Turn 3 Motorsport Scores Five Wins At Portland International Raceway
Turn 3 Motorsport drivers Eric Wagner and Antoine Comeau scored a combined total of five wins for the team during Round 4 of the Blue Marble Cocktails Radical Cup this weekend at Portland International Raceway. Wagner started the weekend by qualifying his #20 T3M/Eastern Shipping SR3 RSX 1340 car on the pole position in his class for Race 1. In Race 1, Wagner quickly pulled ahead and kept his lead throughout the 40-minute event to claim his first win of the season. The 1340 class points leader rounded out the weekend with two more pole positions and two more wins in Race 2 and Race 3, extending his championship lead before going into the penultimate event of the season next month.
“Eric (Wagner) did a fantastic job in Portland this weekend,” said Team Owner Peter Dempsey. “This was a new track for him, and he was unable to attend the first three test sessions on Thursday, so considering that, he did a phenomenal job adapting to the track. He got down to very competitive times within the two practice sessions on Friday, and we worked on improving from there for the rest of the weekend. Eric has come a long way this season and has certainly improved at every Radical Cup event. We are looking forward to the final two rounds of the season and having more 1340 class cars for him to compete with at Sonoma and COTA.”
Teammate Antoine Comeau secured a third place starting position in the 1500 class for Race 1 after contesting with a top five that were all within .3 seconds of each other’s fastest lap times. After the green flag fell in Race 1, Comeau took the lead and continued to challenge his rivals for a first place finish throughout the duration of the race. He ultimately crossed the start/finish line in second place with a fastest lap time that put him on the pole position for Race 2.
In Race 2, Comeau pulled his #10 T3M/Eastern Shipping SR3 RSX 1500 car ahead to lead the 1500 class for every lap of the race and earn a first place finish. Comeau carried that momentum into Race 3 where he gained another win and increased his points lead in the 1500 class and outright championships.
“Antoine (Comeau) hadn’t been in a Radical since the Road America race in June as our focus had shifted to the Indy Pro 2000 car over the past couple of months,” continued Dempsey. “He did a great job adapting back to the Radical car very quickly and setting the pace all weekend. Race 1 was challenging for him as we missed the setup a little bit in the car, but he did a great job bringing it home in a solid second place knowing we had room to improve in the following two races. We improved the car overnight and came out on Sunday extremely strong. He did a great job finishing the weekend with two wins and a dominant win in Race 3.”
“We had an unbelievable weekend,” said Crew Chief Emanuel Talquenca. “Every member of the team did a great job including the excellent performance from the drivers. We had moments of intense work fixing things on the cars or looking for speed, but everyone knew exactly what to do. The most important thing is that we had a lot of fun and even had time to enjoy grilling a good steak at the track. That’s all thanks to the great group of people we have on the team, so a big thank you goes out to everyone for such a great weekend.”
The penultimate round of the Blue Marble Cocktails Radical Cup North America continues at Sonoma Raceway from September 27-29.
