Team & Driver Features
Driver Diary: Adam Pecorari - Trois-Rivieres 200
By
Aug 26, 2005, 23:37

Arriving at the airport in Montreal, you can already feel that you are in Quebec. Many things are quite different, including the beautiful women. After a long hold-up at the rental car counter (1.5 hours) we were finally on our way to Trois-Rivieres. I have heard many great things about this city and race, so I could not wait to get there. Obviously Romeo could not wait either, as we made a 90-minute ride from the airport in less than 50 minutes.

Arriving at the track Friday was something very different, as it was a street circuit. I have raced on temporary road courses like Montreal and Monterrey, Mexico, but not a street circuit like this. The team and transporter were all ready to go, as we were with the team no less than 5 days before hand for the race in Alabama, where the only highlight of the weekend was a charity poker tournament.

Starting the 1st practice, I was very careful getting around at first, as I had not even had time to walk the track. Slowly we began to get quicker and at one point I was up to 4th quick. Turning the car over to Romeo, we had a hint of a brake problem, but our hint would turn to reality as Romeo did not have any brakes on the exit of pit-lane and hit the wall. We all felt bad for Romeo, as he did not even get a lap of the track. Throughout practice we would have brake problems, with us only getting 6 laps of practice on the 2nd session, and completely missing the Qualifying session.

Although the team was having a nasty weekend with technical issues, we were all still having a fun time off the track. Hearing so much about the nightlife at Trois-Rivieres, the team had no problem to make sure that the hype was true, and personally, I can vouch for the rumors of being a fun time.

Starting the race 27th on the field for not posting a qualifying lap, it would not be so bad since the slower ST cars would have a separate race. I was sternly told by the team to conserve the brakes, as the team had made many modifications to make the system better, but they could still overheat. Picking off cars lap by lap, I would have the car up to 9th in 45 minutes when the second yellow flag would come out. Knowing how quick the car had the potential to be the team decided to take a risk and pit now, as if their would be only one more yellow flag, we would be OK with fuel. It turned out to be a phenomenal decision by the team as we did not loose any positions with the stop, and after the rest of the cars pitted we would be 1 of only 6 cars on the lead lap with 25 minutes to go. We were 4th with a great chance to have a podium when we heard reports of smoke coming from our car. Romeo then verified the reports saying he had a small amount of smoke coming into the cockpit. Struggling with the series officials to let us stay out the track, we lost the fight when they told us to report into the pits. The problem turned out to be a pinhole sized puncture in our oil filter, which was leaking oil. Returning to the race 4 laps down, Romeo would fight his way to a 16th place finish.

From an extremely down feeling throughout practice and qualifying to an extremely high feeling during the race, to going to the worst feeling in the world; taken out of a podium for a reason not caused by anyone. This is racing, and why we love it. We will be back in the seat for Mid-Ohio at the end of August, with the 2005 Mustang GT. Let’s see if we can give those MultiMatic boys a run for their money.

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