{"id":5742,"date":"2021-03-30T18:46:59","date_gmt":"2021-03-30T18:46:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/?p=5742"},"modified":"2021-03-30T18:47:00","modified_gmt":"2021-03-30T18:47:00","slug":"aaron-jeansonne-calm-within-the-storm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/?p=5742","title":{"rendered":"Aaron Jeansonne: Calm Within the Storm"},"content":{"rendered":"
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We made a respectable start at Daytona (all photos courtesy of Ignite Media – Al Arena)<\/p><\/div>\n

FISHERS, Ind.<\/strong> \u2013 The Idemitsu Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by BFGoodrich Tires is well underway. We began at the legendary Daytona International Speedway, where we had absolutely no previous testing data so we knew would be a great challenge. We made a few mistakes and didn\u2019t execute to the best of our ability, which resulted in P8 and P12 finishes. However, considering those are not poor results, especially in a field of 27 cars, all of us had a ton of confidence in our pace moving forward. One of my primary reasons for choosing the Provision Motorsports team was the excellent communication and chemistry we have, so I always knew we would quickly improve. We took things one step at a time, meaning the next goal would be to compete for top-fives.<\/p>\n

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The Provision Motorsports team is a dream to work with.<\/p><\/div>\n

I was pleasantly surprised when Sebring (supporting the IMSA 12-hour event) was added to our calendar. We\u2019ve already had a test there and I was familiar with the course from past events. We decided to test there again on a weekend in which most of the series competitors showed up. I was able to run several laps pacing with my teammate Drake Kemper and series points leader Gresham Wagner, while working with the team to further develop our setup. We left the test very pleased with our cars and confident for the race meeting. Also, we welcomed a new driver to our team moving forward, fellow rookie Joey Atanasio.<\/p>\n

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Trying to get a clear lap in qualifying at Sebring.<\/p><\/div>\n

Our second race weekend actually did not have the smoothest start, again, as we struggled with some braking issues through practice. Fortunately, we were able to get it all fixed for qualifying. In this series, the starting lineups are determined by your fastest qualifying lap (for race one) and second fastest lap (for race two). We didn\u2019t execute properly in qualifying in order to land a very fast lap, so I had to start race one 11th. However, our consistent pace put me in fifth for the second race. We knew we could move forward quickly in race one despite our starting position.<\/p>\n

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There was no quarter asked or given.<\/p><\/div>\n

After just a few laps into race one, I found myself in sixth place with a small pack of cars. The top three had pulled a decent gap, so we needed to work together to get back to the front. We were making progress, but ultimately too much battling kept us split from the front group. After a late restart, a competitor spun right in front of me and I had to hesitate to avoid an impact, thus losing another chance at mixing it up in the front. A sixth-place finish right behind Drake was a great step forward for us as a team, though.<\/p>\n

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My car took a beating in race two!<\/p><\/div>\n

I wanted more than anything to give Provision Motorsports its first podium in race two. Starting from fifth position with a great car seemed like the perfect opportunity to go for it. After jumping up to third just after the start, I planned to stay very patient in the front group as five of us broke away from the field. However, I was contested for a few consecutive laps for the third spot, and the two leaders were able to create a gap. After taking the third spot back, we were able to lay down a few very fast laps and had the pace to catch back up to the leaders. Just then, the car behind me made a mistake that caused us to have a pretty heavy collision. I came out with some damage, and unfortunately it ended his race. I was able to nurse my car to a fourth-place finish though. Looking back on it, I certainly can\u2019t complain with the results given the circumstances!<\/p>\n

Fourth and sixth-place finishes definitely don\u2019t justify the hours of hard work the team has put in, and the improvements and pace we have shown. But it was enough to capture the Rookie Championship points lead and improve massively from Daytona. We are also all the way up to the fourth spot in the overall points standings out of a total of 32 season entries!<\/p>\n

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The Idemitsu Mazda MX-5 Cup is the right place for me.<\/p><\/div>\n

It felt awesome to run up front with a very talented group of drivers in such a competitive series. The IMSA broadcasts were put together very well, and as I\u2019ve previously mentioned, Mazda is putting up a total of $568,500 of prizes to the series in 2021. I believe this is the best possible place to be in my racing career at this point, and the team and I are working hard to keep the momentum going for the next championship rounds at St. Pete (with the NTT INDYCAR Series) April 23-24. This team has done everything possible to provide an opportunity for success, paying attention to every detail and supporting each other through each step of the process. I know with this strong group I have around me, success will continue to come as long as we keep our heads down and stay patient.<\/p>\n

Thank you to Mazda Motorsports and series partners Idemitsu, BFG, Pagid, Flis Performance, Fast Cooling, VP Racing Fuels, and my team Provision Motorsports for the opportunity.
-Aaron<\/p>\n\n\n

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FISHERS, Ind. \u2013 The Idemitsu Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by BFGoodrich Tires is well underway. We began at the legendary Daytona International Speedway, where we had absolutely no previous testing data so we knew would…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5746,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[37,7,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5742"}],"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=5742"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5752,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5742\/revisions\/5752"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}