Podium on Debut for Hampton in Trans-Am West

Trans-Am West opened up their championship at Thunderhill Raceway on March 4-5th. Both Xuanqian and David competed in the GT class. Xuanqian piloted his McLaren 570 and David made his professional racing debut piloting his Cayman 718 GT4 MR. He has spent a lot of time driving our Spec E46 arrive and drive rental over the years developing his race craft to prepare for this next step.

Just a month before, we had taken the McLaren to our test at The Podium Club to serve as a good practice car while we shook down the Xuanqian’s new Huracan. Unfortunately it suffered catastrophic engine failure just a few laps into that test day and a connecting rod left quite a hole in the block. With the Thunderhill Trans-Am opener just around the corner, we were lucky to be able to quickly source a new 3.8 liter twin turbo V8 out of Texas. Our crew knocked out the swap just in time to get the car loaded up and off to Willows.

We partook in the Friday test day to help get the drivers comfortable as both cars had never been to Thunderhill prior. The weather was a mixed bag with showers, rain, and sun all gracing the track during the race. The constantly changing conditions made it quite tricky to navigate for everyone.

Unfortunately for Xuanqian, while leading the GT class, he made contact with a spinning TA2 car in front of him that he couldn’t avoid. He had to retire the car after a valiant effort at the start of the race.

David started at the back of the pack and was able to march his way forward for an 8th overall finish and 3rd place in GT. David had a few adventures along the way which might require a little wrap repair, but nothing too serious. He was really thrilled with a podium in his debut Trans-Am race!

Time for a few repairs to be made before the next round at Sonoma Raceway, April 27-30th.