HIGH POINT, N.C. (June 29, 2022) – America’s Road Racing Series meets America’s National Park of Speed on Fourth of July Weekend. Sounds like the makings for a hugely festive affair when Silver Hare Racing regulars Maurice Hull and Connor Zilisch take to the 4.048-mile, 14-turn circuit at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, for Sunday’s Ryan Companies presents the Trans Am 100s.
With the eyes of the NASCAR Cup Series and Xfinity Series looking on from their respective paddocks at the iconic racetrack, Hull and Zilisch will be part of a mammoth, 51-car field that will contest Round 8 of the 2022 Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli and will be joined by a third Silver Hare entry that will be piloted by first-time TA2-class competitor Marc Sharinn of Cold Springs Harbor, New York.
Hull will be behind the wheel of the No. 57 Waukegan Farms/Silver Hare Racing Chevrolet Camaro looking to better his finishes of 17th and 13th at Road America in 2020 and 2021, respectively. The 15-year-old Zilisch will be making his eighth career Trans Am start and first at Road America in his No. 5 Silver Hare Racing/KHI Management Chevrolet Camaro, while Sharinn, a 52-year-old commercial real estate attorney who’s raced vintage stock cars, P3-class prototypes and GT sportscars for most of the past decade, will make his Trans Am debut in the No. 75 Silver Hare Racing Chevrolet Camaro.
Hull, the three-time Trans Am TA2 masters champion, returns to the cockpit for the third time this season and first since Round 3 at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta on March 27, when he finished 14th overall and tops in the masters class. This weekend marks his third career Road America start in TA2.
Zilisch, the young driving phenom from Mooresville, North Carolina, who wrapped up his sophomore year of high school earlier this month, saw his streak of back-to-back top-five TA2 finishes come to an end in his last event on Memorial Day weekend at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Connecticut, when overheating issues forced his early departure just 19 laps into the 68-lap race. He’s looking to rebound with the form he displayed on back-to-back weekends on the West Coast – April 24 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca near Monterey, California, and May 1 at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway – both of which resulted in fifth-place finishes.
This weekend, he’ll be pulling double duty for the second time this season by also competing in Rounds 9 and 10 of the Idemitsu Mazda MX-5 Cup, which joins its NASCAR and Trans Am brethren on the event lineup at Road America. Zilisch earned his first MX-5 Cup pole of the season for last weekend’s first of two races at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International before an accident not of his doing ended his bid. He rebounded with a powerful run in the second race of the weekend, powering his way from 28th on the starting grid to a sixth-place finish. It’s the kind of speed Zilisch has exhibited in Trans Am since his series debut last October at Virginia International Raceway (VIR) in Alton, where he became the youngest pole-winner in series history with a lap of 1:48.905. In this year’s Round 2 on the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Roval, Zilisch laid down the fastest practice and qualifying laps, as well as the fastest lap of the race.
In a rare occurrence this season, Zilisch will not be seeing the Road America for the first time in his young career, which has been the case for him at most stops on the Trans Am tour. Just two weekends ago, he was part of a 70-car field racing in the Spec Miata class of the SCCA June Sprints, and he proved his mettle with finishes of fourth and second in the twin events. He’s also continued to test the racing waters in various other series since Memorial Day weekend at Lime Rock, as he has done all season long. On June 11, Zilisch competed in a Pro Late Model for the first time on the three-eighths-mile paved oval at Orange County Speedway in Rougemont, North Carolina, and he put on his typical head-turning exhibition, scoring the feature race victory. He’s also begun taking part on Mondays and Tuesdays in the Summer Shootout Series for Legends cars at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
For series newcomer Sharinn, this weekend will be a family affair as his son Tyler will also be making his Trans Am debut in the No. 0 Camaro for owner Mike McManman’s MMR/FPEC Racing Group. Sharinn brings previous Road America experience into this weekend’s event. He scored a podium finish in an SVRA race four years ago in a vintage NASCAR Cup Series car he purchased from Team Penske. He’s also tested an LMP3 Ligier prototype at the track.
Silver Hare Racing leverages its Trans Am effort to promote its arrive-and-drive program, where aspiring racers and even tenured professionals hone their road-racing skills on some of the most revered tracks in North America. NASCAR Cup Series drivers Christopher Bell, Daniel Suárez, William Byron and Harrison Burton and, at the recent TA2 rounds at Laguna Seca and Sonoma, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series regular Lawless Alan, have all wheeled Silver Hare Racing-prepared cars to burnish their road-racing abilities. In addition to top-flight equipment, Silver Hare Racing offers professional driver coaching.
The team offers six, professionally built and maintained TA2 chassis from Howe Racing for both competition and private testing. Silver Hare Racing has a dedicated, fulltime crew and operates out of a state-of-the-art facility in High Point, North Carolina. At the track, two 53-foot Featherlite transporters serve as the team’s base, each outfitted with a lounge and smart TVs for data and video review, as well as for hospitality.
“With NASCAR having so many more road-course races, it’s our goal for Silver Hare Racing to be the preferred team for drivers to get that road-course experience,” said Laura Hull, Silver Hare Racing co-owner and team manager. “We want to be that important step in the ladder for the young, up-and-coming drivers like Connor, which we’re doing in collaboration with Kevin Harvick Incorporated.
“It started when they brought him to us for testing at VIR a year ago, and now we’re delighted to have him under contract. That’s how we’re trying to position this. We want people to know we have an arrive-and-drive program, where people who want to run this track or another, we provide the opportunity for them to do that and be successful.”
Silver Hare Racing is a fulltime competitor in the TA2 division of the Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli. The multicar team has won the TA2 Masters class championship three times (2018, 2019 and 2020) with driver and team co-owner Maurice Hull. Under the leadership of Hull’s wife, co-owner and team manager Laura Hull, Silver Hare Racing provides a variety of services that includes private testing and arrive-and-drive programs. The team offers six, professionally built and maintained TA2 chassis from Howe Racing and operates from a state-of-the-art facility in High Point, North Carolina. For more information, please visit SilverHareRacing.com.