Federal Way, WA—Carlo Sparacio, lead driver and team principal for TC Motorsports, LLC, earned two top-five finishes this weekend in Rounds #3 and #4 of the SCCA Pro Racing Mazdaspeed Miata Cup Presented by Hankook at Portland International Raceway in Portland, Oregon. The two top-five finishes are Carlo’s best to date in this highly contested professional series.

Rounds #3 and #4 of the SCCA Pro Miata Cup Pacific championship were support races for the Portland Grand Prix Round #6 of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS), which is the premier professional endurance racing series in the United States and its events draw 30,000-60,000 fans from all around the world.

Carlo drove the #2 TC Motorsports/Group 2 Motorsports/Applied Racing Technology/Eprodius.com entry in the Portland double race weekend. During practice and qualifying, Carlo struggled with the car set-up and posted a lap time that was not far off the front runners pace, but only net him a 10th place start for the Saturday race and a 13th place start for the Sunday race. “I am still having a hard time adjusting to the Hankook tires. Our chassis set-up just did not suit the tires,” explains Carlo. He continues, “We had limited time to test before the event and, therefore, had to make changes to the chassis set-up during the race weekend.”

The set-up changes the team made seemed to work during both the Saturday and Sunday races as Carlo quickly moved though the pack, advancing five places on Saturday and eight places on Sunday and finishing fifth in both races. Carlo earned the Sunoco Hard Charger Award for both races with his successful runs from the back of the competitive racing grid. “My plan was to run hard in the early stages and make up as many places as I could while the group was close, then run fast and mistake free laps and see how the race developed. Sure enough, I started to catch and pass small groups of cars.” Carlo continues, “I really have to thank my wife and crew chief, Taryn, for her hard work this weekend. She was a great coach and helped me keep my head down during the race.”

With these strong finishes, Carlo unofficially moves into fifth place out of nearly 50 drivers competing in the Pacific series driver championship. The TC Motorsports team hopes to continue this momentum with continued success at Rounds #5 and #6 at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California, August 26–29.

To find out more about TC Motorsports’ drivers and crew, and their sponsors, please visit the team’s website at www.tcmotorsports.net.

TC Motorsports would like to again thank their generous sponsors:

Group 2 Motorsports—www.group2inc.com
Applied Racing Technologies—www.appliedracingtechnology.com
Eprodius.com—www.eprodius.com