Toyota Racing Development (TRD) driver Raphaël Lessard completed his first ever ARCA race with a Top-15 finish at the Kentuckiana Ford Dealers 200. The 200-lap event took place this Sunday, April 30 on the Salem Speedway, in Indiana.
Raphaël, driving his #25 Musselman’s BIG CUP Apple Sauce-Toyota-Camry prepared by Venturini Motorsports, qualified 8th during the practice session on Saturday. Unfortunately, heavy rain prevented the series from having a proper qualification session, which forced officials to take the best lap of the practice session to determine the starting grid.
So, with only one practice session under his belt, Raphaël ended up starting in P7 after a competitor had to retire to the back of the grid due to a penalty. He got off to a good start making it to the Top 5 , until a few laps in, when a packer located in the right front spring fell off. From this moment on, the car was not responding properly.
Lessard started to fall behind, and to his disadvantage, the lack of yellow flags made things worse. Finally, at lap 93, after having lost 3 laps, the team decided to pit Raphaël during a green flag for a change of tires on the right side. It was a bold decision, yet the team felt it was the right thing to do, considering he was already a few laps down. Although he lost an additional 4 laps while in the pits, he managed to come back strong and with an advantage while other drivers were managing their worn-out tires.
At lap 132, an incident involving Raphaël and a competitor generated a yellow flag and every driver on the track, including Raphaël, came back for a fresh set of tires. Returning on track with four fresh tires, but with a misaligned car due to the incident, and still bothered by his suspension problem, Lessard fought one last battle to finish the race in 13th place.
“I had fun on the track, and I learned a lot today. All in all, I am happy with the experience although I would have preferred a better outcome. Nevertheless, I learned a lot about pit stops in ARCA, how races are managed and how tires get worn. It is a shame we had that suspension problem early in the race. I fought the car throughout the entire race, as if a parachute was holding it back, and causing understeer. But we will certainly come back stronger! I want to thank my crew chief Dave Leiner and his crew at Venturini Motorsports and Toyota-TRD for their continuous support and hard work.”
Throughout the race, commentators saluted Raphaël’s courage to make his ARCA debut on this challenging track. Some will say, that if you can make it through the Salem Speedway and the 33-degree banking in its turns, you can race anywhere. Many years ago, drivers who wanted to compete in the Indy 500 had to first race the Salem Speedway to showcase whether or not they had the necessary talent!
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