As the Trans Am series turned to its third event of the 2023 season, they took to the hills of the ever famous Road Atlanta track in Braselton, GA.  Showtime Motorsports driver Michele Abbate was really looking forward to the weekend as it is one of her favorite tracks in the nation.

“I absolutely LOVE this track.  It has everything I  love as a driver and it is just so much fun to push the limits here.  I can’t wait to take the #30 Ghost Energy x Lucas Oil Camaro out and see how we do,” Abbate said.  Unfortunately, her high hopes were halted right out the gate when she hit the track for her first test session.

Just a few laps into testing Abbate had a brake failure into turn 6 at about 130 mph.  Fortunately she reacted quick enough to keep the car off of the walls and stopped about 6 inches short from hitting the outside wall after traveling all the way through the gravel trap.

“It was definitely a scary moment.  Obviously I knew something wasn’t right, but there’s a point where your reactions can only take you so far and then you are just along for the ride.  I’m super grateful the gravel got me stopped before hitting the wall, I was actually in disbelief when I had finally come to a stop”, she explained.

The team made the repairs necessary and she was able to get back on track for the next practice session.  Unfortunately her qualifying session got black flagged on her fast lap and she was only able to secure P29 with her best recorded lap – another blow to her efforts.

With a damp track on race day Michele was ready to put her head down and work to get a better result at the checkered flag.  She made her way up to 16th by lap 8, but on lap 22 she had a suspension failure that forced her to retire from the race completely.

“Fortunately when the failure occured I was already exiting turn 5, otherwise it could’ve been really bad.  I’ve been lucky this weekend to get away without any major damage considering the circumstances, but it’s definitely not the result we were looking for.” she admits.

The broadcast of the weekend’s Road Atlanta race will air on MAVTV on Thursday, March 30 at 8pm EST and the Road To Glory show featuring the Showtime Motorsports team will air at 10pm EST.

The Big Machine Vodka SPIKED Coolers TA2 Series has a two-month hiatus before returning to the track May 26-29 at Lime Rock Park for the Trans Am Memorial Day Classic.