Uphill Challenge For Owens In Ohio
Los Angeles, CA – In the midst of race incidents and traffic, Raoul Owens’ weekend did not come together as planned at the penultimate stage of the Pro Mazda Championship in Mid Ohio.
Returning to the historic road course after a rainy official test at the end of June, Raoul was keen to make the most of this weekend’s perfect weather conditions and attack the circuit in race mode. The British driver made great progress to close the gap to the Pro Mazda leaders following his last outing in Mid Ohio. However, with valuable time being lost around the slow right-handers of Turn 2 and 12 during Friday’s qualifying session, Raoul could not improve upon a seventh row grid slot for the start of Race 1 and 2.
Speaking from the paddock on Saturday morning, Raoul’s manager Henry James said “the team are trying to find out where Raoul’s speed has gone missing, but stay tuned for Raoul to be the hard charger in today’s race. Despite being very tall for such a short wheel based car, Raoul has his concentration firmly set on the races and I certainly expect to see him moving up the field.”
Due to the short main straight of the Mid Ohio Sports Car Course, race starts take place on the back straight just a short distance after the exit of the keyhole Turn 2. Jumping the green flag, Neil Alberico made off with the race ahead of the Canadian polesitter, Garett Grist. Meanwhile, Raoul measured his start with great precision by sticking to the outside of Turn 4 and passed no less than 5 cars by the time he powered out of Turn 6. Unfortunately, bunched traffic later led to Raoul dropping to P11 where his race pace was stunned by the slower Andretti Autosport car of Dalton Kellett ahead of him. Not willing to settle for P11, Raoul was relentless in applying pressure to Kellett who had to heavily defend his line in the braking zones. Driving on the edge, neither driver could sustain the on-going pressure for the remaining third of the race and Raoul made a slight error in Turn 9 that later resulted in his P13 finish at the chequered flag.
On Sunday morning, the Pro Mazda cars were the first to entertain the gathering crowds of the Honda Indy 200. Starting from P13 on used tires, Raoul made a clean start and this time launched into Turn 4 down the inside. Hustling with Daniel Burkett for track position during the opening laps, a gap did not present itself for Raoul and his race idled thereafter due to a lack of grip.
Raoul summarized his weekend stating “this weekend was very challenging in many ways. Going into the weekend I was confident I could achieve a good result and pick up where I left off at Toronto and leave Iowa behind me. During practice I made good progress but qualifying didn’t go as planned. I’ve started from near the back a few times this season and have managed to come through and score some good points, but this weekend I wasn’t able to do the same. It was a disappointing weekend overall and I’m looking ahead to finish my season on a high.”
With a month until the season finale at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on September 12-13, Raoul will head home to see his family and recharge his batteries in South Africa for the summer break.[:]
