Austin, TEXAS – November 9, 2022 – New Hampshire’s Tom Sheehan made the long trip down to Texas worthwhile with what he called a fun drive in the final round of the 2022 Trans Am presented by Pirelli Championship season. One of the most experienced and skilful drivers on the circuit, Tom survived a minor shunt to finish in the Top 20 despite damage to the car slowing his progress over the final laps.
With a record field of 53 cars taking to the track at Circuit of The Americas for the TA2 Class race on Sunday morning, room to maneuver was always going to be at a premium. While the TA Class race had been caution free, the yellow flag was much in evidence in the TA2 race as drivers fought hard for position.
Tom qualified the No. 97 LTK Insulation Technologies Damon Racing Mustang at COTA in P19. The Ironman prospered in the early going, capitalizing on hard racing through the field, alongside crafty veterans. Tom displayed his impressive driving skills with good restarts to climb several places – running as high as P16. The LTK Damon Racing machine took damage to the front nose on the final restart. The air box and hood damage reduced air flow for the intake and cooling, the raising hood created extra drag reducing straight-line performance in the final laps. Tom was unable to continue hunting forward in the closing laps. The aero damage put the New Hampshirite on defense to the finish in the final round in Austin, Texas.
We spoke to Tom after the race and he was generous in his praise of the Championship winners and the other Mike Cope drivers, “Overall we came down to Texas to have a good time and race, have some fun and support my good friend Chris Dyson. He won his TA race and won the Championship. The silver lining is Thomas Merrill. It was an epic day for the Mike Cope guys coming from a tough circumstance in the VIR race and they brought home the TA2 Championship – that’s pretty sweet.”
Of his own experience he added, “For our day we went out and ran hard. We had some good restarts. Lots of banging and contact. We had some damage on the car, a bit of a parachute on the hood. My team gave me a great car, up to the light touch that resulted in a lot more damage than the actual contact, the front bumper of the Ford and the rear cover of the Dodge just don’t line up, it kind of sat on my hood instead of lining up. Good racing with the guys around me. It was disappointing to be a duck out there, in the final stint, but it happens in TA2. I was in the barrel of the gun!”
TV Broadcast:
TA/XGT/SGT/GT – Nov 13, 2:00p.m. ET on CBS Sports Network
TA/XGT/SGT/GT (Encore Presentation) – Nov 14, 12:00 a.m. ET on CBS Sports Network
TA2 – Nov 13, 6:00p.m. ET on CBS Sports Network
TA2 (Encore Presentation) – Nov 13, 10:30p.m. ET on CBS Sports Network
Keep up with Trans Am driver Tom Sheehan on social media – Facebook> page is Damon Racing; Instagram is TomSheehanTA97 and follow @TomTA2_97.
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