Owens Completes Bittersweet Winterfest
LOS ANGELES, CA – Raoul Owens has taken part in his first racing event in the United States with a mix of great speed and heartbreak during the pre-season Cooper Tires Winterfest.
Winterfest is a 2 week warm-up event made up of 6 compressed rounds, which does not contribute towards the overall standings of the 2015 Pro Mazda Championship. However, this mini series is the perfect opportunity for drivers and teams to gel in a competitive racing scenario and lay down more miles in the car.
Raoul arrived at NOLA Motorsports Park for Rounds 1, 2 and 3 of Winterfest with his team, JDC Motorsports, on the back of a very successful testing program in recent months in the Pro Mazda car. Raoul was setting top 3 lap times at NOLA, but a poor aero set up to the car on the opening afternoon of the event hindered his performance in qualifying. As a result, Raoul ended qualifying in P8 and a decreased aero set up was quickly applied to the car in time for R1.
Once racing got underway, the 20 year old Briton found pace and made up 4 places before reaching the tail of American racer, Will Owen, in P3. After the race, Raoul had to add that he was “very close to taking third place, but I just ran out of laps to get onto the podium this time.” The intensity of R1 continued into R2, as Raoul made a good getaway off the grid, only to be clipped on his front left tire and front wing in a big crash that saw Garett Grist of Juncos Racing smash into the pit wall on the main straight. As the pace car came out, Raoul had to make a pit stop to replace his punctured front left tire. He rejoined the circuit in last place and drove with great determination, finally ending R2 in P6. R3 took place on the same afternoon as R2, but Raoul’s rhythm was shaken by a severely unbalanced car, which was eventually put down to the ride height of the car being too low. Raoul could not improve upon P12.
After the turbulence at NOLA, Winterfest headed to Alabama for the final rounds at Barber Motorsports Park. Free practice started at midday on Wednesday, but the session was soon cancelled due to very wet and almost freezing conditions that eclipsed the perfect weather from the week prior. Winterfest was consequently shortened to 5 rounds and racing restarted on Thursday. In damp conditions, Raoul was P6 on the grid for the beginning of R4 and he clinched another P4 finish, despite suffering from understeer for a second consecutive race. The final Winterfest round took off at 4:30pm with double points at stake and Raoul was driving a very mature race, cruising in P4 and preparing for an overtake on Dalton Kellett. The pack bunched up following a pace car towards the end of the race and Raoul was shunted by Timothé Buret into Turn 1, concluding his race P12 and taking away what would have otherwise been a P3 finish in the Winterfest standings.
Raoul has since travelled to Miami to acclimatise before the first official race weekend of the Pro Mazda Championship at St Petersburg on March 28-29. Winterfest has offered Raoul and his team the chance to iron out set up issues to the car and has given Raoul valuable experience in understanding the handling of his new car, both in a good and bad set up. While Winterfest came to a bitter end for Raoul, podiums and race wins are well within his reach and equally in his sights. This was just the warm-up.
