Betts makes Trans Am debut

May 15, 2014

(Team Release) Norm Betts came to Road Atlanta to join Trans Am, have some fun in the competition, and put his name in the Trans Am history books.
For some the first time out might be scary but in the end uneventful. For others, you have to earn it. For Betts, he had to earn it.

Betts is an experienced club level road racer with the SCCA Runoffs on his resume among other things. He unloaded his red Corvette he was looking to get his feet wet and learn. After the event Betts said, "Yes, I learned a lot."

The action packed event began for Norm on the test day when he tangled with the #20 TA3I Corvette entry of Russ Snow. Snow told Betts the contact was his fault and not to worry about it. The contact caused some right rear suspension damage, but was fixed quickly. The next day in practice Betts found the tire wall with the left side of the car. "My fault. Lots of work in a short period of time to get ready for qualifying.", Betts said. "It was a great job by crew chief Dave Jones and the crew."

Betts got the car out for qualifying and without any drama laid down a solid lap to prepare for the big day. His first pro race. His first Trans Am series race.

The race itself began smoothly. Betts found a good rhythm until going under the bridge his Corvette went suddenly dead. "It was a rookie mistake. I was shifting up to fourth gear hit the power button and it switched off the car. I learned from that mistake. Now I have a guard on the switch.", he said.

All things considered Norm was having a pretty good day. After a late caution he was in position to race Tim Grey's #60 Porsche for 2nd place. "I made the pass on the restart. The next lap I spun and gave the position back. I learned a lot from the weekend.", said Betts.

Expect to see more of Norm and his red Corvette this weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park.