New Zealand Grand Prix winner Liam Sceats faced an untimely bout of the flu, mechanical issues and a post-race penalty in the second round of the USF Pro 2000 Championship at NOLA in New Orleans.
Despite the setbacks, the TJ Speed Motorsports driver finished in the top ten in Races 2 and 3, only to be relegated to 11th in the latter. He’s vowing to come back fighting for the next round in Indianapolis.
The Kiwi began his weekend well, going sixth fastest in practice before qualifying tenth for Race 1 and eighth for Race 2.
Mechanical issues in the opening of three races forced him to pit lane shortly after an early Safety Car. He recovered for eighth in Sunday’s race, then repeated the result in Race 3 but was penalised post-race and dropped to eleventh.
“I just couldn’t find the speed necessary to move forward into the top five this weekend,” said Sceats. “I was quietly confident after finishing sixth in practice, but with an underwhelming qualifying result, together with my engineer, we couldn’t make much progress with the car speed in the races to fight where we wanted to be.
“Without the no result in Race 1 from an unfortunate mechanical issue out of our control, we would be sitting P5 in the Championship, so it’s frustrating not to be there. I understand that the nature of this Championship is everyone has their fair share of up-and-down weekends, so I’m focusing on making sure this is our one and only weekend like this.
“Despite all this, the team and I worked very hard analysing the data to find a solution, but nothing we adjusted seemed to increase car speed. On top of this, battling the flu didn’t help my performance at all, as I struggled in the car physically a lot more than usual.
“Overall, it was a challenging weekend, but one that provided many valuable learning experiences. We’ll come back stronger at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for another triple header supporting Indycar in May.
“I gave my absolute best this weekend, but it wasn’t meant to be. It’s been a while since I last came away from a weekend feeling disappointed, so it’s made me realise how consistent and good we have been for a while now.”
The results leave the Kiwi ninth in the Championship but only 17 points behind third-place Christian Brooks.
Sceats now returns to New Zealand looking for further backing to compete in future events- and an ITM Taupo Super400 ticket.
“I’m back in New Zealand on Thursday, and my focus is shifting back to raising support to find the budget to compete in further rounds,” he adds. “However, I’m also aiming to try to find myself a ticket to the Supercars event at Taupo Motorsport Park. I don’t want to miss that!
“Thank you to all of my Liam Sceats Motorsport partners for making this possible. There are so many things about this Championship that assure me that this is exactly where I need to be to develop my skills, so I’m grateful to have the opportunity.”
The USF Pro 2000 Championship returns at the Indianapolis Road Course for a triple-header on May 9-11.
