Tony Ave Racing and Ave Motorsports Endure Tough Trans Am Weekend at Circuit of The Americas

November 9, 2015

Paul Fix Still in TA Title Contention Despite Early Mechanical Retirement While Leading; Doug Peterson Tops Tony Ave Racing's Finishers with Fifth-Place Result

AUSTIN, Texas (November 8, 2015) - Tony Ave Racing and Ave Motorsports endured a challenging Trans Am race at Circuit of The Americas (COTA) on Saturday where Doug Peterson led the team with a fifth-place finish after teammate and pole-winner Paul Fix suffered a mechanical failure in the No. 4 StopFlex.com/TheCarCoach.com Corvette while leading the race on lap 12.

Peterson's top five in the No. 87 3Dimensional.com Cadillac CTS-V was another strong showing for the new Ave Motorsports-built race car, but the Tony Ave Racing (TAR) team was looking for much more in the COTA race after setting the pace all weekend in practice and qualifying.

Fix drove the No. 4 StopFlex.com/TheCarCoach.com Corvette to his fifth TA-class Fast Five pole of the season on Thursday at COTA and shared the front row with second fastest qualifier Peterson. Fix led the race from the start before trouble set in.

"Paul was cruising in the lead when we had a freak bearing failure in the transmission," Ave said. "It's a piece that we have never broken before. I believe we are only 25 points back now, and there are 35 available at Daytona, so it is not over yet."

Fix came to Texas second in the TA point standings, just 11 points behind leader Amy Ruman with only the COTA round and next weekend's season finale at Daytona International Speedway left on the 2015 Trans Am schedule. While the COTA disappointment, coupled with Ruman's win in the race, will make taking the title at Daytona a much tougher task, Fix, Ave and the entire TAR team will do everything they can to win the championship.

"Our TA team has done an excellent job all year," Ave said. "Yesterday was even an example of that as Greg Smyre and his guys actually changed the transmission in just a matter of minutes after Paul's car got towed to the garage. Paul was ready to go back out but unfortunately the race was called few laps early. That's just an example of how hard our team works and how determined they are to build on our record of four championships in the last five years."

The scheduled 30-lap race on the 3.418-mile, 20-turn COTA road course was checkered on lap 24 after reaching the 70-minute time limit following three lengthy full-course caution periods.

Peterson battled in the lead pack the entire race and held on for fifth despite a setup that ultimately didn't hold up in the mixed conditions. Although not as severe as the showers that plagued the recent United States Grand Prix Formula 1 race at COTA, Trans Am competitors frequently dealt with rain and a damp track all weekend. Saturday morning's warm-up was run in rainy conditions that led Peterson and some others to roll the dice on the setup for the race.

"Doug gambled on a full wet setup with slick tires as the track appeared to be very slick," Ave said. "It was working well early, but as the track gripped up he barely held on and did a good job to be fifth."

The TAR team also fielded three TA2 class entries at COTA with Texas-based driver Justin Napoleon topping the trio with a 12th place finish in his No. 90 TurnKey Industries/CommState Bank Camaro after starting 17th.

"Justin got an amazing start," Ave said. "He held on through what was a crazy race with lots of carnage to grab a great finish."

Napoleon's father Joe Napoleon also scored a lead-lap finish in the TA2 class, bringing his No. 91 TurnKey Industries/CommState Bank Camaro home in 20th place.

Tony Ave himself started 10th in TA2 in his No. 70 Lamers Motor Racing Mustang but a first lap skirmish ultimately put an end to his early charge to the front.

"I actually had the car running well in the race, and was moving up easily, running a good pace," Ave said. "However, some left-front suspension damage from the first lap when I got forced over a big curb started to get worse and the upper A-Arm was nearly falling off. As I started to run up with the cars competing for the points title it was getting very difficult to drive, especially under braking. So, I waved Gar Robinson by and decided to pit to have a look at it rather than risk an incident that could affect the championship. After the crew saw what was wrong I took it back to the truck."

In addition to Tony Ave Racing's "house cars," several TA competitors competed at COTA this weekend in race cars built on AR-1 chassis.

Cliff Ebben topped Wednesday's opening practice, qualified fourth and nearly pulled off the TA win in the No. 36 Stumpf Ford/McMahon Group AR-1 Ford Mustang. He was leading only to fall to third on the final lap after a mechanical issue.

"Cliff had the race won and lost a cylinder on the last lap," Ave said. "It looks like a burnt plug wire."

Two competitors racing AR-1 chassis Corvettes were also in action at COTA. Richard Grant scored a ninth-place, lead-lap finish in his No. 30 Grant Racing Corvette while Jim McAleese dealt with his fair share of issues to place 13th in his No. 03 McAleese & Associates/Jetco Engineering Corvette.

The 2015 Trans Am Series concludes next weekend at Daytona International Speedway in the Bullet Liner Championship Weekend with an anticipated total entry of 72 Trans Am race cars.

Follow Ave Motorsports on Twitter at @AveMotorsports and on Facebook at Facebook.com/AveMotorsports. You can also follow the action throughout race weekends at www.GoTransAm.com, on Facebook at Facebook.com/GoTransAm and on Twitter at @GoTransAm. Live timing and scoring for races is available online at GoTransAm.com/live-timing and on the Race Monitor app.