Stewart Won LB Cup Title “The Hardest Way Possible”

Slade Stewart said he won the LB Cup title in Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America “the hardest way possible” after bouncing back from a heavy crash on Thursday and a failure in Race 1 to claim the championship at Portimao.

Stewart came from the back of the grid to third in class during the second race on Friday afternoon, which was enough for the No. 114 Flying Lizard Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2 to beat the Dream Racing duo of Jason Keats and Charlie Martin to the class title.

The title win was the culmination of a rollercoaster two days for Stewart and his pink ‘Sparklefarts’ Lamborghini, which was extensively damaged in a crash in practice.

Stewart told Sportscar365 on Thursday that he unexpectedly lost grip and spun into the barriers at Turn 9, after which he was hit by the No. 148 Precision Performance Motorsport car driven by Nikko Reger after Reger went off in similar fashion mere seconds after Stewart.

“I think it’s still sinking in,” Stewart said of the rollercoaster of events.

“It was just so very hard to get to this moment with the accident in yesterday and the volume of damage to the car. When I initially looked at it, I didn’t think we would [race] today.”

Stewart admitted he feared his title tilt was over before the weekend had even gotten underway properly following his practice shunt.

“Initially when I got out of the car when it was still up at the turn, I was convinced that it was over,” he said.

“Just the significant damage to the rear, the exhaust and everything was moved to the driver’s side, the rear [tires] were pointing the wrong way.

“I didn’t think it was possible, but once we got it back here and the team tore it down, they said, ‘No, we can fix it.’ And Lamborghini came in and helped us.

“That was immeasurable, because we didn’t have a welder and they did. The frame welding work had to be done because we cracked the frame.

“Flying Lizard Motorsports is the best team I could have asked for. They worked their butts off to get the car prepared, putting us in last place for the first race.”

Stewart’s odds were then made even more difficult when a strong result during the opening race fell apart due to a late mechanical failure on his freshly rebuilt Lamborghini.

“I had a good start, got up to second place,” he explained. “Five minutes left, the rear axle breaks and we don’t finish the race.

“I’m just sitting here and thinking to myself, ‘We’re going to do this the hardest way possible, aren’t we?’ That’s pretty much the way it ended up.

“Two thirds through the [second] race the front left quarter panel started coming undone and it was rubbing on the front left tire, particularly through the high-compression last two corners.

“I was sitting there worried it was going to blow the front left tire and we’ve only got five minutes left. Thankfully it didn’t, it held up and it’s awesome to be here.

“A lot of hard work and a little bit of luck ended up working out.”

With his championship lead to Keats and Martin reduced to three points, Stewart explained his sole focus was on finishing close to the Dream Racing duo, until Keats encountered a left-rear puncture in the opening half of the race.

“From a strategy standpoint I knew that I had to be right next to Jason and Charlie in terms of finishing position,” he said.

“I needed to be either in front of them or right behind them, but I had to be right there.

“It didn’t matter where we finished on the grid, we just had to be right next to each other. That was my singular focus.

“Once I got the radio that their car was [in trouble] and two laps behind, I just went into preservation mode. It was just about finishing the race.”