Tuesday, September 19, 2023 – Highlands, NJ – Vasser Sullivan drivers Frankie Montecalvo and Aaron Telitz finished twelfth at the Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The duo was able to maintain their third-place championship position, but the fight for second place will come down to the final race at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
Montecalvo qualified the No. 12 Lexus RC F GT3 seventh in class for the start of the two hours and forty minutes race. After an eventful start, Montecalvo was able to work his way through the field and into second position. Contact by another competitor in class would cause a punctured tire, forcing Montecalvo to pit, and moving he and Telitz to the back of the field, foiling their chances of finishing on the podium.
“It’s unfortunate that we didn’t have the results at Indy that our car and team were capable of,” said Montecalvo.
“The Vasser Sullivan team did a phenomenal job to put Aaron and I in a position to be able to fight for a podium position, but ultimately contact from the McLaren put an end to that.”
“I qualified our car seventh. The start was very hectic, and we went to full course yellow almost immediately because of the incidents in the GTP class ahead of us. I had a good restart, and we were able to work our way up to second in class on strategy.”
“A second full course caution came out as we were battling the Aston Martin, the second-place championship contender, for the lead. We had a clean restart, but on the third lap after going back to green, I was hit by the McLaren which punctured a tire and forced us to pit. That sent us all the way back to fifteenth position and a lap down, but Aaron took over the car and went to work.”
“Aaron was able to get back on the lead lap and make his was to twelfth position when he took the checkered flag. It certainly wasn’t the result that we were hoping for or indicative of the performance of the car or team, but thankfully we didn’t lose a position in the championship standings.”
“Going into the final race at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, we’ll have our work cut out for us to try to take second position from the Aston Martin and to also hold off the McLaren chasing us. I’m looking forward to finishing the 2023 season at Petit Le Mans. Jack [Hawksworth] and Ben [Barnicoat] are still leading the GTD Pro Championship, so a pair of Lexus wins at the final event would be a great way to close out the 2023 season and seal the deal for the No. 14 guys.”
The final event for Montecalvo in the 2023 IMSA WeatherTech Championship is the Motul Petit Le Mans on Saturday, October 14. Be sure to follow Frankie on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date with all of his racing news.
