8Star Motorsports stands atop of the podium at Kansas Speedway
8Star Motorsports had a very successful outing in TUSC at Kansas Speedway after finishing on the podium on Saturday.
Photo by: James Holland
8Star Motorsports and their orange FLM-009 Oreca PC had a very successful outing in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship at Kansas Speedway after finishing on the podium on Saturday (7 June).
At the start of race one, Sean Rayhall and the 8Star Motorsports #25 PC bolted off the line to take the lead as they approached the first corner. Rayhall was able to maintain position despite two yellow flags and built a gap to of nearly five seconds to second place, setting the fastest lap of the 31-lap race with a 1m12.288s.
After finishing on top in the first race, Rayhall said, “We got a really good start and took the lead from Chris Cumming, after that we led the rest of the way. A couple of restarts made it difficult, but the Takis 8Star PC car was phenomenal all day and I can’t thank the guys enough for giving me this quality car. The Lites were difficult as they were almost as fast as us around the corners, but we were smart enough to keep the car in one piece.”
In the Second part of the race, Luis Diaz started in first place and immediately dropped to second place on the first tour. After 20 minutes, ‘Chaplin’ fell to fourth place but was able to jump to third place after a yellow flag when Tagliani spun out. Diaz was pushing hard and started improving lap-by-lap and set a personal best lap of 1m11.688s.
“It was a really tough race and it seemed like it since the beginning,” said Diaz. “I would have liked to have been up front, but considering the amount of contact during the race we are happy how the car behaved. This will definitely be a learning experience, as this race gave me the opportunity to race with these guys, unlike Laguna. We are still fighting for the championship so we will keep on pushing in these next few races and the team will look to improve as much as possible to stay in the championship.”
In the Lites Category, the first race started with some problems for the 8Star crew. Christian Potolicchio was forced to retire after just one lap and Enzo Potolicchio retired after receiving a jump-start penalty. Lamont Harris was able to climb some spots and finish the first race fourth in the Masters class and sixth overall.
In the day’s second and final race, Enzo started back in the field and jumped up to third place and had the pace needed to challenge for a win, but an unfortunate mechanical issue saw the #2 Lites car come to a halt, which ended Enzo’s race prematurely. Harris and Christian Potolicchio finished sixth and sixth respectively in this second race.
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