LEXINGTON, Ohio – Team Pelfrey driver TJ Fischer finished the sole tripleheader event on the 2017 calendar with a third-place finish along with two fourth-place results in Rounds 7, 8 and 9 of the Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course this weekend.
Fischer was able to put together the solid weekend results despite dealing with mechanical issues severely impacting practice and qualifying earlier in the weekend. Starting fourth in race one, Fischer put early pressure on the leaders and would eventually take over the third spot, a position he would hold until the end of the race.
In both race two and race three, Fischer started fifth and finished fourth in what was an impressive display of consistency, keeping the championship picture in mind. He remains third in the championship standings with three races remaining on the 2017 calendar.
“The weekend started out awesome,” noted Fischer, who has placed in the top five in all but two races this season when he was hampered by mechanical issues. “The first practice was great. Then we started rolling into everything and eventually we had an engine let go, which is unfortunate. Then we had another engine issue at the start of qualifying, which made it tricky for us. We were able to put in five laps in qualifying, just throw a time up there. I qualified fourth, which I think is pretty good because at Mid-Ohio you need time; it’s only a 20-minute qualifying session and it generally takes 15 minutes to get the peak of the lap time. So, to do that in under five minutes I think is pretty good. From there, we raced the entire race with my teammate, and eventually we made a move and passed him on the outside of the Carousel and got it done for the podium finish. So, getting a third there was awesome. I think it was a lot more than we could hope for. Then, the next two races, we had solid races, with good starts. On the last race, I got a couple passes on the outside into the Keyhole to make up some spots and pretty much ran my own race and ended up finishing fourth. We were missing a little bit, but a big credit to Team Pelfrey for bouncing back from the struggles we had to salvage something from the weekend. A podium and two fourth-place finishes, I think is a pretty good run.”
As is now customary on race weekends, asthma awareness foundation Project O2 took to the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course to promote its #Race2TheRescue outreach campaign, placing neon red stickers on rescue inhalers and neon green stickers on maintenance inhalers to delineate between the two for people affected by asthma. Fischer, who was diagnosed with asthma at an early age, created Project O2 last year to inform, inspire and innovate a new path to asthma awareness. Partnering with Propeller Health for another event, Fischer and Project O2 yet again reached an even larger audience. Between events at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Road America and Mid-Ohio, Project O2 has reached thousands of racing fans and families affected by asthma via its #Race2Therescue booth.
Next up on Fischer’s calendar is a single-race event at the Gateway Motorsports Park oval circuit in Madison, Ill. The weekend kicks off with practice on August 25 and culminates with a same-day qualifying and race on August 26. Gateway will be Fischer’s first-ever oval event.
For more information, follow @TravisJFischer on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.