Last weekend was the opening round of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo season at Circuit of the Americas. It was especially exciting because they were running in conjunction with NASCAR, so the track was really busy with all three divisions of NASCAR plus Lamborghini Super Trofeo. Yes, Lamborghinis and stock cars on the same weekend! A little bit of something for everyone!
The weather at COTA proved to be trying, once again. It reminded me of being there on my last visit, when we had mixed conditions all weekend during an SRO event. This weekend was the same, so it was exciting to watch the stock cars racing in the rain, which is a rare sight.
Although this was the opening race of the 2021 Lamborghini Super Trofeo season, Ashton Harrison and I have been busy working together since January at a variety of tracks. We’ve been making sure she got a lot of seat time during the off-season, and we’ve been getting her prepared for this first event at COTA. We actually went to that track a couple of times leading up to this race, first to get her refamiliarized with the track and then again for a team test.
Between all of the on-track work, we focused on simulator driving to continue working and refining the various aspects of the circuit.
All of that hard work and preparation really paid off when Ashton came away with not just a third-place finish in race one, but her first win of the season in race two! I mentioned those varying weather conditions earlier, and it was a challenge for Ashton and the other drivers to stay out of trouble. She put herself in a position to have success and ran a consistent race, despite the ever-changing conditions.
After months of preparation, it’s even more satisfying that all of that hard work has paid off. It’s a great jump start, and Ashton will be able to carry this momentum forward into a busy start to the season, with the next event in just a couple short weeks.