Michele’s first time in a Thunder Roadster AND racing Circle Track!

In October first I received a phone call with the opportunity to test drive a Thunder Roadster at my home track the “Bullring” at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.  I had never driven on a circle track, ever, in addition to never ever sittin gin a thunder roadster, but I was more than excited to give it a shot.  Any seat time is good seat time and I was definitely in for a new challenge.

Once I got to the track I only had 3 minutes before the last practice session to get on track.  I paid my entry and threw my suit on as quick as possible.  By the time I got to the pits my class had already been gridded.  I have never in my life hopped in a race car so fast.  Having no idea what the switches were for, I asked my friend, who explained each one quickly.  Then I shouted “Is this like a legends car!?” And he hollored “Yep! Pretty close!”.  Taking a deep breathe I pushed the start button and headed on track.

I was the last car on track and I made my way onto the oval.  I was focused mostly on learning how the car felt and responded, more than concentrating on the track itself.   I only got to drive for 6 minutes of the 10 minute practice session and the car had ran out of gas before I ever saw the checkered flag.  But for those 6 minutes I have never felt so new to something in my whole life.  It was amazing, in a good way.  I felt like a clean slate that was ready to absorb all the information as possible.

The tires were so sticky and I found myself having a hard time being able to trust the banking of the track.  I did my best to take the lines the best of my knowledge and it seemed to be working.  The first practice session ended and I came in with a smile on my face.  Ideally, the car needed a few adjustments, especially my driving position; but I was so excited to had the experience.

My race wasn’t for a couple hours.  We had our drivers meeting and I began to situate everything as best as I could.  I got an amazing amount of help from some other drivers: Shaun Polack, Chris Bosley, Doug Germano, Paul Licata, and Nick Degidio.  As well as my dad, who came to my pits whenever he had a chance from not working on my brother’s legends car.

My goal for the race was simple:  stay on the lead lap.  The grid is picked by a draw and my number was good, I was off pole, though, I opted to grid last because I did not want to be in any one’s way.  As a competitive driver, I know how it is to be battling for a win and having someone inexperienced on a track be in your way.  With that being said, I didn’t want any more pressure on me than I already had, so I sat last on grid.

The race went great, my rolling start was fantastic, I stayed with the pack into the first turn and hand no incidents.  We had one caution and one restart. Throughout the race I saw I was gaining ground on the car in front of me… I ended up making a clean pass and held it for the rest of the race.  I placed 7th out of 10 and I was completely blown away.  It was so encouraging and motivating to see that I could keep up with the local guys that do it all the time!

I never expected to make a pass and I was more than stoked tohave stayed on the lead lap.  This was such an amazing opportunity and I truly look forward to getting into a thunder roadster again.  In December the Silver State Road Course Classic will start back up (the same race I ran last year in the legends cars) and I am hoping to race the Thunder Roadster in this series!

Stay tuned!!  Also Check out this quickly edited video clip from driving the Thunder Roadster!

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About Author

I am a Las Vegas native and I have spent all of my life around many types of motorsports. My brother, Michael Abbate, was a very successful driver in many go-kart organizations and his achievements opened my eyes to the world of racing. It has always been my dream and passion to drive but it was not my reality until I stopped watching him and took action myself to get on the track. After some experience of karting at a hobby level, I began competing in autocross at a regional level with the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) in 2004 at the age of sixteen with my daily driven car. My first national event with the SCCA was in 2007 with a podium finish behind two national champions. In April of 2009 I expanded my racing career with road course racing and time attack events through several organizations including 600 Racing/INEX, Redline Time Attack, NASA, UMS Tuning Time Attack, and others. After about a year and a half of driving in NASA’s High Performance Driving Education I earned my NASA Time Trial License in 2011 still using my daily driven car. This year I am working towards my Race License while driving the 2011 Crawford Performance Scion Racing tC. I am very grateful to be a part of the Crawford Performance and Scion Racing team for the 2011 season. I look forward to continuing to compete in several road course events to gain more seat time, experience, and exposure by excelling my motorsports career at both a regional and national level. The track is where I belong and it fuels all my motivation in life.