Stokey ready for Mid-Ohio challenge

August 12, 2015

In 2014, Nathan Stokey battled to a tie for 10th in the TA2 class championship standings. He ran 6 of the 11 Trans Am Series events with a best finish of 4th at Road Atlanta. In 2015, Stokey has been patient waiting for his program to come together and is ready for his home race at Mid Ohio Sports Car Course.

After skipping most of the first half of the 2015 season, Stokey was back in the saddle of his Archer Racing #49 Camaro at Brainerd International Raceway. The Dover, OH native scored a 24th place overall finish at BIR with a 17th place finish in class.

"I found out what its like to be out of the car for seven months and jump back in." Stokey says. "Tommy(Archer) ran the car at Sebring but this was my first time out this season, and I never really felt racy the entire weekend. I believe I used the phrase (can't find my behind with both hands) several times during the weekend, haha."

Next up on the Trans Am schedule is Mid Ohio. "We have had that one circled on the calendar for a long time." said Stokey. "Being my home track, and I really like the technical nature of the course. I have worked with my coach and team mate Tommy Archer for several years now and he knows exactly how to extract more from me as a driver. One of the things he has been able to teach me, and something I take pride in, is hitting my marks and being consistent, and Mid Ohio demands that from you to do well there."

Nathan is looking forward to a better event this year. "We want to redeem ourselves after last year. 2014 was disappointing at Mid Ohio for us." Stokey recalls. "We didn't have the pace, and I made the decision to trick a little more speed into the car with a gear change for qualifying, it didn't help as much as we thought it would. As it turns out, it was a side note because we ran over a piece of debris during the first caution period and it cut the left rear tire. As the field came to green at the restart I hit pit lane to get it changed, but after that it was an uphill lap down battle. I'm definitely hoping for better luck at this years event!"

The remainder of the season is still a little up in the air. "We are going to Road America. I love that track." Stokey started 14th out of 19 TA2 cars and came home with an 8th place finish. It was his second best finish of 2014. "Its fast there and a lot of fun."

After Road America his plans are up in the air. "So much of racing is funding. We would like to run all the rest of the races this year. We will need to bring on a marketing partner on to do that, but we are working on that." A couple of good finishes at Mid Ohio and Road America might make that a little easier. For certain Stokey will have a lot of friends and family and fans at his home track to cheer him on at Mid Ohio.

A reminder. The TA2 race is on the Friday schedule for this event. GoTransAm.com will have live timing and scoring and regular updates all weekend long.