Tony Ave Racing and Ave Motorsports Shooting for Fourth-Straight Lime Rock Park Trans Am Victory in Saturday's Next Dimension 100

May 21, 2015

Trans Am Returns To Lime Rock This Memorial Day Weekend
for Saturday's Doubleheader

LAKEVILLE, Connecticut (May 20, 2015) - Tony Ave Racing, Ave Motorsports, and drivers Paul Fix and Doug Peterson, will be shooting for the team's fourth-consecutive Trans Am Series victory at Lime Rock Park this Memorial Day Weekend in the 3Dimensional Services Next Dimension 100, May 22-23.

Fix, who drives the No. 4 Classic Tube/StopFlex/Car Coach/Royal Purple Corvette, won both last year's Trans Am race and the 2013 event at Lime Rock. Peterson captured the opening round of 2012's Memorial Day Weekend Doubleheader and is competing this year in the No. 87 3Dimensional.com Corvette, the same company that is the title sponsor of this weekend's race.

Team principal Tony Ave - Director of Ave Motorsports and Tony Ave Racing, and a champion driver and constructor - also scored a Lime Rock Trans Am victory in 2010.

"Paul has won the last two races at Lime Rock with us, I won in 2010 and still hold the track record," Ave said. "Our team has worked unbelievably hard since the last race at Road Atlanta, and it helps when you know you have Paul, who has been completely dominant at Lime Rock, going for a three-peat."

Fix and Peterson finished second and third, respectively, in the top-tier TA class two weeks ago at Road Atlanta.

"When Doug starts showing the type of confidence that he is now, he usually starts ticking off the wins," Ave added.

Ave himself brings a lot of confidence and familiarity to Lime Rock. In addition to his 2010 Trans Am win and track record, he has an amazing career winning percentage on the 1.53-mile track.

"I have always run well at Lime Rock as a driver, winning roughly 50 percent of the races I have driven in there," Ave noted. "My first win was in 1992 in the Oldsmobile Pro Series. I locked up my first professional road racing championship that day."

In addition to the TA-class "house cars" for Fix and Peterson, Tony Ave Racing is also fielding a pair of TA2 division Camaros for Joe Napoleon and his son, Justin Napoleon. The TA2 division will run its own feature race on Saturday, the 3Dimensional Services Muscle Car Challenge, before the Next Dimension 100 for the TA class.

Justin Napoleon competes in the No. 90 Camaro, while his father runs and identical No. 91 Camaro, both backed by Turnkey Industries and CommState Bank.

"I am very impressed with the Napoleons performance so far, competing at tracks they have never seen and in their rookie pro racing seasons," Ave said. "They will be regular top-10 contenders for the balance of the season, and if we can improve their qualifying setups to their liking, top-five finishes are there for the taking."

Ave is also part of the TA2 field this year as a full-season driver in the No. 70 Lamers Motor Racing/Highpoint Farms Mustang.

In addition to Ave's own ride, and the other four Tony Ave Racing entries, several competitors will be competing in Ave Motorsports-built AR-1 chassis race cars in the TA division at Lime Rock.

Competitors running AR-1 chassis include David Pintaric (No. 57 Kryderacing/WRP Investments Corvette), Jim McAleese (No. 03 Jetco Engineering Corvette), Cliff Ebben (No. 36 Stumpf Ford/McMahon Group/Lamers Motor Racing Mustang) and Claudio Burtin (No. 7 Foametix Corvette).

The Memorial Day Weekend event is annually the biggest of the year at Lime Rock, and Trans Am is returning as the holiday headliner after a September race date at the track last year.

"We raced on Memorial Day weekend for years at Lime Rock and it's great to be back here again," Ave said. "I'm hoping the series can continue working with the circuit to build a long term and successful event that everyone looks forward to as much as I do."

Round 4 of the 2015 Trans Am Series commences with two practice sessions and "Fast Five Qualifying" for the event on Friday, May 22. Both races in Saturday's Doubleheader are 100.5 miles in length, which equates to 67 laps around the Lime Rock road course. The TA2 field is scheduled to take the green flag at 1:00 p.m. EDT while the TA class race begins at 3:15 p.m. EDT.

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.

The Lime Rock Trans Am races will air in the coming weeks on the CBS Sports Network. The TA-class Next Dimension 100 airs Saturday, June 6, at 12 p.m. EDT while the 3Dimensional Services Muscle Car Challenge TA2-class races will be telecast exactly one week later on Saturday, June 13 at 12 p.m. EDT.