YMMT

Michele Abbate takes the championship for the 2015 SCCA US Majors Tour Western Conference Division. Photo by Michele Abbate

Fourth of July weekend marked the final rounds of the SCCA US Majors Tour Championship series for the 2015 Western Conference Division. The rounds were held at Portland International Raceway in Portland, Oregon.
It was Abbate’s first time at the PIR track and naturally faced some challenges as the schedule did not have any practice sessions.

FRS carbon fiber fenders

As the large race group took the green flag, Michele faced one of the toughest starts she has ever encountered. “I’ve never seen so many cars make contact into turn 1”, she stated. Abbate was able to steer clear but found herself in 3rd coming out of turn 2.

Abbate felt the car was lacking power, but wasn’t certain because nothing seemed abnormal. Keeping consistent with her lap times, and focusing on learning the track, she was able to come across the checkered in 2nd place, even though the engine was getting hot. The team worked with what they had, and installed a new radiator shroud and fan provided by CounterSpace Garage with hopes of running cooler temperatures for Sunday’s race. In addition, with help from Bill at Delicious Tuning, they also ran some data logging and discovered the cams were not working properly, and were only getting about 1 -1.5 degrees of timing.

“It is absolutely heartbreaking to be in the midst of taking the lead of your last race, and having to let off because of temperature issues,” Michele stated. As she lightened up on the throttle and helped the car breathe at a lower RPM, the gap widened, but she stayed consistent and actually was running similar lap times to the leaders.

As Abbate entered the last turn on the bumper of 2nd place to take the white flag, the 2nd place #11 car lost control, Abbate reacted and the rear end came out on her. Saving the car from a spin, but losing a lot of ground, her strategy to run them down on the last lap was gone.

“I was excited to find myself back in the race for the last lap, even after running about half the race at a “slow” pace to cool the car. I don’t think there is anything more frustrating than having the fastest car, with the fastest lap times, and then having to back out of it; but these are the decisions you have to make, even when your heart is telling you to go. What a tough experience, but a great one to learn from”, Michele said with pride.

“Anthony worked very hard this weekend and put more work in than any other weekend this year. We changed everything we could to have the best improvements but the weather was against us. I am so proud of what we have done this year. We won the championship with consistent finishes and a positive attitude. A huge thank you to all that helped get us here. I can’t wait for next year”.

Full story here.

Michele Abbate’s FRS runs a Seibon Carbon FA-style hoodfenders (10mm wide), and OEM-style trunk.

Fourth of July weekend marked the final rounds of the SCCA US Majors Tour Championship series for the 2015 Western Conference Division. The rounds were held at Portland International Raceway…

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