throughout the weekend.
Abbate worked hard to make the best of what she had; making her personal best lap time of a 1:54.5 in qualifying alotting for P10 in class and P22 overall out of 27.
“We definitely have our work cut out of for us in the race, but I plan to stay focused and let the race come to me”, Michele explained.
When the green flag dropped Abbate worked to conserve her tires and drive a smart race. “I knew we had a lot of ground to make up, but unfortunately I have to drive cautiously to avoid any type of contact because of our limited budget”, Michele explains, as it is not an ideal position to be in for any driver.
Abbate made her way up to P4 in class, with 3rd position in sight, after passing 4 cars on lap 24 exiting turn 11. Unfortunately, as she entered turn 1 on lap 25 there was contact from behind which sent her spinning at 100+mph. She was able to complete a full 360, earning the Coolest Move of the Race Award and only losing the spots she had just gained.
Michele stayed focused and raced her way back up to a P5 finish in the Pro Am category without major damage to her #30 GHOST Energyx Heat Wave Visual Mustang. You can catch the MAVTV highlights show of the CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series race on Thursday, August 29 at 8:00 p.m. ET.
