{"id":2569,"date":"2014-02-02T17:19:56","date_gmt":"2014-02-02T17:19:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/?p=2569"},"modified":"2014-02-02T17:19:56","modified_gmt":"2014-02-02T17:19:56","slug":"qualifying-woes-hinder-albericos-weekend-at-hampton-downs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/?p=2569","title":{"rendered":"Qualifying Woes Hinder Alberico\u2019s Weekend at Hampton Downs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Waikato, New Zealand<\/strong> \u2013 Problems in qualifying ultimately proved difficult for Team USA Scholarship driver Neil Alberico to overcome when the intensely competitive Toyota Racing Series continued this weekend at Hampton Downs Motorsport Park. He finished the three races in 13th, 14th and 17th, only to be relegated to the back of the field in Race 3 after officials deemed he was at fault for an early incident involving fellow American Ryan Tveter.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis past weekend has been rough,\u201d said Alberico. \u201cTRS has also been a pretty major learning experience thus far. We have had our fair share of ups and downs the past several weeks. We just have to gather ourselves up as a team and move on to the next round at the New Zealand Grand Prix. Big thanks to Victory Racing for all their hard work this past weekend. We are very much looking forward to redeeming ourselves at the Manfeild Autocourse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alberico\u2019s progress during testing and official practice on Thursday and Friday was hindered firstly by a problem with the front mono-shock, then by locking brakes. Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of his Victory Motor Racing crew, the braking issues persisted into qualifying which ensured an unrepresentative 18th on the grid for Race 1 on Saturday and 20th for the feature event on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n

After a couple of full-course cautions interrupted the early stages of the opening 15-lap race, Alberico emerged in 13th.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone was side by side for the first two laps after every restart, but I was able to make a few moves around the outside to make up some ground,\u201d said the 21-year-old Californian. \u201cOnce the field gets going it\u2019s really tough to pass without taking massive risk. I feel our race pace is very strong; we just need to be able to qualify up front.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alberico found himself shuffled back a few positions in Race 2 when one of his rivals made a bold move at around the half-distance mark, ultimately finishing 14th. Even though his pace was compromised by being mired in a pack of cars, he was still able to post a best lap just over a half-second from the fastest lap of the race.<\/p>\n

The 20-lap feature race for the historic New Zealand Motor Cup began well with Alberico making up three positions on the opening lap. Unfortunately, he then became embroiled in a multi-car incident on Lap 2 which relegated him to the back of the field. He was able to salvage a 17th-place finish before the imposition of a post-race penalty.<\/p>\n

Three different drivers shared the victory spoils: Briton Jann Mardenborough, Dutchman Steijn Schothorst and Estonian Martin Rump. Singapore\u2019s Andrew Tang claimed a trio of top-four finishes and now holds a seven-point margin over Mardenborough prior to the final TRS weekend which will culminate in the prestigious New Zealand Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

About Team USA Scholarship:<\/strong>
\nThe program has been providing opportunities for talented young American race car drivers since 1990. It is supported by a range of companies and individuals, including Doug Mockett & Company, the Road Racing Drivers Club and www.SAFEisFAST.com, Cooper Tire & Rubber Company, Mazda, David Heinemeier Hansson, Basecamp.com, Chip Ganassi Racing, Honda Performance Development, The Amazing Flameless Candle, NameSilo, Dyson Racing, Robertson Racing, JAY Motorsports, Pelfrey Performance, Andersen Promotions, CXC Simulations, RaceCraft1, PitFit Training, Sparco USA, RACER<\/em> Magazine, eFormulaCarNews.com, Speedstar Management, Styled Aesthetic, Manifest Group and numerous past Scholarship winners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Waikato, New Zealand \u2013 Problems in qualifying ultimately proved difficult for Team USA Scholarship driver Neil Alberico to overcome when the intensely competitive Toyota Racing Series continued this weekend at Hampton Downs Motorsport Park. He…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2570,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2569"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2569"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2573,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2569\/revisions\/2573"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}