La Rocca's August Check-In

August 12, 2011
La Rocca at speed at Mosport

It has been a couple weeks since the chaotic Mosport weekend, and tensions and emotions have calmed down.

Although it was not our best weekend this season, we again showed how strong we were. Mosport is, in my opinion, far and beyond the most challenging track this season. There have been many tracks on the schedule that I have never been too, and Mosport was one that was always at the back of my head.

I kept hearing from different people that this track separates the men from the boys, and I didn’t doubt it… having 4 flat out corners at high speeds takes some major commitment and large attachments.

We started off the weekend in not the greatest form. The set up we originally began with was wrong, and we were many seconds off the pace. I was a bit worried that our weekend was not going to be the one we hoped for. Regardless, we went back to the drawing board, and my team, like they always do, gave me a great car. We immediately jumped into the top 3 of the time sheets, where we hung around for most of the weekend.

The rookie is still looking for his first win.

We ran into some misfortunes though. It definitely was not the smoothest weekend ever. In the first qualifying, the car was great. Unfortunately, we ran out of fuel on my fast lap on the last corner, which could have been good enough for pole. Then, in the race, we were caught out by two long safety car periods, and we could not do better than 4th place. I believe that if the race would have gone green the entire way, we could have been on the podium.

In the second qualifying, I was starting my fast lap, and a car that had gone through turn two right before had spilled water on the track. The corner workers failed to notify me, so when I went through there I had a huge spin. I was very fortunate to not have hit the wall, but my tires… well they were no longer round. We were able to fit on 4 very old tires on the car, and we still qualified 3rd. Then for the second race, we were unlucky to have been caught up in the accident in turn one. It is unfortunate, as I know we all would have liked to have ended the weekend by having a great race, but that is racing.

Even though we did not have the weekend we wanted, I had a great time. This is now one of my favorite tracks, and I cannot wait to be back.  Now we move to the last two rounds of the season.  I’m pretty optimistic that we will be able to finish off strong. Ralph and Indy brought us some updates to the car at Mosport, and we figured out a couple of things. With that, we should be strong at Lime Rock, and we will be stronger at Watkins Glen.

-Robert
@Robert_La_Rocca
www.robertolarocca.com

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