Brandon Lareau
| Brandon Lareau | |
| Age | 36 |
| Nationality |  American
|
| Years Competed | 2012- |
| Rookie Season | 2012 |
| Current Team | Ortega Motorsports |
| Former Team(s) | DeGarmo-Delgado Enterprises |
| Championships | 0 |
| Pole Positions | 1 |
| Wins | 0 |
| First Race | 2012 Round of Las Vegas |
| Last Race | 2014 Round of Ohio |
| Last Attempt | 2014 Round of Decatur |
| @BBoyAfterburn | |
| TM Master Cup Series Driver | |
| Brandon Lareau | |
| [[Image:|150px]] | |
| Age | 36 |
| Nationality | American
|
| Years Competed | 2012-2018 |
| Rookie Season | 2012 |
| Former Team(s) | Afterburner Motorsports Wolfesport BlackDiamond Racing Ortega Motorsports |
| Championships | 0 |
| Pole Positions | at least 2 |
| Wins | 6 |
| First Race | 2012 TM Lights @ Las Vegas |
| First Win | 2016 TM Lights @ Provo |
| Last Win | 2018 TM Lights @ Carbondale |
| Last Race | 2018 TM Lights @ Decatur |
| @BBoyAfterburn | |
| TM Lights Driver | |
Brandon Lareau is a TM Master Cup driver for the Mexican team Ortega Motorsports.
2012 - Independent's Trophy & TM Lights[edit | edit source]
In 2012, Lareau ran a full-time TM Lights and part-time TM Master Cup Series program with the newly-formed Afterburner Motorsports team as their sole driver. His TM Lights campaign was unremarkable outside of a few top 10 finishes, with the only noteworthy exception being a controversial accident at Mosport involving him and James Davison. He would finish 25th in the final championship standings.
His rookie season in the TM Master Cup Series season was a different story however, as he turned heads with some solid points finishes during his Independent's Trophy run. He did not qualify for the prestigious Karjala Grand Prix, but he would however qualify for the following special event at Indianapolis after an accident in his pre-qualifying race led to the disqualification of Noeilla Castillo and bumped Lareau into the main qualifier where he raced his way in. The biggest accomplishment of his young career came at the finale in Decatur, where he stunned the TM paddock by claiming his first career pole position. His impressive showing in qualifying however would not come to bear fruit in the race itself as he spun off the nose of Mathias Taube early on and never recovered.
2013 - Independent's Trophy & TM Lights (Take 2)[edit | edit source]
Lareau's 2013 TM Lights campaign would be dramatically different from his 2012 outing. Although he never wound up winning a race, his consistently strong points finishes throughout the season resulted in Lareau finishing in the top 5 of the final championship standings. This would catch the eye of the newly-formed DeGarmo-Delgado Enterprises team, where he was announced as one of their two drivers alongside Tom Moore for the 2014 TM Master Cup Series season.
2014 - DeGarmo-Delgado Enterprises & Wolfesport[edit | edit source]
To say that Lareau's 2014 season was an unmitigated disaster would be an understatement. Lareau quickly found himself at the bottom of the TM Master Cup standings while frequently being involved in numerous avoidable accidents and drawing the ire of owners Owen DeGarmo and Tom Delgado. Things would come to a head at the 2014 Round of Ohio where Lareau was involved in another avoidable accident and was later involved in a heated confrontation with Owen DeGarmo. Little is known about what was said in that discussion, but Lareau was released from the team shortly after and finding himself out of the series. Lareau would find a ride for the remaining special events, but failed to qualify for another race that year.
Towards the end of the year, TM Lights team Wolfesport requested Lareau's driving duties after their primary driver Takumi Nagata was suspended for the remainder of the season for his own avoidable accidents. Lareau was a dramatic improvement over Nagata, and brought home two strong finishes to close out the year while running the fastest laps of the race in both of his starts with the team.
2016-2018 - "Super Sub"[edit | edit source]
After spending the entire 2015 season racing late models in his home state of North Carolina, Lareau was looking to doing much the same throughout the early part of 2016 until he was contacted to substitute in TM Lights for Bryce Neil. In Neil's absence, Lareau would wind up collecting his first career TM Lights victory at Provo, along with another podium and 2 pole positions. He would race again for Wolfesport in the last three races of the season, scoring points in each one. 2017 would be a spectacular year for Lareau, who would rack up 3 wins in just 7 starts in TM Lights, and winning with three different teams in the process, BlackDiamond Racing, Ortega Motorsports, and Team Timothy. This would prove enough for Team Timothy to acquire Lareau's driving duties for a full-time effort in 2018. Lareau began 2018 where he left off with 2 more wins, however he would not find victory lane again that year thanks in part to a dominant and eventual champion Saul Fischel, who won 7 races that same season.
2019 - Ortega Motorsports[edit | edit source]
After spending the past four years of his racing career shifting between late models and substituting for TM Master Cup and Lights teams alike, Lareau clawed his way back into the TM Master Cup Series full-time with a team he had previously won with in the Lights series, Ortega Motorsports. He will be teammates with 2014 TM Lights champion Héctor Serrano, replacing José Luis Martinez, who was relegated to a third driver role within the team.