Aschenbach Kicks Off TruSpeed’s World Challenge Season In Style

March 25 – St. Petersburg, FL

Lawson Aschenbach helped TruSpeed Motorsports start its Pirelli World Challenge championship in style this weekend in St. Petersburg, FL, winning both races on the road, setting fastest race laps and starting Sunday’s race from pole. Aschenbach, driving the #1 PrivacyStar / Entrust Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, took the checkered flag in Saturday’s race after a tight battle all race long, but was found to have passed under a yellow flag and was retroactively issued a 60-second penalty after the race had finished. The penalty dropped him back to an 10th place finish, though he set the four fastest laps of the race, more than enough to earn him pole position for Sunday’s race two.

Sunday’s race was a much more straightforward affair for Lawson, as he turned his pole position into the race lead heading into turn one, commanded every restart with authority and led every lap of the event.

“Other than the minor issue during Saturday’s race, I’d say it was a flawless weekend for us,” Aschenbach said. “Our Porsche 911 GT3 was great in each session, although the track was tough for traffic. During the races, it was really survival mode, but our Porsche was just fast. It was definitely a good track for our car, and taking victory to start the season is a fantastic way to start the year. Hats off to TruSpeed Motorsports, the team did such a great job, and I can’t thank them enough. We had a bunch of guests from our partners PrivacyStar and Entrust, and it’s doubly satisfying to put on a good show in the race for them!”

TruSpeed brought a brace of Porsches to race at St. Petersburg, including the #46 GoPro/Mooresville Motorplex Porsche of Justin Marks, the #47 Three Stooges / TruSpeed Porsche of Tomy Drissi, and the #99 Kenda Tire / RaceStuff.com Porsche of Jeff Courtney.

Justin Marks, having qualified 10th for Saturday’s race, had a great start in race one and passed three cars in the opening laps before being contacted by James Sofronas and Dino Crescentini. Marks lost two laps for repairs, but went on to finish 11th in GT. By virtue of his fastest race lap on Saturday, Justin started Sunday’s race in 8th position, and climbed to 6th by the turn 4-5 complex on the opening lap before being pushed into the wall by another car. The damage to Marks’ left rear wheel prevented him from making it back to pit lane for repairs, so unfortunately his day was over early.

Tomy Drissi qualified 11th for Saturday’s race and overcame a penalty for jumping a restart to finish a strong 5th in the #47 Three Stooges / TruSpeed Porsche during the race. His fast race lap qualified him 9th for Sunday’s race two, and Tomy got away at the drop of the green flag for a tremendous start, gaining several positions on the first lap and a half. On lap two, he developed what would become a terminal mechanical problem with the car, and he retired on lap four.

Jeff Courtney, of Milwaukee, WI, qualified his #99 Kenda Tire / RaceStuff.com Porsche 911 GT3 Cup 13th for Saturday’s race, and drove an outstanding race to claim 6th place, in the process qualifying 10th for race two. Courtney went on to finish 7th in race two, scoring solid championship points in his debut for the team.

Team Manager Tyler Tadevic said, “It’s been a fantastic race weekend for all of us at TruSpeed. There have been a lot of moving parts, by running four cars in the GT class, there have been a lot of new faces in our garages this weekend. I couldn’t be more proud of the team for how they’ve come together; our guys worked around the clock to get our cars prepared and get them tuned for this circuit, and I’m happy to report that all four of our cars were fast this weekend. With the time we’re afforded between now and Long Beach, we’ll get back to our shop and work on dialing the cars in that much more for another street circuit. We’ve definitely got some unfinished business to take care of with Justin, but to leave St. Pete with a victory under our belt, it feels like we’ve got the championship defense off on the right foot.”

TruSpeed Motorsports races next on Friday, April 13 in support of the Toyota Long Beach Grand Prix.

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