MRTI Race One Report: Mazda Raceway

 

 

 

• Kuala Lumpur native was involved in today’s incident at the start which caused damage to the front wing and suspension, but was later granted to take the restart in the position he qualified in; the series rookie captured a top-five finish in fifth

 

 

“Race One went pretty well for us, I guess (bar the start). In terms of points, I’m third in the championship, and we finished today’s race in fifth starting from ninth with a damaged car from green to checkered flag – obviously that wasn’t fun. At least we made it back; we had to change a wing after the start… I’m not really sure what happened, but someone jumped it and then everyone else followed. Then everyone backed off, and it was an accordion effect – everyone hit each other and the start was mayhem. Apart from that, even after the wing change, the car didn’t feel like it did before. We’re happening finishing fifth. Congratulations to Santiago (Urrutia) for winning the championship, he did really well all year, very well done to him. We can still fight for second in the championship, and that’s what we’ll be aiming for tomorrow.”

 

 

 

DALTON KELLETT, NO. 28 K-LINE INSULATORS USA, INC./ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT MAZDA 

•  Driver of the K-Line Insulators USA, Inc. Mazda started today’s 18-lap race from the ninth position
  

• Indianapolis resident was also involved in the Lap One incident but was able to clinch a sixth-place finish for Race One

 

“Today was certainly a hectic day at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Qualifying was pretty action packed; our first run didn’t quite get it done and I was sitting mid-pack when my teammate Weiron (Tan) brought out a red flag when he came in contact with a tire barrier that wasn’t placed in the greatest position at the entry of the corkscrew and flipped his car. Luckily he was okay, and his car wasn’t too badly damaged, but these types of oversights in track maintenance and questionable positions in placing barriers certainly could have resulted in much more grave consequences; I think we can consider ourselves lucky today. We ended qualifying ninth with only two laps to get it done. 

Race One started right off with the cars ahead of me looking like they were avoiding an object or go around a slowing car, so I followed them; we got checked up and there was nothing that I could do to slow down and avoid them, so I ran into the back of Jose (Gutierrez). Because we slowed down, I was hit from behind and my left suspension was damaged with part of the undertray missing, so that made it fairly interesting to drive around this track, especially given all the high-speed corners. It was definitely a handful but I was able to keep my position in sixth which was not a bad finish for us.”