Ave Motorsports and Tony Ave Racing Seeking to Add to History at Virginia International Raceway

September 25, 2015

Ave Motorsports Adds Third TA Class Entry at Familiar Track with Past Victories

DANVILLE, Virginia (September 24, 2015) - Tony Ave Racing (TAR) teams and competitors running Ave Motorsports-built AR-1 chassis are ready for Round 9 of the 2015 Trans Am Championship at Virginia International Raceway, September 25-27.

Ave Motorsports and Tony Ave Racing are glad to be returning to the historic 17-turn, 3.27-mile road racing circuit. Familiarity with the track, including past victories, has given the team a positive feeling coming in to the race. A total of 54 cars will be
vying for victory in the 70-minute/31-lap/101.37-mile Trans Am race on Sunday, September 27.

An exciting announcement from TAR is the addition of a third TA class car that has been entered for the VIR race, the No. 7 Tony Ave Racing Corvette.

"We are entering a third TA car for Pro Formula Atlantic points leader Keith Grant to drive," said Tony Ave. "There were some things we wanted to try on a car, but not necessarily jeopardize our guys going for the points, so Keith is going to do that for us this weekend."

"VIR has definitely become a favorite for us, it's a beautiful racetrack, one that we have won several Trans Am races on with a few different drivers, as well as many SCCA races with Doug Peterson," added Ave. "This track and Road America are very similar and a lot of the information does crossover. We expect to be very strong at VIR, as we were last year with the dominant performance by Paul Fix there in the Trans Am race."

Fix, driver of the No. 4 StopFlex.com/TheCarCoach.com Corvette, is currently second in Championship points in the TA class as well as the defending VIR race winner. After suffering some engine performance issues and eventually being taken out in someone else's wreck at the last race at Road America, the car is back and ready for a full charge this weekend.

"We went through Paul Fix's car front to back, and replaced some body work so as to try to get some weight down as we make a run for the championship," stated Ave. "He is the defending race winner at VIR and really crushed everybody there last year so we are hoping to make some gains in the championship with him there."

Doug Peterson, driver of the No. 87 3-Dimensional.com Cadillac CTSV, is the defending champion and currently sits third in 2015 Trans Am championship points. With just four races remaining he'll be pushing hard to score points towards his quest for a third Trans Am championship.

 

"As to the Cadillac, I personally took it to VIR a week ago and tested it to try a few things out, mostly to try to improve the balance," added Ave. "We think we have made some gains. The car was a lot faster than last year's pole time so we look for Doug to be right at the front."

In addition to Tony Ave Racing's "house cars," numerous other TA competitors are competing at VIR this weekend in race cars built on AR-1 chassis constructed by Ave Motorsports. Road America race winner, Jim MacAleese, driver of the No. 03 McAlesse&Assoc/Jetco Engineering Corvette, hopes to return to the top step of the podium. His Wisconsin victory was the first win by a TA class driver other than Paul Fix or Amy Ruman in eight races so far this season. Additional AR-1 entries include Cliff Ebben, who drives the No. 36 Stumpf Ford/McMahon Group Mustang, David Pintaric in the No. 57 Kryderacing Corvette and Richard Grant, driver of the No. 30 Grant Racing Corvette.

In TA2 class competition, Tony Ave will be back driving the No. 70 Lamers Motor Racing Mustang, this time with a new repurposed fuel-injection engine, as he continues to push forward the Tony Ave Racing-run cars with new technology and added features.

"We are set to introduce yet another new engine in TA 2 this weekend," said Ave. "It will be the engine that I won Lime Rock with, only it has since had fuel injection added to it. It will be a last minute project, in association with AEM and Ilmor Engines, but we expect to be very competitive with it in the race. I will have my other car on standby as a spare if we should have any problems during the weekend."

Joe and Justin Napoleon will return to VIR with their TAR-prepared No. 90 and No. 91 (respectively) Turnkey Industries/Comm State Bank Camaros.

"The Napoleons have shown great determination and are focused on ending the season on a high note," added Ave.

On-track activities begin with practice session one on Friday, September 25th at 12:00 p.m. EDT and qualifying sessions for individual classes at 5:40 p.m. EDT. Saturday's on-track activities include a second practice session at 11:20 a.m. EDT with 2nd chance qualifying at 11:55 a.m. After a fifteen-minute warm-up session at 8:15 a.m. EDT on Sunday, September 27, the 31-lap/70-minute/101.37-mile race goes green at 12:50 p.m. EDT.

Follow Ave Motorsports on Twitter at @AveMotorsports and on Facebook at Facebook/AveMotorsports. You can also follow the action throughout the weekend at www.gotransam.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/gotransam and on Twitter at @gotransam. Live timing and scoring is available at www.gotransam.com/live-timing.

Follow Ave Motorsports on Twitter at @AveMotorsports and on Facebook at Facebook/AveMotorsports.com.