T&T’s very own young Zachary Frankie Boodram, son of Franklyn and grandson of Frankie Boodram, stalwarts in regional circuit racing, has won the second round of the GT Challenge de las Américas at the newly developed Autodromo Panamá on July 27th and 28th.
Piloting his newly acquired Lamborghini Huracan GT3 through dry and wet track conditions, Zach managed to stave off seasoned Latin American racers despite this being his first time competing at the GT Challenge events.
Zach: “It was a fantastic experience!
Considering that I put the car in the container knowing i did not have much seat time as we only had it for a month with just seat time from the SpeedJam event and one short test day.”
“I thought that it would be a nice step forward in the right direction to see if my pace is good enough for the best in Latin America.
After my first few laps we saw the pace was there with good lap times. This is first time driving on these Pirelli slicks so after we put on a new set it was night and day difference. We dropped almost 2 full seconds with just the newer compound tyre that is mandatory for this GTS class.”
“After we saw the times we knew we were on pace for at least top 3.”
“We were set for qualifying but due to rain, it was postponed until much later on Saturday.”
“We ended up qualifying on pole with a lap time of 59.888 seconds.
While everyone else stayed above 1:01 seconds”
“On Sunday, the first race we battled with one of the Audi R8s and also the Lamborghini driven by Juan Diego for almost all of the race, however due to a small incident that brought out the safety car, it allowed Diego to gain 12 seconds on me and maintain it for the entire 1st race which we finished 2nd.”
“The final race was one for the books. For 40 mins it was another tough battle with Diego’s Lambo. Switching positions through the back, and even small racing touches, around 30 minutes into the race, a heavy shower on part of the track which red-flagged the race as it became too dangerous for slicks.”
“The race officials then allowed everyone to swap to wet tyres and the race was restarted with 10 mins remaining. I continued battling and in the last 3 laps of the race I passed Diego to gain the first position and finish in 1st place.”
With the fantastic results at the GT Challenge de las Américas championship, Team SpeedWay has decided to run the remainder of the championship for 2024.
The next event will be in the Dominican Republic in September 2024.
The Lamborghini Huracán is already on its way to the DR.
The Renault RS01 however due to an electronic bug that prevented us from competing, we have decided to leave the car in Panama to have a team rectify the issue and hopefully race in the Panama Autódromo International event in October 2024.
Read more about Zach and Team Speed Way’s victory and their return home here.
