Chad Gilsinger of Marysville is shown driving in the lead of the recent Super Touring 2 Class championship in Texas. Gilsinger won the event.
(Photo submitted)
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Chad Gilsinger of Marysville won the recent Super Touring 2 class championship at the 2018 National Auto Sport Association National Championships.
More than 450 amateur and professional drivers from across the United States converged on Circuit of The Americas outside Austin, Texas, to compete for a championship in more than 20 classes.
This year’s National Championships was the largest field of competitors since NASA was formed in 1991.
“It really came down to the first turn honestly, I had a really good start. I knew Todd (Clarke) was a lot quicker than me, so I had to get as big of a gap as I could,” Gilsinger said. “I was able to get by a lot of the ST1 cars, which he ended up having to battle through a lot and then lap traffic you really just had to be aggressive to get by him or else you get held up too much.”
Drivers had two days of qualifying sessions and a qualifying race before the championship races on Sunday, Sept.16.
NASA is one of the United States’ largest grassroots motorsports groups, with numerous drivers moving into the professional ranks.
The racers drove the same 3.4-mile road course that Formula 1 drivers will run in late October on the North American leg of their tour. With varying elevations and challenging turns, the Circuit of The Americas road course pushes amateur and professional drivers’ skills to their limits.
This year marked NASA’s return to a single National Championships centrally located in the country. Previously, NASA held National Championships on the East and West coasts. The combined championships produced larger fields and a single National Champion for each class.