2019 TM Master Cup Series | Round 12: Round of Wisconsin

Liv Eklund - What a comeback after a few frustrating moments. She went pissy boss mode at the end and decided that this race was not Joe Olenick's to win.

Saul Fischel - The attempt to manipulate the start by going way too slow backfired and he just couldn't recover from adversity. Despite still having a fairly big lead in the points, he now has to show his true fighting spirit and use all the obstacles in his way as something to fire himself up.

HONORABLE MENTION - Race Control doing nothing about that trainwreck of a start.
DOUBLE HONORABLE MENTION - Connor Freel. Somehow, I don't think it's gonna work out for you at this level son.

Long Makes a Statement with a Points Haul in Wisconsin

While celebrations were going on in the podium presentations, a different celebration was going on in the pit of car #191. Independents Trophy driver Tony Long took home an impressive 15th place finish after a dismal 33rd place qualifying effort.

"This was easily the best race that we have had in Master Cup this year" Long said. "We have had some miserable luck with cut tires and missing the show in Karjala but we kept working as hard as we could. We always felt that we had some good speed in the car but we just needed to put it together for a race."

Long was the only Independents Trophy driver to score championship points as he took home 10 points for a surprising 15th place result finishing ahead of drivers such as Gilliam, Bates, among others. While David Krikorian made up the most positions in the race, Tony Long also put up a big number of positions gained from qualifying to finish at 18 places.

"I knew that we wouldn't keep pace with him (Krikorian) with how good those front running cars are" Long stated. "I wasn't going to keep him behind me too long but I figured that if we could try to keep a decent pace compared to him that maybe we could just follow him up the running order."

At one point in the race, Long found himself in 11th place just outside of the top 10. While his tires fell off late in the race to deny him a chance at a top 10, he made a lot of new fans and supporters as he made his way through the field in an underfunded car.

"Gilliam, Xu, they are going to be stars in this series in the near future" Long said. "I was just happy to keep pace with them let alone give them a run for their money. I know I don't have the biggest spotlight on me and maybe a bit overlooked at first but I think what we were able to accomplish today has put the team and I on the map at this lap which is just so surreal for all of us. This is easily one of the best drives of my career and I hope that I have more in me to come in the near future."

Eklund, Lynxe Stun Themselves With Road America Win

When Liv Eklund arrived to Road America for the first time in 2017, she had a good feeling for the 4 mile track almost immediately. Paired with Sean Abbas, she cruised to an easy victory in the electric class in the North American GT race. All the while, Eklund peered over at the TM Master Cup garage, hoping that she would get to be a part of it someday. One year later, and it looked like Lynxe Racing taking a shot on an electric GT driver who so happened to also be one of the sport's biggest superfans looked like a mistake, she was labelled a "PR stunt". One year after that, and Eklund's emotional "are you kidding me?!" radio communications trended on social media.

Sporting a pride livery, Eklund admitted to feeling extra pressure than she was used to at the start of the weekend, and knew extra attention would be on her. "I didn't want to make any serious mistakes or underperform, I didn't want to look bad for the rest of the trans community. Just being here isn't enough if you look bad or mediocre at the end of the day... and I wanted the community to have something to smile about." she said in the media center.

It certainly didn't look like much to smile about after she refused all interviews after qualifying. The race looked promising, after an overcut vaulted her into second place, but it looked like the race win was slipping away. Her radio messages were called into question, as was her tone of voice. "I was really mad at myself for not making up the time I expected myself to. There's three races this 11 team could have won that I threw away being an idiot, or not being fast enough when we had it in us -- Zanarkand, [Sweden], and Russia. I love everyone at this team for believing in me and putting up with me, I wanted them to be able to get the results they deserve at the end of the day."

Eklund's outlook was reinforced in her description of chasing down Joe Olenick for the race victory as well. "Right when the last stint started, I told Travis [Yellowhorse] to just read off lap times, I was positive we had no shot [at the win]. Right after then, I felt comfortable [in the middle sector], and before I knew it, I was getting closer and closer. I couldn't believe it. Joe [Olenick] is really fast, but he also is really good at defending, I had to catch him by surprise. If that didn't work, I wasn't going to get him."

Travis Yellowhorse, Eklund's race engineer, backed up some of her comments. "I would have been thrilled if she just brought it home in second, but I couldn't believe she pulled that off. Seriously, I've never seen someone run down a healthy car like that. She says what she thinks, but I hope she don't talk the ears off of everyone in the media center! She talks faster than [Dan] Mullen does!"

Eklund's podium interview was delayed several minutes and was ultimately not very long, as she was so emotionally overcome that she was barely coherent.