US RaceTronics looks to get off the roller coaster ride it has been on as of late.
Talk about the highs and lows of racing. Because of the last few races US RaceTronics (USRT) is beginning to be known as the "roller coaster" team with its high and low moments. Friday's activities at the JAGFlo Speedway at Reliant Park street course continued to show that this team has not gotten off this ride.
The cool humid Houston weather greeted the Champ Car Atlantic competitors for the morning practice session. Once again the team got off to a fast start. Soon after the green flag waived for the practice session USRT driver Carl Skerlong (#24 King Taco/USRT) put up the forth fastest time while his teammate David Garza followed with the twentieth fastest. The times continued to improve as the track got cleaner and the confidence of the drivers increased. Unfortunately, as with many street courses the line between what you can do and what you can't do gets blurry at times and on his forth lap Skerlong brushed Turn 7 and damaged the right front suspension, effectively ending his promising session. Garza's times, on the other hand, teetered between forth and sixth throughout the session. Getting caught behind traffic and unable to get that perfect, unobstructed lap, Garza saw his best lap time fall down the charts to thirteenth best as the checkered finished the session.
Qualifying would be a bittersweet affair. As the hot Texas Sun blazed on the track for qualifying, both USRT cars were ready for a successful session. Once again the quick speeds exhibited by the Skerlong and Garza team showed up on the charts fairly quickly. Skerlong on his ninth lap posted a lap that peaked him in the ninth spot while Garza on his ninth lap struggled in the fifteenth spot. Midway through his session Skerlong came in for a tire change and fix a radio problem he was having. Garza followed him into the pits for a tire change. Both drivers seemed to have lost some of the momentum from earlier in the session while back on track and soon saw their times fluctuate between sixteenth and eighteenth. With time running out Skerlong once again was bit by the Houston street course and hit the tires in Turn # 2. This time it was the left front side of the car that was damaged. With Skerlong out of the session and Garza seeing his time slip to eighteenth the downtrodden team looked forward to ending the day and trying again tomorrow. With the last remaining seconds of the session ticking away Garza went on a flyer and low and behold the time was blistering and good enough for fifth. In one lap Garza improved his time by eleven spots.
The team will concentrate on repairing Skerlong's car and tweak Garza's for tomorrow's sessions.
Carl Skerlong - "Being a new track to me I was trying to get up to speed fast and made a few costly mistakes but all in all we learned a lot and I am looking to improve tomorrow. Tomorrow will be our Practice and Qualifying session."
David Garza -"This is by far my best qualifying effort. This really helps my confidence, especially with the last couple of races that I have had. The team did a great job and I'm looking forward to tomorrow where hopefully I can improve my times even more"
