2013 TM Lights @ Portland & Darlington

Results -- Portland
Results -- Darlington
Points

Portland:

Spoiler:

Darlington:

Spoiler:

Ashley Tucker impresses in rounds 8 and 9; takes first ever TM Lights victory at Darlington

At Portland, Tucker scored her first podium in what was described as "half a car" at the end as she fought hard in the dying stages. The podium finish left Tucker happy after she had poor showings in the majority of the season thus far.

"This is fantastic" said Tucker at Portland "I know I kinda hit a lot today, but we were fast. This was just what we needed. Not the repair bill, though. Forget I said we needed that." 

Tucker didn't know that in a couple weeks things would only get better for her as she took her first career TM Lights victory after leading the most laps at 19. Tucker was fast all day and a late race move on Jim Davidson with two laps to go sealed the victory for her.

When Tucker crossed the line to take the victory, she started screaming in such excitement that her crew could barely make out what she was saying. However, her victory lane interview was much more understandable.

"I just updated Twitter and literally all I typed was 'YES' about 15 times over. That's how excited I am right now" said Tucker with a huge smile on her face, also laughing as she spoke. "I just cannot believe it. I really can't. It's been a really hard season and I've not been fantastic, but this team have kept behind me and I cannot thank them enough. I hope this makes up for the rest of the season."

Tucker broke onto the scene in ARLA in 2011 when she made the 2011 150 Laps of Dwyer. Not only did she make it on debut, but Ashley led laps in the race through pit strategy, but when her brother took over the car, Thomas Tucker suffered a puncture and it relegated the brother-sister pairing to a 20th place finish, which is impressive non the less. As well as this, despite them not seeing eye to eye, Tucker thanked her brother in her interview.

"I'm not going to lie. He helped me a lot when I was getting started. He was the one on the radio as an excited teenager yelling 'stay out Ashley! You're gonna win it for us' and it really helped both of us get our names out. I wish he had the success I did though; I really do. It's a shame how things placed out for him."

Tucker will be racing at Road Gatineau in Quebec, where she has said she can hope to get noticed by some TMMC teams, but with the TMMC bunch being at Darlington at the same weekend as the Lights group, that may have helped her chances in being noticed.

Brinson capitalizes on two strong runs; 4th in Lights standings

Despite setbacks earlier in the year, owner/driver Matt Brinson is currently enjoying a stellar rookie season in the TM Lights series and is considered to be a dark horse contender for the series championship. Currently sitting 4th, the small organization has impressed many with their consistent finishes as of late.

A somewhat lackluster 10th at Portland for the road racing specialist was followed up by an absolutely stellar run by the rookie at Darlington as Brinson came back after an early accident to finish a strong 4th. The chain of top-10 finishes has given the team a swing of momentum as the series heads back to another road course.

Brinson: Portland was a bit of a bummer; we missed the setup and I was really hoping that we were going to have a better weekend. However, the strong showing at Darlington came as a bit of a pleasant surprise to both me and the team. The car was strong throughout the race and I picked up the track a bit better than I had originally hoped.

I know that I squeezed Cardel into the wall there and I'd like to apologize to him and that team. I took a shot from the driver behind me and I just got loose. I didn't mean anything by it and I know it put a damper on their night.

You know, I really couldn't be any happier with this team and how we've been able to compete in just our first season. Not a lot of people expected us to amount to much but I believe that's added a bit of fuel to our fire. Right now we're in position to possibly contend for the championship should the top 3 guys have problems. We're still looking for that breakout win but I feel that we're going to have a chance should we continue to post consistent results. Next week at Quebec could be just that if we set the car up just right.

Holiday has race to forget, than bounces back at Darlington

During the round of Portland, Holiday, stuck in the back after a unspectacular qualifying run, had a incident with Dexter Hamlet & Nick Azure, after Dexter decided to go three wide in a turn. Steve finished outside the points.

Holiday Jr : Not my race, bad qualifying run & it didn't work out. Just let's hopefully have a good run @ Darlington.

At the Round of Darlington, Steve qualified 11th, and ran mostly in the front. led some laps, and was a top-5 car, until the caution came out while pitting, which has defined his season, ending numerous good runs. Starting from the back, Holiday, charged from being the last car in line and at the end, regained his lost ground, and finished 6th. He is now 14th in the points.

Holiday Jr : Great car, but I get caught on pit road for like the 4th time this year, but luckily, I never gave up and finished 6th.