Michele Abbate in her Scion FR-S at Thunderhill Raceway with the Nitto Tire USTCC Series. Photo by: Richard Pochop Photography

Abbate Turns More Heads at Nitto Tire USTCC Thunderhill Season Ender

November 16th marked the final race of the United States Touring Car Championship series for the 2014 season. The event took place at Thunderhill Raceway in Willows, CA and the long, technical, and fast 5 mile road course was the configuration. This was another new track that Michele Abbate had yet to have any track time on, so this would be another chance for Abbate to prove her learning curve to her seasoned competitors.

After the race at Miller Motorsports Park and some test time at Spring Mountain, the team was able to tune the FR-S’ set up even further. Adjusting the Whiteline sway bars and some fine tuning of Abbate’s AST Suspension, the FR-S is becoming more and more balanced for its racing application. In addition, the team had decided to put on WinMax USA’s W3 pad, a more progressive pad than the aggressive W4. This provided Michele with more confidence in her braking and allowed her to ease into the more technical turns of the track. Local Las Vegas shop H1 Performance provided a very neutral set up for the alignment, with experience in knowing the track’s characteristics.

Since hitting the track at the last event, Abbate has added a few more mods to her FR-S. William Knose at Delicious Tuning spent some quality time with car, creating a new and improved tune, providing Michele with more top end power. In addition, Raceseng provided Michele with their new AC Delete Bracket prototype, which shaved an additional 2.8 lbs out of the engine bay. Lastly, in conjunction with partnering with HPI Racing, Michele Abbate has been announced as an affiliated athlete of the HPI Racing driver line up, and HPI Racing has created a RC Car replica of her USTCC Abbate Racing FR-S!

HPI Racing adds Michele Abbate as an athlete on their driver line up, as well as creates a RC replica of her USTCC Scion FR-S Photo by: Richard Pochop Photography

Michele stated “I am so excited and thankful for the opportunity to work directly with HPI Racing! In the past our team has recreated every Scion model that I have driven since 2011, and it is absolutely amazing to see our FR-S come to life on their RTR Sprint 2 FLUX chassis! Thank you HPI Racing for making this possible, we look forward to continuing our partnership in 2015!”

Entering the race weekend, after the first practice session Michele reported, “This track is HUGE! I really underestimated the technicalities and how big the 5 mile course is; I’ll admit, I was completely lost out there. I studied this track as best I could by watching videos, but youtube does no justice to the elevation, speed, and length of this configuration”. Abbate put down a 4:19 as her best lap in the first practice session, but this didn’t last very long. In the 2nd practice session she came off the track with a more improved 3:50 pace, but admitted, “there is still WAY more time out there, I’m still learning the track and struggling to remember exactly which turn I am in and what is next.” The 3rd session out would be the last for Saturday, and acted as a first chance qualifier. Michele turned some heads after clocking off a more competitive time of a 3:41.4. Many of the USTCC officials and series competitors were surprised with Michele’s ability to chop such large amounts of time each session out – especially having this be her very first time at the facility. The seasoned driver’s had much experience with the old 3 mile course, and were left to figure out the new sections, whereas Abbate was set out on 5 miles of all new territory!

Abbate taking advantage of the 5 mile track at Thunderhill in the USTCC series. Photo by: Richard Pochop Photography

Sunday was race day, but also offered one practice and one last chance qualifier. Abbate did not disappoint, she continued to shave more time off of her past sessions, and ended up qualifying 5th overall with a respectable lap time of 3:35.8. “I am so ecstatic to be at this track, and truly learning the potential of our team and our car. This weekend has been completely rewarding, and it is exciting to be right there with my competitors. Having this be our first year in the Nitto Tire USTCC, at these new (to me) tracks, with a brand new chassis; we are setting some high benchmarks for the NA FA20 platform, I couldn’t be happier with our performance, and I am more than excited for our race today”.

Starting in the 3rd row in the standing start, Michele knew the 45 minute race would allow her to gain more seat time, get a faster line, and race her competitors to the finish. Abbate got a late start off the green, but quickly made up the difference in the first lap. She battled with Larry Bani, a GT classed car, for the entire race. Turning quicker laps than she had in qualifying, the potential was obvious in both her team, car, and driving skill. Michele finished 4th overall by then end of the exciting race, and continued to turn the heads of her competitors.

“I am so proud of our team and the accomplishments we have made during our debut in the Nitto USTCC for the 2014 season! We had a late start, but we have proven that we are competitive, and with every race finish we have progressed closer to the podium. I am more confident than ever that next year we will be knocking on the door for many wins; especially now that we have gained data for our car, these tracks, and our set up,” Abbate stated with a smile on her face.

Driver Michele Abbate and crew chief Anthony Philleo celebrate their last race of the season! Photo by: Richard Pochop Photography

As the season comes to a close, we would like to take a moment and thank all of our sponsors for their support. With their help, we can reflect and celebrate the accomplishments that were achieved during this season:

-Michele Abbate made her professional debut in the Nitto Tire USTCC series
-Michele Abbate became the first driver to ever debut a Scion in the USTCC series, earning Scion its first manufacturer points, as well as a manufacturer season finish of 5th overall, ahead of Mazda
-Abbate’s FR-S earned the cover page and feature article in Carbon LV Magazine
-Abbate’s FR-S named one of the top 20 FR-S’ in the 2014 SEMA Show
-Abbate’s FR-S is contingent in being named the fastest NA FA20 platform in the US

With the off season among us, we have a very busy schedule. For the 2015 season we are focusing on weight reduction, and maximizing our power to weight ratio. We have several modification lined up to contribute to these efforts and we are very excited to see the progress as we schedule test time at different tracks throughout the winter season.

Abbate sitting P5 on grid at Thunderhill Raceway for the Nitto Tire USTCC series race. Photo by: Richard Pochop Photography

Everyone with Michele Abbate’s team would like to extend our deepest “thank you” to our fans, followers and our sponsors for contributing to our success this year. We appreciate your efforts in supporting our team, our goals, and believing that we have what it takes to be on top. We are anxious for the 2015 season and look forward to including you on our journey. We extend a huge THANK YOU and happy holidays to:

Delicious Tuning, Reklaw Design, ACT Clutch, Berk Technology, GTSpec, KC Machine, ADIDAS, AST Suspension, Whiteline, Raceseng, Keyport, WedsSport Wheels, APR Performance, WinMax USA, CUSCO, Midland, Takata, KE Arms, Seibon Carbon, Mishomoto, Innovate Motorsports, Sin City Oil /Amsoil, DBA Rotors, Driven Steering, and Five:AD Design.