SKUSA ProMoto

Barrie Canada

June 22, 2002

Late Start for the Barrie ProMoto.

The Barrie ProMoto will be Andy's second outing with the new Birel Pavesi. He was not happy with his last performance at Norway, and made up his mind to do better in Barrie. Especially after Tony and Niki got on him for not finishing the last race.

Friday started about 4 hours late, as the track was not ready for racing. We had five practice sessions of 15 min. almost 1 hour apart. We wanted to start slow and have Andy work up to speed as the session went along. By the end of the session he got his lap time down to 45.8 sec.

The 3 qualifying laps did not start until around 8:00 pm. and Andy could not improve on his previous time. At the end his best time was 46.053 sec. placing him at seventh fastest. This was somewhat disappointing since his times were improving every session. Still we were confident that better lap times could be achieved the next day.

 

June 23, 2002

Andoro Coello Racing team driver Andy Rossetto places 3rd in his first ProMoto Race. But.....

The schedule for Saturday's program was delayed by 2 hours because a brief morning shower. We sat around for most of the day waiting for the pre-final. As he did all day yesterday Andy improved his lap times as the track was getting better. Starting the pre-final from the 7th position he gained 2 spots to finish 5th. His lap time improved to 45.469 sec.

The final was the last race of day and it did not start until 8:00 pm. By then the track was in good condition with more rubber on the road. Andy made a good start and did not lose any positions. He quickly caught the fourth place driver and looked to pass for the next two laps. After studying the situation he found out that he was quicker coming out of the "beer tent" hairpin leading to the start/finish line. Coming out of the hairpin he pulled along side at the start/finish line, went deeper into turn one and made a clean pass on the inside. After two laps he was gone, pursuing the next kart.

From the 10th lap forward something clicked and his lap times improved tremendously, from low 45 to mid 44 and he ran consistently 44.4 to 44.6 with a best lap time of 44.22 sec. Tony and Niki commented that he must have stopped at the "bus stop" chicane and substituted a different driver. With about 10 laps to go the driver in 3rd place spun out and Andy inherited 3rd place. His performance and consistent driving was more satisfying to the team than the 3rd place finish. Although Andy did enjoy the podium ceremony.

Unfortunately at scrutineering we did not pass minimum weight. The fuel tank was almost empty and Andy probably lost a few pounds during the race. But still we were happy with his driving performance and the way his lap times remained consistent until the very end.