Pro-Am Rivals: Portimao Adaptation Key to Title Battle

Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America Pro-Am title contenders Ashton Harrison, Tom Long and Bryson Lew reckon the speed at which each of the respective teams can adapt to the Portimao circuit will be an important factor in who wins the championship on Friday.

All three drivers have travelled to Portugal for the Lamborghini Grand Finals, with none of them having any kind of experience on the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve.

With just two races remaining, Lew and Precision Performance Motorsports co-driver John Castro Dubets hold a lead of 11 points over teammates Bryan Ortiz and Sebastian Carazo. Harrison and Long, meanwhile, sit six points further back in third.

“It’s amazing,” Lew told Sportscar365 about the Portimao circuit.

“The track, looking at all of the elevation, it’s so cool to see.

“European track are always amazing, compared to the U.S. tracks. Not to diminish the U.S. tracks, obviously.”

Harrison and Long, drivers of the No. 125 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2, are similarly impressed upon their first visit to the circuit.

“I love the speed and Tom and I are really enjoying the elevation change in the track,” said Harrison.

“At the same time, the closest thing we have to this in the U.S. is Watkins Glen but the surface itself is so different.

“So for us, we are really trying to fine tune every aspect of the corner.

“Granted, the European guys look like they’ve been round this track several times and we’re kind of chasing our tails and figuring it out but we feel confident about it.”

Harrison added that the ability to get up to speed quickly around the circuit will be key for the two remaining championship races on Friday.

“I think that we’re all in the same playing field, because our competitors have not been here either,” she said.

“Based on times, it looks like the people we are up against in the Grand Finals have had plenty of laps here so it’s good that all of us on the U.S. side are able to get several testing opportunities in.

“It looks like us and the two [cars] we’re up against in the championship are all within a tenth or two of each other’s times.

“It has been like that all year. So it’s really good, hard racing leading into the championship fight.”

All U.S. teams got extensive testing opportunities at the start of the week with three hours of track time on Tuesday and two further 50-minute session on Wednesday.

Drivers from both sides agreed that the track time on offer has been beneficial to their preparations.

“We’re not used to having a lot of testing and here we actually got two extra sessions of testing so it’s been very nice,” said Lew. “We just have to race smart, pretty much.”

Long added: “You might find this funny, but this is the most track time I’ve had at one track in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo all year. So it’s fantastic.”

Long and Lew both feel that consistency on the Portuguese venue, with multiple blind corners and high tire degradation, will also be a key factor.

“I think here, it’s going to be big on being consistent and making sure you don’t ruin the tires on the first five laps of the race,” said Lew.

“The tires wear down really fast here, so it’s just finding the perfect setup and finding a balance between your driving and being consistent.”

“I think the consistency is the hardest thing because with not having all the vision through a corner, your braking point changes, there’s a not a lot of reference points and car placement is really critical,” Long noted.

“So you’re really starting to finetune all those things to really get consistent and get dialed in.

“Then you bring up a whole new aspect when you start racing because you get the racecraft component of it: where passes need to be done, where’s a good place to pass, where’s a better place to hold off and get momentum for the next passing opportunity, those kind of things.

“So I think we still have a little bit of learning to do.”