Ron Atapattu Has Successful Weekend in Lamborghini Super Trofeo Races in Jerez, Spain

Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, October 28… Ron Atapattu, driver of the No. 124 elephantea/ShipOCI/ Lamborghini of La Jolla Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO had a successful weekend at the Lamborghini World Finals in Jerez, Spain. The 2.75-mile/4.428 km Circuito de Jerez, on the Jerez-Angel Nieto Circuit, was host of the IMSA Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America Series final two races of the 12-race, six venue IMSA-sanctioned season, along with a doubleheader year-end World Finals for Lamborghini drivers from three continents.

Atapattu, of Miami, Fla. and co-driver Patrick Liddy, of Pasadena, Calif., competing as teammates in the Pro-Am class since Race 6, both drove strong in their final two races of the 2019 IMSA season. Not only were they awarded with podium finishes in both races but captured third-place in the Lamborghini North American Pro-Am class championship.

In the North America first race of the weekend, Atapattu was starting driver of the No. 124 elephantea entry, which normally runs No. 24 in the U.S. He drove a solid race and maintained second-place in class for the majority of his stint. After the midway pit stop Liddy entered for the final half of the race and was vying for a second-place finish, but after suffering a tire blowout, it dropped them to third-place when a second pit stop was required. This led them to finish third in the North American Pro-Am penultimate race.

Liddy was starting driver in Race 2, the final North America race of the season. He began his stint in second-place and stayed there for most of his drive but took over the lead by team strategy to keep him on track until late in the pit window. He brought the Lamborghini Huracan into the pits to hand the car over to Atapattu, who also demonstrated a strong drive for the balance of the race. Atapattu was able to hold off several cars to finish second in Pro-Am and ninth overall. The pair’s robust showing this weekend elevated them to third-place in the year-end IMSA North American Lamborghini Super Trofeo Pro-Am Championship standings.

Saturday and Sunday saw the gathering of Lamborghini racers from North America, Europe and Asia to compete against one another for the prestigious Lamborghini World Finals. In the first of two World Finals, Liddy started fifth in class but was hit by a competitor in the opening laps. This hindered his and Atapattu’s ability to move their Lamborghini into a podium spot in the 50-minute race and they had to settle for an eighth-place finish.

In the second World Final race Atapattu was starting driver and worked to stay clear of an accident on Lap 4 that retired three cars from the race. He kept a steady pace and turned the car over to Liddy with less than 30 minutes to go. Liddy kept a fast pace and picked off a couple of class competitors to bring home the elephantea car in eighth-place once again.

Atapattu, the Founder and President of Overseas Cargo, Inc. (ShipOCI.com), returned to professional racing this season with his exciting platform to market his elephantea, a premium tea company, and elephant conservation awareness programs through his eTeaRacing effort.
“This is a long week of racing and not something we had done before,” said Atapattu, of Miami, Fla. “This is the first time we have pretty much raced every day of the week, spending quite a bit of time in the car and on the track. This is a beautiful track but it’s kind of narrow, so it doesn’t give you any room for errors, so you always have to be aware of where we are on the track, with lots of tight corners and overall a nice track, a nice venue. It’s an enjoyable event because all the Lamborghinis from all over the world and all the drivers are here. It’s nice to see all the competition from every part of the world.

Ron Atapattu – “For us, we had great success the first two races for the North America final rounds. We had podium finishes and then finished third in Pro-Am in the championship, which was great. Going into the World Finals, we had some hope that we would get on the podium and we would be competitive but both races we had some misfortune and ended up eighth overall in both races, which is not a bad finish considering the competition we had from all over the world. We hoped we could have done a little bit better though but let’s see what happens next year.”