With two podium results on the season to date, Logan Cusson arrived at the Brainerd International Raceway looking to add to his 2021 point total. Competing with the Team Championship leading TJ Speed outfit, Cusson overcame adversity in race one to rebound with a fifth-place result in race two and a fourth in race three. Cusson will now shift his focus to the next event at the Virginia International Raceway in September.
After qualifying in the eighth position, Cusson had a great start to round ten and climbed his way up the running order. With the goal of a top-five finish, the Canadian driver was running fifth putting the heat on his fellow competitor for the fourth position. Looking to make a move in the late stages of the race, Cusson’s #99 TJ Speed entry suddenly died as he lost all power and was forced to the sidelines. With no drive forward and out of the race, Logan was eventually classified in the tenth position, despite scoring the fourth fastest lap of the race.
“Disappointing to not finish the first race today but we have two more chances tomorrow,” explained Cusson. “We had a similar issue in practice, and we thought we had solved the issue. Apparently, it was not fixed 100% and cost us a possible podium result. Disappointing for sure.
Beginning race two of the weekend from the fourth position, Cusson was able to move into third early on and hold his own for more than fifty percent of the race distance. With pace falling off in the second half of the race, Cusson fell back to fourth before the only caution of the race and dropped one more position on the restart to finish fifth. With the sixth fastest lap of the race, Logan was pleased with the result compared to the lack of speed shown from his Ligier JSF3.
Race three on the weekend would be a similar result for Cusson. After starting fifth and gaining one position on the opening lap, the #99 TJ Speed entry fell back to P5 on lap three. Unable to hold some hard charging competitors at bay and lacking speed once again, Cusson dropped one more position just before half race distance and again with ten minutes remaining. When the checkered flag flew, the Echelon Wealth / Peerage Capital / Dickinson Wright / Miles Nadal backed driver climbed back up to P5 and earned his second fifth-place result of the weekend. Following the race, a driver in front of Cusson was given a time penalty for his actions on track dropping him down the running and advancing Logan to a fourth-place result.
Cusson added, “We rebounded nicely at the end of the weekend but still lacked the pace to fight for a podium. We will do our homework over the next few weeks and see where our speed has gone and see what we can do to make sure it is back for the final two event weekends of 2021.”
Logan Cusson would like to thank his marketing partners for their continued support. A huge thank you to Dickinson Wright, Peerage Capital and Echelon Capital Markets as well as an extra special thank you to Miles Nadal.
Photo: Gavin Baker Photography
