Owens Concludes Rookie Pro Mazda Season
Los Angeles, CA – Raoul Owens ended his debut season in the Pro Mazda Championship this weekend in dramatic style at one of the world’s most famous and unique race circuits – Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
Motor racing can certainly be punishing at times, but rarely more so for Raoul than at this year’s Pro Mazda grand finale in the rolling hills of California. Contrary to his uncompetitive car at the previous round in Mid-Ohio, Raoul and his Team Pelfrey teammates lit up the timesheets during Thursday and Friday test days. Raoul traded Top 3 lap times with Santiago Urrutia and Pato O’Ward, eventually finishing third fastest on Thursday and second fastest on Friday.
While the team had undoubtedly found the optimum setup for the hot conditions at the home track of Mazda Motorsports, a strategic error during qualifying ruined Raoul’s chance to deliver a worthy grid position for Race 1 and 2. Entering the pit lane midway through the session for new tires, the team did not release Raoul’s #80 car back onto track with sufficient time to improve upon his fastest lap time of the session, which resulted in a disappointing P12 start position for R1 and P13 for R2.
Knowing that he had lost the perfect opportunity to qualify on the front row and fight for race wins, Raoul showed maturity and shook away his frustration ahead of R1. Later on, the race got off to a false start, as Weiron Tan collided with O’Ward – who also started out of position in similar circumstances to Raoul – causing a race restart after a clear up of O’Wards debris on the main straight. Having to return to original grid positions, the Pro Mazda drivers went racing again some laps later and Raoul applied pressure behind Florian Latorre and Dalton Kellett. His persistence paid off on Lap 7, as Latorre made a slow exit out of Turn 4 and Raoul made an excellent overtake on the outside of the Frenchman into Turn 5 and almost catapulting Kellett with the same manoeuvre. The notoriously narrow circuit made it very hard for Raoul to carry his momentum past Kellett and Raoul’s race was blocked thereafter by the heavily defensive Andretti Autosport driver. Raoul finished P7.
With the championship secured by Urrutia at the end of R1 on Saturday, a different atmosphere was in the air ahead of the season’s final race on Sunday. The Pro Mazda drivers endured a very long pre-grid, as the track had to undergo a last minute repair before the cars went out on their formation lap. However, the final build up of tension and rising air and track temperature on Sunday afternoon was short-lived for Raoul, as Jose Gutierrez tangled with Raoul who was on a wide line around Turn 2 after the release of the pace car period early on in the race. Raoul’s front left wheel made contact with the front right of Gutierrez, resulting in a rapid lift and roll of Raoul’s car into the gravel pit of Turn 2 where his race ended abruptly without physical harm to himself.
Having gone through a very testing 2015 season in a foreign setting, Raoul held his nerve throughout the year and proved his impressive race craft by winning a number of performance accolades presented to him by the series. Finishing twelfth in the overall championship standings does not do justice to the talent displayed by the British driver, but Raoul showed great composure despite a mid-season team change and was often a pace setter amongst his teammates at JDC Motorsports and Team Pelfrey.
News surrounding Raoul’s 2016 season will be announced during a Q&A interview with Raoul, which will take place in mid-October.[:]
