Raphaël Lessard, the 15-year-old driver from Saint-Joseph-de-Beauce, finished 3rd in his first ever race on the prestigious Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis on the occasion of the Circle City 100 Presented by CSX Play It Safe in the CRA Super Series. Qualified 4th, Raphaël started from 7th place as series’ rules call for reversed starting positions on the grid. Despite this situation, Raphaël quickly managed to make his way back among the leaders during this 100-lap race.
As he inched his way back to the top 3, a yellow flag, half-way through the race helped Raphaël secure the Toyota Camry #99 FRL Express/Team Coach Imaging / Toyota / JBLAudio/ CSX Transportationin 3rd place. The car prepared by David Gilliland Racing was perfect, like always.
Raphaël’s talent cannot be denied as he was fighting on the track with stock car experts such as Steve Wallace and Erik Jones, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, NASCAR Xfinity and Sprint Cup drivers.
Consequently, David Gilliland, Raphaël’s team owner, was very proud of his driver: “He has done a fantastic job on the track today, I am very proud of what he has been doing, especially since today’s race was very tough. He continues to impress us at every race, and we are very happy to have him on our team. We look forward to Raphaël winning many races with us!”
“The race today was very hard because I started on the inside. The inside line was a lot slower, but I had a good car for inside passes. I missed the last restart, so I lost 2 positions and was in 5th place behind Steve Wallace and my teammate Todd Gilliland. I had to fight with them, but I managed to pass them and leave the pack. In the end, I finished with a big gap” tells Raphaël Lessard on tonight’s race.
As for his objectives for next week’s race: “I want to perform as well as my last time on that track where I finished second behind Christopher Bell. Ideally I would like to do even better!”
Raphaël’s next race on the CARS Super Late Model Tour will be on July 30 at the Orange County Speedway in Rougemont, N.C..
Raphaël Lessard PR
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