Nashville, TENNESSEE – August 8, 2022 – The TA2 Music City Grand Prix has already become one of the most popular events in the Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli Championship calendar and the second annual running of the Nashville event didn’t disappoint. It was an exciting race that saw the Franklin Road Apparel drivers battle hard and gain track position before late incidents cost the Tennessee outfit a few places in the shadow of the checkered flag. Cameron Lawrence went into the race in P8 in the Drivers’ Championship with 119 points and the Texas based pilot qualified the No. 6 Franklin Road Apparel Showtime Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro in P10 in a time of 1:32:110. He improved his position early on the street circuit to claim P8 for most of the race before losing a few places late on to finish in P12. Nevertheless the 14 points he picked up for finishing in P12 put him on 133 for the season and kept him in the Top 10 in P9 in the provisional points table. Meanwhile Team Principal Ken Thwaits, who is much less familiar with the TA2 car, had a difficult time getting clean track in qualifying and started his No. 4 Mike Cope Camaro in P30. Ken had improved his position to P21 with some smooth driving when misfortune struck with just over ten minutes of track time remaining. Ken hit a wall on the exit to Turn 2 and the vehicle was wedged against the wall, trapping the driver in the car. Fortunately, Ken was okay but the yellow cautionary flag that the incident drew was still in place when the race finished. SpeedTour TV reporter Ben Cissell interviewed Franklin Road crew chief Gary Selix in the pit lane who explained, “This place is really hard on brakes, and we knew it was going to be a brake war coming here. The brakes started fading on him and so he was trying to roll the corners a bit, but that corner just got away from him. We will be back next year. Franklin Road!” he said defiantly. The weekend at his home venue did have a very worthwhile silver lining for Ken, and it was nearly gold. Franklin Road Apparel were co-sponsors of the Connor Mosack driven No. 28 Chevrolet Camaro which finished in P2 in the race. Mosack was extremely fast all weekend. He set the fastest lap in the race in 1:31:882 and held the lead through multiple restarts, but eventual winner Crews was never far behind. On Lap 23 Crews got by him and the final yellow flag meant the Charlotte based driver was denied another chance to get the pass. Nevertheless, Mosack was magnanimous in defeat when he spoke after the race, “It’s an unbelievable weekend. It’s so good to have Open Eyes on the car, Nacarato Truck Centers, and Franklin Road Apparel. It’s tough to be this close to the win again this year. I led a lot of laps both years, and unfortunately, couldn’t get it done. I wish we’d had the chance for the race to finish under green. Overall, it was still a great weekend for us and hopefully we can be back and win it next year.” “It’s been a great weekend,” stated Showtime boss Ken Thwaits. “It could have gone better for me personally but Franklin Road powers on. I can’t wait to get back behind the wheel of my TA car at the Glen!” Today’s action from Nashville can be seen on the prestigious CBS Sports Network on Saturday August 13 at 7:30pm ET with an encore presentation at 1:00am the following morning. TA2 drivers will be back in action next month, September 7 to 11, when the muscle car series reassembles at the legendary Watkins Glen for Round 10. That race is sponsored by Franklin Road Apparel and Ken will be back in the more familiar surroundings of his TA Class car with his sights set firmly on another podium finish. |