A Labor Day race weekend in Austin wrapped up with three different SprintX winners in three races, Patrick Long nearing the overall GT points championship and a teenager from New Braunfels showing he can hang with the veterans.
Parker Chase, a 16-year-old junior at Canyon High, racked up back-to-back second-place finishes in the GTS Pro class of the Grand Prix of Texas, a Pirelli World Challenge event at Circuit of the Americas.
“This was one of the more important weekends, being in my home state and near my home town, especially with lots of family and cousins from all over Texas here,” Chase said. “The highlight had to be Saturday, going from last place to the podium.”
Chase, who drives the No. 19 Ginetta G55 for Performance Motorsports Group, said more students at Canyon are starting to catch on to what he does.
“At first a lot of them didn’t grasp it, they thought it was just a hobby for me,” he said. “I think my friends are more blown away now that they understand I’m racing professional drivers. This is my sport. I want to be a full-time race car driver.”
Chase, who will run at the season ender at Sonoma (Calif.) on Sept. 15-17, competed at St. Petersburg (Fla.), Mid-Ohio, Road America (Wis.) and twice in Europe this year. He said securing sponsorship is a major challenge and will be “searching for more race options” next year.
Sunday he finished 2.7 seconds behind Rodrigo Baptista, a 20-year-old Brazilian in the Flying Lizard Porsche Cayman GT4.
“We were reeling him in, but with about 15 minutes to go Rodrigo just pulled away,” said Chase, who began racing at age 11 at the Hill Country Kart Club in New Braunfels. “I can’t complain. All in all, another trophy for the collection.”
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