Sean Lovett Wins Maxxis-Sponsored Spec E30 Class at NASA Championships
With every driver on Maxxis tires, competition was bound to be hot and heavy in the Spec E30 class at the 2022 NASA Championships.
Sean Lovett won both Spec E30 qualifying races, but in comments to Speed News, he didn’t give in to overconfidence: “The thing we need to think about is that we have 45 minutes on Sunday, so tire management is going to be key to the whole game, because these Maxxis tires are great, but like any tire, 45 minutes of heavy abuse is definitely going to take a toll. So, we’ve certainly got the pace, but strategy is going to be important to win.”
Lovett and Sylas Montgomery traded the lead position for much of the championship race. Lovett took the front spot several laps before the finish, but the race was close right to the end; he won by a margin of three seconds, with Montgomery in second place and Nick Thiemann in third.
Rainy weather at the start of the race had led drivers to choose Maxxis’ Victra VR-1 tires. “That was the most amazing race I’ve ever had in my life. I was hoping for some rain and we got it. I had a feeling there would only be a few of us that could do this in the rain, and I knew it would be Sylas and me and we did it. Racing with Sylas, being the driver he is — a past national champion — was just so clean, bumper to bumper. We were learning from each other out there and we both knew where we needed to be for most of the race. We nearly took each other out probably a dozen times. But it was really more lapped traffic that was the hardest. It was all about being patient and trusting that wet line,” Lovett told Speed News.
Maxxis congratulates all three podium finishers and rest of the SE30 field who finished this challenging race.
