Tuesday, July 20, 2021 – Highlands, NJ – Vasser Sullivan driver Frankie Montecalvo finished P10 at the Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park over the weekend. Montecalvo qualified the No. 12 Lexus RC F GT3 fourth in class.
At the start, Montecalvo was able to hold his fourth-place position, where he would remain for several laps. Later, he experienced an issue under braking into the chicane and lost three positions. He was able to make up one of those positions and handed the car over to co-driver Zach Veach in sixth place.
Unfortunately, the braking issue persisted, and Veach fell back to tenth place. With an hour and a half remaining in the race, a red flag came out for lightning in the area, and they were never able to go back to green because of the inclement weather.
“It was a whirlwind weekend at Lime Rock, but the Vasser Sullivan guys did a great job to have our car prepped and ready, and we had really strong pace throughout all of the sessions,” said Montecalvo.
“I qualified the car fourth in class. We had a good, clean start, and I was able to settle into a rhythm in P4. I lost my driver blower on lap two, so I felt like I was melting in the car because it was so hot last weekend. Additionally, as the race progressed, we started to develop a brake issue.”
“As the braking issue unfolded, I was doing everything I could to stay in the queue. I fell back to seventh but made up one position before handing the car over to Zach in sixth place. With an hour and thirty minutes remaining, a red flag came out for lightning in the area. At that point we were tenth in class. The weather continued to worsen, so we finished under red flag conditions.”
“It’s never the way you want to end a race, but that’s how it goes sometimes. Our sister car was able to come away with another podium for the team, so I’m happy for those guys. I have no doubt the Vasser Sullivan crew will be working hard over the next couple of weeks, so we’ll be ready to go for Road America. I can’t wait to get back there in two weeks and defend our win.”
The next race for Montecalvo will be the IMSA Sportscar Weekend at Road America on August 8, where he will defend his 2020 win. Be sure to follow Frankie on Facebook and Twitter to keep up with current broadcast times and all of Frankie’s racing news.