Immediate success in CTCC debut

On Thursday May 15, 2014 the Lombardi team arrived at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park for round 1 of the Canadian Touring Car Championships (CTCC). This being the team's first race they got off to a rough start on Friday. The team woke to atrocious weather conditions, the car had to go through its annual TECH inspection (which was unfamilar territory to them), and the Lombardi Honda Fit did not meet the track for practice. For Teixeira this was especially disappointing, due to the fact that this was their only time to "shake down" the car.

Saturday followed with the hustle and bustle of pre-qualfying maintence, which included the team mounting new tires on the car and securing the additional weight. This only added to not having any pre track time.

On the out lap Teixeira focused on figuring out what direction the track went, by the second lap the qualifying session was red flagged, and then immediately over due to a Mini's engine problems. Teixeira completed two laps and was then forced to take on his first session in race conditions. Despite qualifying in third for his first race, Teixeira managed to take the lead before even entering the first turn. For Teixeira, the race "consisted of battling with the Madza 2 teammates, while still learning the track and learning to manage traffic." Teixeira and the team managed to bring the car home with a podium finish in their first race.

On Sunday the morning qualifying session went much smoother for the team than on Saturday. Teixeria put laps in early in the session and returned to the pits where the team decided to save the rest of the tires and gamble on a confident lap time.

The team was able to hold on to their first pole position by just three hundreths of a second (.03). After many lead changes on the opening stint of the race, Teixeira was able to hold off one of the Madza 2s and isolate them. The lead pair were able to open up a 30 second gap to third place leaving Teixeria and Boyer to fight for the win. Teixeira was able to catch his opponent and set a new in race lap record of 1:46.054 but, unfortunately, wasn't able to make a move for the win.

Thanks to all the supporters that make amazing weekends like this possible. Automotive Bussiness School Of Canada, Georgian Grizzlies, Bell Racing Helmets, Artrotondo, Dr. Salon Guzman and AV Graphix.