In her ongoing quest to reach the next level, Natalie Decker is expanding her racing diversity and enters in the upcoming Trans-Am race at Road America this Saturday, August 25th. She will be piloting an 850 horsepower Corvette out of the Tony Ave stables. Ave Motorsports is highly recognized in the Trans Am world and touted as one of the best motorsports companies in the Industry. With the car being 2800 pounds (so about 500 pounds lighter than a stock car) they will be the fastest cars at Road America this weekend.
When asked his thoughts on Natalie’s performance thus far Tony replied “I was very impressed with her at the test. Most drivers take awhile to get used to the horsepower to weight ratio of these cars, and she was hard on the throttle right away. I would also say she is the most receptive driver we have ever worked with. She is like a sponge if she thinks the information will make her faster. No ego which is rare and will serve her well. We are more selective with who we run in our house cars because my business has grown to where I have a lot of responsibilities away from the track now, and originally I put Natalie in a couple of my cars not only because I thought she did really well at Road America in ARCA with no experience, but also to sort of repay the Deckers for helping me quite a bit when I was racing Formula 1 snowmobiles. However after working with her, now we are actively working on raising the budget to run her in as many races as we can, in a variety of venues.”
High praises coming from Tony gives Natalie added courage. She says ” I’m so grateful to Tony for the opportunity and that he believes in me. He has so much knowledge and amazing cars along with being a fantastic coach, I’ve learned so much!”
The Trans Am race starts at 10:10 am. From there she jets over to Berlin for the ARCA make up race that was rained out at Berlin Raceway in MI. Grinning from ear to ear with her signature smile, Natalie comments “I am so lucky to be able to do all this racing from the dirt race, to testing the next day at Lucas Oil Speedway, and now testing 2 days at Road America, and then race Saturday morning in Trans Am race, then flying with my sponsors and family to make it to the ARCA race that evening. This is crazy and so fun and a dream to be driving all these different cars and different tracks in less than a week.”
It will certainly be a whirlwind day for Team 25 and Natalie Nation!