Jagged Weekend At Nola For Owens
Los Angeles, CA – Raoul Owens returned to NOLA Motorsports Park this weekend with upbeat pace and downbeat weather that subsequently took its toll in Rounds 3 and 4 of the Pro Mazda Championship.
Having previously raced at NOLA during the Pro Mazda Winterfest mini-series in February, Raoul and his team applied the same ride set up to his car from Winterfest for the Thursday-Friday test and practice days. Under fair conditions, Raoul’s quickest lap of the week (1:34.939) was recorded on Thursday’s third test session, placing him in the Top 5 and +0.843 seconds off the pace setter, Weiron Tan, of Andretti Autosport.
Speaking at the end of practice on Friday, Raoul’s driver coach, Stephen Simpson, summarized pre-qualifying performance: “Overall Raoul is looking the best he has so far this year and I think we are Top 3 time wise. Qualifying tomorrow will be very important and we need to qualify in the top two rows. He has the speed to do it.”
Qualifying got underway on Saturday and Raoul was up to speed within a couple of laps. However, the Briton was beaten to a front row start for Race 1 as some of his rivals went faster in the closing minutes of the session. Raoul said that “qualifying was a frustrating situation after being Top 3 pace after practice. The Cooper Tires take several laps to get up to temperature and the back end of the car was not feeling as planted to the road since practice.” After 4 years of optimizing himself towards the maximum output of his Michelin tyres in Formula Renault 2.0, Raoul is adjusting to the substantial difference in rubber composition between the Michelin and Cooper Tyres, which each demand a very different strategy in qualifying and race scenarios.
After rain storms preceded over the circuit in Avondale on Saturday, Race 1 was eventually postponed to Sunday, April 12. Schedule changes during a race weekend can often disrupt the focus and preparation of drivers, but Raoul used the time constructively to analyze his qualifying sessions from St Petersburg and NOLA with Stephen Simpson. Their observations revealed that Raoul has plenty more power to give in qualis and the impending solution requires Raoul to push harder until the last lap of every qualifying session – a strategy that is the exact opposite to his former racing days in Europe.
On Sunday morning, Raoul faced a long day ahead. Starting P10 for Race 1 under a single file rolling start, the wet track was littered with patches of standing water to further add to the difficulty and danger of Raoul’s race. Commenting after the race, Raoul said “the track didn’t drain very well and the single file start made it hard to get an advantage on anybody. The spray was a big problem for me. We will be working very hard in preparation for the next round at Barber Motorsports Park where things will hopefully go our way!” Having done a great job to move up into P7 in the early stages of the race, Raoul was later clipped on his tail by Canadian racer, Dalton Kellett. Whilst serious damage to the car was avoided, the positive rhythm of Raoul’s assault was shaken and he lost valuable track position. Raoul finished P12 at the chequered flag.
The Pro Mazda Championship heads back to Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, AL, for Rounds 5 and 6 on April 25 – 26. While Raoul had a tough weekend at NOLA that was made harder by bad weather, he is feeling comfortable with his team, his speed is increasing and a solution to improve qualifying results has been found. From here on out, Raoul knows how to work with his tyres and when to unleash his pace.
