February 22nd, 2021
Season 1
Round 4
Results
The Alpha Touring Challenge had two goals when scheduling Season 1. The first was to use as many free tracks as possible. The second was to include as many rovals as possible. This ominous directive is what led 9 drivers to the Texas Motor Speedway for the fourth round of Season 1.
Jon Lauzon had taken pole with a margin of -00.584 to Slug in P2. The drivers took the rolling start and quickly approached the most dangerous feature of the track. T3’s braking zone required drivers to brake whilst coming off the banking of T2, creating havoc with the car’s weight balance.
There was some rough racing for position, the first with Lauzon giving the nose to Slug’s bumper to retake the lead. Another was on L5 when Spencer RS Elliot made an optimistic move on Agust Blondal, and the two collided mid-corner in T4. At one point, in the tight s-curve that is T5-6, Wiley Cox was forced off by Blondal, with both learning there’s not much room for two cars there.
Elliot eventually spun off track twice and retired, one of his few ATC starts as of Season 6. On L12, disaster struck for Joe Camilleri. He was struck from behind by Spencer Cockayne, who had missed his braking marker for T7. The two of them slid off track with damaged vehicles. Camilleri would retire, but Cockayne continued on to finish the race.
On L13, Cox and Blondal would have their own similar incident at T3 when Cox slid into Blondal from behind, displacing them both on the side of the circuit.
Meanwhile, the fighting upfront was getting fierce. By the end of this race, there will have been 8 official lead changes, and numerous unofficial ones. On L14, Shink went a little deep into T3 while Lauzon was alongside him on the right. Shink delivered a shunt to Slug’s rear bumper, but they somehow both held it together and continued. In the next turn, it was Lauzon who struck Slug’s rear bumper but again they both continued. McKinzie was never in the fight for the lead, content to hang back and let the others fight it out.
On L18, Lauzon and Shink came together on exit of T3, almost sending both of them careening off track. This incident allowed McKinzie to slip by Lauzon for P3. By L26, the 4 drivers had all pitted and were still tightly knit. In T7, Lauzon dove for the lead on Shink and parked it on the apex once in front. Shink kept his nose to Lauzon’s bumper during most of corner exit, but couldn’t dislodge him from the lead. On L29, McKinzie permanently lost the leaders when he locked up going into T3, losing over 3 seconds to the trio.
Slug now led, followed by Lauzon and Shink. On L30, with less than 20 minutes to go, Shink pushed Lauzon out of T7 so hard he almost lost the car. At the culmination of this three-way brawl, the three cars took the white flag with Slug in front, Shink in P2, and Lauzon in P3. Going into T3, Slug quickly moved under braking to cover off a move from Lauzon, while Shink braked later and jumped to the outside. Lauzon pushed Slug into the corner, but he was able to get a much better exit than Shink and tried to slide right up in front of him.
Slug had miscalculated, and almost got sent flying off track when he clipped Shink’s nose. The incident let Lauzon go for a move on Shink, putting him into position for a final move into T7 for the lead. Slug moved inside so Lauzon went out, but slid mid corner while Shink put a nose in. Shink’s continued presence made it impossible for Lauzon to get a good exit onto the oval, and Slug took victory, his first official ATC win.
Despite being excluded from future schedules due to its gimmicky nature and dangerous braking zones, drivers from this race often remember it fondly. Over a year later, Shink would be quoted as saying, “Texas was peak early ATC to me.”
Alpha Touring Challenge 