ROCKETSPORTS
RACING TRANS-AM RACE REPORT: MOSPORT
Drissi
Finishes as Runner-up and Ramoutarsingh Rounds Out the
Top Ten
They may not have claimed
the victory at Mosport
International Raceway this weekend, but
Rocketsports Racing drivers Tomy Drissi and Daniel
Ramoutarsingh leave as winners.
Despite being held up by
traffic, Drissi qualified the #5 Night
at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian Jaguar
XKR with a time of 1:18.923 (112.165 mph), which
put him third on the grid. Unlike the last Trans-Am race
which saw several yellows, this weekend’s event stayed
green for all 37 laps providing some really exciting
racing. Drissi battled second-running Jorge Diaz for
most of the race. On lap 30, the Hollywood-native passed
Diaz to claim the second spot and never looked back.
Drissi commented,
“Everyone drove a really good race, it was a great
event. I was able to stay with Tony Ave (who started
second) at the beginning of the race before he took the
lead from Diaz. Then it was my turn to battle with Diaz.
The #5 Night at the Museum: Battle of the
Smithsonian Jaguar XKR was faster than him on some
areas of the track, but he was faster than me on others.
This is not exactly the easiest track to pass on, so I
had to stay patient and just paced him waiting for the
right time to make a move. With eight laps to go I could
tell that he didn’t have any tire left, so I was able
to take advantage of that. By the time I got past Diaz,
leader Klaus
Graf had built up such a big gap that I just
couldn’t catch him in time, and we had to settle for
second.
We are real happy though.
The Rocketsports Racing team did a really good job; they
gave me a great car. It was great to be back racing at
Mosport – the Canadian fans were great and happy to
see us back. It was just so fast there, it continues to
be an amazing place on and off track. I am looking
forward to going to Mid-Ohio and I am not going to leave
anything on the table there. We have been very close to
wins, but now we need one.”
Despite being another new
track for Ramoutarsingh, this weekend was a little
different for him. “I absolutely love this track, and
with the help of the Rocketsports Racing team and my
teammate Drissi, I found that I was able to adapt
quickly and come up to a reasonable speed with the time
we had before the race,” said the rookie.
And he didn’t have much
time before the big event on
Sunday. The only track time he had before
qualifying and the race today was during the testing day
on
Friday. Two practice sessions were scheduled for
Saturday, but rain postponed Ramoutarsingh and the #8
Trinrico Steel & Wire Products Jaguar XKR from
getting out on the track. And despite a chaotic
qualifying session, the Trinidadian still managed to
earn his best qualifying start in Trans-Am after
recording a time of 1:23.561 (105.939 mph) placing him
eighth on the grid.
“The race was a beautiful
race,” Ramoutarsingh stated. “A complete green-flag
race made it quite the challenge; it was flat out racing
with no breaks. Jerry Kinn and I had a race of our own;
he was in my mirrors the entire time. I knew that
towards the end he was going to get aggressive to get
around me and I was ready for him to make the move.
However, I still couldn’t predict what was about to
happen. At the end of the back straight with two laps to
go, he dove down on the inside of me and I got hit. The
#8 Trinrico Steel & Wire Products Jaguar XKR went
off track, but I was able to keep the car from making
contact with the barriers. It took me a while to get the
car restarted again and I lost several positions that we
worked very hard for. But I am glad that I was able to
get back on track and get that checkered flag.
With a tenth-place finish,
Ramoutarsingh added, “I am proud that I drove such a
consistent race. At the end, I was only two seconds off
of my teammate in terms of lap times, and he was running
up there with the leaders. I just wanted to make up some
points after having a DNF last race, we did that and I
look forward to our next event and more positive results
like this weekend.”
While Drissi’s first
victory in 2009 has been put on hold, he has taken the
lead in the championship point’s battle. Obtaining 30
points this weekend, he and Tony Ave are tied with a
total of 76 points. Ramoutarsingh moves into the top
five of the standings after this weekend’s result,
which saw the rookie earn 16 points giving him a total
of 47 after three rounds.
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