Challenging yet rewarding street debut for DeltaWing - Speedway Digest

The Claro/TracFone DeltaWing Racing Cars team began the day with a long list of unknowns in its TUDOR United SportsCar Championship street circuit debut. At the end of the day, the team put its new-found knowledge to good use with a sixth-place starting position in tomorrow’s Tequila Patrón Sports Car Showcase at Long Beach.

The DeltaWing Coupe’s first day amidst the concrete canyons saw the team work through setup changes designed to maximize the car’s ability to handle the myriad of bumps throughout the historic street circuit. With only two hours of practice time early Friday morning, the team returned to the track at the end of the day for 35 minutes of additional practice ahead of the qualifying session. Drivers Katherine Legge and Memo Rojas, working with new race engineer Catherine Crawford, found a balance that helped Rojas set the team’s quick lap of the day toward the end of the 20-minute qualifying session. The lap at 1:17.405 put the team in sixth place in the Prototype Class, competing at Long Beach alongside the GTLM category in Saturday’s main event.

“It’s our first street course, so we weren’t sure what to expect,” Legge stated. “We made a lot of changes today; some worked, some didn’t. I know everyone says it’s a learning experience, but for us, it really is. We’re making strides in each session. Memo did a great job in qualifying so hopefully we’ll stay out of trouble in the race and get a good result. But it’s great for me to be back at Long Beach, I’ve been here so many times but this is the first time in closed-cockpit car. It’s a different perspective.”

Coming on the heels of the two longest races of the year (a combined 36 hours), the Tequila Patrón Sports Car Showcase is an outright sprint event; at 100 minutes, it is the shortest race of the season. Drivers count on both luck and skill to maneuver around the 11-turn, 1.968-mile circuit surrounded by walls, grandstands – and one of the largest spectator crowds of the year. The race will be replayed on FOX Sports 1 Sunday, April 19 at 4:00 p.m.

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Adam Sinclair

NHRA, IHRA, Motocross and other forms of motorsports Staff writer
About Me: Adam has been a race fan since the first time he went through the tunnel under the Daytona International Speedway almost 30 years ago. He has had the privilege of travelling to races all across the state of Florida (as well as one race in Ohio), watching nearly everything with a motor compete for fame and glory, as well as participating in various racing schools to get the feel of what racecar drivers go through every week. Adam has spent the last three years covering motorsports for Examiner.com., where he had the opportunity to see the racing world from behind the scenes as well as the grandstands. He invites everyone to follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus, and looks forward to sharing his enthusiasm for all things racing with the readers of SpeedwayDigest.com.Be sure to tune in for his weekly sports talk program, Thursday Night Thunder, where he discusses the latest in motorsports news with drivers, crew members, and fans. The show takes place every Thursday at 8:00 pm EST on the Speedway Digest Radio Network.