Andretti's success continues at NJMP

June 12, 2014

 (Team Release) Round 5 of the 2014 Trans Am Championship was an unexpected surprise for Adam Andretti and his ECC Motorsports team. They scored a pole for the third straight race at a track Andretti would have said before qualifying he was not comfortable on. He then followed that up with a second place finish and a spot on the podium with his teammate A.J. Henriksen for the first time ever.

"Its hard to put into words how special Sunday was at NJMP. First of all we shocked even ourselves the run for a third consecutive pole and a new track record,” Andretti said. "Then to be able to share the podium with A.J. after a tough 100 miles was outstanding. It was a huge day for ECC Motorsports and one I will never forget."

With the bonus points for winning the pole position and for leading a lap to go with his second place finish, Andretti is second in Trans Am TA2 championship points, just 30 out of the lead. Along with the third pole in a row, Andretti has now finished on the podium four consecutive races.

Andretti took the lead at the start of the race and began another long battle with defending class champion, Cameron Lawrence for the lead. Andretti lead much of the first half of the race before the two leaders became tangled up in traffic and Lawrence slipped into the lead.

"We just had a day where timing in traffic just didn't want to cooperate with us, Our car and the 1 car seemed about equal today. The difference was when and where each of us caught slower cars. NJMP is a very challenging place to overtake and very difficult to get out of the way of faster cars,” Andretti explained. "This is how racing is, though. Sometimes you get the breaks. Sometimes you don't, We certainly are not hanging our heads about our performance."

Had you asked Andretti how the race was going before qualifying he might not have given the impression that a podium and a pole were coming for his #44 team. "We struggled all weekend long until it counted on Sunday. I never really can say I got a grasp on this track. It's a challenging layout and the grip level seemed to be every changing,” said Andretti.

The grip level increased significantly for Andretti's qualifying run. After final practice Andretti was third on the speed chart, a full second off the leader. When the #44 rolled onto the Thunderbolt race surface for qualifying the track had changed and came to Andretti. "Hoosier does a great job with the different tire compounds. Talking to each other after the TA qualifying and all the fresh rubber was when the track felt best to me,” Andretti explained.

"We were sure a little shocked that we scored another pole. And again ECC Motorsports qualified both cars in the top five. A.J.'s qualifying run made it another great memory,” marked Andretti.

Next up is the world famous high speed of Road America in Wisconsin. "I made my Trans Am debut there about a year ago there and I've always enjoyed competing at Road America. Truly one of the elite race tracks in the world,” Andretti adds, "A.J. is entered at Road America as well. So, we would love to both improve on NJMP by one position."

See Adam Andretti and ECC Motorsports continue their championship chase at Road America on Saturday June 21, 2014.