Tom Drewer Takes 2008 IMSA Lites L2 Championship At Petit Le Mans
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Oct 04, 2008
tomdrewer.com
Young rising Australian driver, Tom Drewer has won the 2008 IMSA Lites L2 Championship with a clean sweep at Petit Le Mans, Road Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Drewer, driving his Daily Planet Racing WEST, won both Round 9 (yesterday) and Round 10 (today) of the Championship taking maximum points, and clinching the title prior to the season finale at Laguna Seca in California in two weeks time.
Drewer’s North American Championship VICTORY has come after race wins at Sebring (Florida), Miller Motorsport Park (Salt Lake City, Utah), Lime Rock (Connecticut), and Mosport (Toronto, Canada) in his first year racing overseas.
The Adelaide born driver has graduated from karting, through the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) domestic categories of Formula Vee, Saloon Cars, and a one-off drive last year in the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series before moving to the USA to drive for the factory WEST race team. He also won the Australian Thundersports title last year.
His Championship winning event at Road Atlanta was virtually perfect, setting the fastest L2 time in qualifying for pole with a new qualifying lap record and then breaking the Road Atlanta race lap record in race 1 and lowering that time again in race 2 with a time of 1 minute 22.03 seconds. His average speed around the undulating 4 kilometre circuit was 180kph.
“Leading into this weekend we knew we should be able to clinch the title but its motor racing and anything can happen. My Daily Planet WEST has been fantastic all year and I want to thank everyone at WEST Race Cars, especially my engineer Jake Randels, for all their hard work.
Then yesterday something went wrong with the shift mechanism half way through race 1 and I was having a lot of trouble going up through the gearbox. It was nothing we could have prevented. The team put in a lot of effort to solve the problem and in the end we replaced the entire electronic shift module and actuator. Today the car was back to its best and we just set about having a clean, trouble free race to bring the Championship home.
It really was a case of keeping it clean. There was chaos on a re-start in race 2 when the field checked up, and crashed into each other, and it was a shame that my team mate Eric’s (Vassian) race really ended there. I avoided that and the incident that caused the safety car in the first place.
I set about achieving a good pace early on, but kept it well within the limits. In the end though we closed the gap to the top L1s and I think it really shows again just how fast these WEST’s are given how much extra horsepower and torque the L1s have.
I showed a little emotion on the podium today. This is a long way from my home-town Adelaide, in Australia. There has been so much effort behind the scenes this year. I really wish both my father Mike and mother Jacquie could have been over here to see this. They have sacrificed a great deal so that I could achieve this.
I also truly want to thank John Trimble and the Daily Planet for all their support this year.
I want to also thank each and everyone who has helped me to get to this point. Terry Little for having so much faith in me, Randy Aust (race engineer), Greg Steer from WEST Race Cars Australia, everyone at WEST Race Cars America and everyone who has put their names and messages on the rear bodywork of my car. I’ve been racing for all of you. Thanks for being a part of the team. This Championship is for you too, Dad, Terry, John, everyone, we did it!
I’m just looking forward to driving Laguna Seca now, and I hope that my performance and consistency this year can lead onto bigger and better things next season. We have already had some exciting offers and testing opportunities present themselves and I’m hoping we can get the backing for the right option to race in America again next year.”
