Chloe Chambers once again proved she was the class of the field in the Porsche Sprint Challenge North America Cayman category, claiming pole position, two race wins and three fastest laps, leading every on-track race lap at Road America.
Scoring pole position, two victories and three fastest laps at Road America it was a weekend to remember for Porsche Junior driver Chloe Chambers in the Porsche Sprint Challenge North America. It was a dominant display from the Monoflo International backed driver in the Cayman Pro/Am class who also took the checkered flag first in a rescheduled third race, only to be denied victory by two penalties, combined with the race finishing behind the safety car. Chloe had led race three by over 20 seconds, further highlighting her dominance in what was an almost perfect weekend for the young driver.
With the Road America surface having been recently repaved, Chloe began the meeting with a number of important test sessions ahead of opening practice on Friday. Conditions were wet for the first practice and with dry weather forecast for the remainder of the weekend, Chambers elected to sit out the session in anticipation for a dry second session. Immediately on the pace with her first flying lap of practice two, Chloe ended the day second fastest, less than two tenths of a second faster than Cayman Pro/Am class pacesetter Paul Bocuse.
Qualifying gave Chloe a chance to take a further step forward as she targeted pole position in the Cayman Pro/Am class. Once again showing fantastic speed, the Porsche Junior driver claimed pole position with just her second lap of the session, improving on her fastest time from practice by over two seconds.
Chloe’s strong performance in qualifying gave her added confidence heading into the first of three races across the weekend. Making an excellent start from pole position, Chambers confidently led the Cayman Pro/Am class and opened up a lead of over a second following the first lap. Doubling her advantage by the end of lap two, her gap to second place driver Nicholas Maloy continued to grow as the safety car was deployed on lap three.
Dealing with the restart superbly, Chloe once again opened up a comfortable lead before running the fastest lap of the race on lap eight. As Maloy and Paul Bocuse duelled for second, this enabled Chambers to run consistent lap times at the head of the Cayman Pro/Am class, growing her advantage to a race-high 4.6 seconds by lap 11. Maintaining a sizeable lead to the checkered flag, Chloe completed a perfect Saturday by claiming victory in the opening race at Road America.
Starting from pole position in race two, Chloe held top spot following the opening lap with a six tenths of a second gap to Paul Bocuse. Extending the lead to over two seconds at the conclusion of lap four, Chambers had successfully resisted any early race pressure and settled into her rhythm out front.
By lap six, the gap was four seconds and this lead had stabilised before Chloe ran her fastest time on lap eight. Despite a late full course yellow period, the driver of the #70 Monoflo International-sponsored Cayman GT4 was unchallenged and claimed another victory at Road America. It was a second lights-to-flag victory of the weekend for Chambers who was once again the class of the field in the Porsche Sprint Challenge North America Cayman Pro/Am class.
A third contest took place at Road America following a cancellation at Mid Ohio earlier in the season. Lining up from pole position, Chloe was targeting a historic hattrick of victories which appeared a realistic possibility taking into account her speed during the weekend. The Porsche Junior driver once again made an excellent start and opened up a gap of almost four seconds to her nearest rival, six seconds ahead of the second place driver in the Cayman Pro/Am class.
After a caution period on lap two, Chambers was able to manage the restart successfully and began building a sizeable gap once again. Extending the gap to 11 seconds over her nearest Cayman Pro/Am class competitor by lap six, race control announced that Chloe would take a 20 second post-race penalty for two separate infringements.
Nonetheless, Chambers was showing pace to overcome this setback and she cleared the 20 second threshold to her nearest class challenger by lap 10, setting the fastest lap of the race in the process. By lap 14, the gap was over 20 seconds to the second place driver overall, but with a second caution period occurring with just two laps to go, Chloe’s lead was cut. This was extremely unfortunate after building up the necessary gap to claim victory, with Chambers classified fourth as the race ended under the safety car.
Chloe once again proved she was the class of the field in the Porsche Sprint Challenge North America Cayman Pro/Am class. Claiming pole position, two race wins and three fastest laps underlined her speed, with Chambers denied the weekend sweep by an unfortunate penalty and late-race safety car period.
"We had really good races", Chloe commented. "I stayed consistent and we managed to lead every lap to sweep the scheduled Road America rounds. I'm not really in the championship, but I am just trying to pick up as many race wins as I can to the end of the season. That's my goal right now, and so far it is working well."
"The TPC Racing team has the car setup really well", she continued. "This car is usually shared by my teammates Even Hinkle and Tillman Schmid, but neither one of them was here this weekend. So, it was just me on the car this weekend, working with TPC and, of course, the Monoflo International guys supporting me through all of this as well."
The Porsche Junior driver will be targeting further victories at the next round of the Porsche Sprint Challenge North America which takes place at the Circuit of the Americas on the weekend of 26th/27th August.
