Christina Nielsen produced a perfect blend of speed and consistency to qualify a career-best second and finish second in the Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix Powered by Mazda last weekend at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
The strong effort powered Nielsen and Scuderia Corsa teammate Alessandro Balzan to the lead in the GT Daytona class of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
“It feels amazing,” Nielsen said. “It’s early in the season, but it’s always nice to be ahead, and now we’re leading the championship. We proved last year that it’s always about having good finishes and being steady and consistent, and we did that.
“I was really happy with my performance and the team. The car was absolutely amazing. Driving was such a blast; I was just smiling because it was just that good to drive. So a huge thank you to Scuderia Corsa for giving me that car and Alessandro Balzan for helping me get up to pace.”
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Christina Nielsen (Bob Chapman, Autosport Images) |
Danish driver Nielsen produced a career-best qualifying performance in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship on Saturday. She turned a top lap of 1 minute, 26.497 seconds on her sixth lap around the 11-turn, 2.238-mile (3.602 km) circuit, which includes the famous “Corkscrew” turn complex.
Her superb drive in qualifying earned the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3 the second spot Sunday in the two-hour race.
Nielsen started the race and held second position throughout her stint until turning over the car to Balzan. He kept the Ferrari in the same spot for the rest of the race, landing the team its second consecutive podium finish.
The pair was part of the Scuderia Corsa team that won in mid-March at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh from Florida. That was Nielsen’s first WeatherTech Championship victory and helped her and Balzan vault to second in the GTD championship with 62 points.
Continued consistent speed at Laguna Seca pushed Nielsen and Balzan to the top of the GTD standings, six points ahead of Mario Farnbacher and Alex Riberas, who won the class from the pole at Laguna Seca.
“I feel very good,” Nielsen said. “I was a bit nervous about the start, but once I got in the car and we got going, I felt confident and I was ready to push. We had a pretty good fight, actually. Got a bit further than I liked on the start, but he (Riberas) did have the inside, and it’s not a one-lap race. It’s a two-hour race, so I went behind Alex and followed. Slowed down a little bit so we didn’t use up the tires.
“The temperature was higher Sunday, and it had an influence. We also wanted to save fuel, as well. But in the end, it paid off because we were the fastest-running car with used tires. Race pace in the end was really good. We had a good pit stop.”
Next up for Nielsen is a return to the European Le Mans Series for Round 2 of the 2016 season May 13-15 at Imola, Italy. She will drive the No. 60 Formula Racing Ferrari F458 Italia in the LM GTE class.
Nielsen’s next race in the IMSA WeatherTech Championship with Scuderia Corsa is the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic on June 3-4 in Detroit.
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.
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.
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