It was a double podium performance for Kyffin Simpson and TJ Speed as they extended both their Driver and Team Championship point lead. Taking on the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, Simpson led the way while Canadian Logan Cusson scored the second fastest lap of race three en route to a third-place result.
With qualifying results based on practice times on Friday morning due to a torrential downpour resulting in standing water on the Mid-Ohio circuit, the TJ Speed quartet lined up eighth, ninth, tenth and eleventh for the first wheel-to-wheel action of the weekend. Not ideal starting positions for the Team Championship leaders, but the goal remained the same as drivers entered Saturday’s first race of the weekend.
Starting deep in the thirteen-car field, it was Varun Choksey and Logan Cusson that earned the team’s best finishes in round seven as they each climbed up the order to finish sixth and seventh respectively in the seventeen-lap event. Baptiste Berthelot put three TJ Speed drivers in the top-eight with a solid drive to cross the line eighth while the FR Americas point leader and five-time race winner was classified in 12th and a lap down after contact on the opening laps.
With grids for round eight set from fastest laps in round seven, Simpson would start near the pointy end of the field and rebound from his disappointing result from the day prior. Finding himself back on the podium at the end of the seventeen-lap race, Simpson finished third to get his podium streak back on track. Cusson and Berthelot added top-ten results finishing ninth and tenth respectively as Varun Choksey ended his race in eleventh.
Simpson would start his quest for the race three win from the pole position but immediately fell to third by the end of the first circuit. With a yellow flag slowing the field and bunching the FR competitors back together for the restart, Simpson was able to slip back by into second as one of his competitors was forced to retire. Logan Cusson started in the eighth position and fell to tenth but immediately began an impressive drive forward to earn a top-five result with a fourth-place finish. Moving forward throughout the sixteen-lap race, Cusson scored the second fastest lap of the race and finished just two positions behind his TJ Speed teammate in fourth. Following the race and after penalties were assessed, Cusson was promoted to the third step of the podium, his second podium result of the season and put TJ Speed drivers in second and third. Berthelot gained five positions in the final wheel-to-wheel race of the weekend moving from twelfth to seventh while Varun Choksey finished just outside the top-ten.
“Good weekend again but we need to keep pushing,” expressed TJ Speed Owner Tim Neff. “We are halfway through the season and the pressure is on to keep performing.”
The next event for TJ Speed will take place July 15-18 at the Brainerd International Raceway in Brainerd, Minnesota.
