5th place finish for Raphaël Lessard in an action-packed race at Anderson Speedway in Indiana

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Raphaël Lessard, the young driver from Saint-Joseph-de-Beauce, finished in 5th place at the 51st edition of the CRA/ARCA Redbud 400 race at Anderson Speedway in Indiana on Saturday night. In a hard fought 400-lap race, Lessard, who was in the Top-2 for most of the second half of the race, and until the very end, was forced to concede a place on the podium with under two laps to go.
 
Several heated competitions took place through the last 3 laps, when drivers aggressively battled for a chance at victory. Following a hard contact with Stephen Wallace, which Raphaël had finally overtaken, Raphaël had issues regaining control of his car, resulting in a disappointing 5th place finish for the driver who had been in the Top-3 the majority of the entire race.
 
The caliber of the drivers on the track was demonstrated during the qualification session when the Top-3 drivers – among them Lessard – all qualified within a thousand of a second. Lessard started 3rd, behind the wheel of the Toyota Camry #99 FRL Express/Toyota-TRD/JBLAudio prepared by David Gilliland Racing. Leading the field at times, and a serious contender for the win from the half way point, it is with disappointment that he settled for a 5th place finish.
 
Fifteen yellow flags set the pace for this action-packed race as Raphaël battled with competitors and incidents caused by slower cars. At some point during the race, in order to avoid an incident, Lessard chose to go off into the grass.
 
At every restart, the Toyota Racing Development (TRD) driver was in full control of his car, placing himself as the driver to beat. Never losing sight of the first position, he had a few good fights on the track with drivers as eager to win as him.
 
“At the beginning of the race everything was going great. I started from 3rd position and stayed there for a while. During restarts early in the race, I was always starting from the inside line, which was not working out for me, so I dropped to 7th position, yet climbed back up quickly. We had a different pit-stop strategy than the other cars on the track. This strategy paid off as when the drivers entered the pits, I was able to lead the race for several laps, even if the other cars were quicker than me because of their new tires,” said Raphaël.
 
“During 50 laps, I was 2nd behind Stephen Wallace and I was quicker than him but wasn’t able to overtake him as it is very difficult to pass on this track. I wanted the pass to be clean so I was waiting. He closed the door on me a few times, preventing me from passing. With one or two laps to go, once I had finally managed to pass him, Wallace knocked me hard, and I had trouble controlling my car from then on. I tried to come back but he was too far gone and I lost a few positions. Before this incident, the car was very fun to drive, thanks to David Gilliland Racing, my crew chief Seth Smith. Also, many thanks to my parents, my agent Robert Desrosiers, FRL Express and Toyota.”
 
One race added to Lessard’s 2017 schedule
A 20th SLM race has just been added to Raphaël Lessard’s 2017 race schedule and it happens to be his next race. Raphaël will participate in the 2nd annual Pro Stock / Super Late Model National Championship at Seekonk Speedway in Seekonk, Massachusetts on Wednesday July 12, 2017. It will be for Lessard a second race in a row offering $10,000 in prize money to the winner.

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