Devin Jones Racing raced this past week during one of the biggest race events of the year when the first round of the BFGoodrich/Skip Barber National presented by Mazda raced during the week of the 12 hours of Sebring, in Sebring, Fla. with the American Le Mans Series.
“In the first practice with the new tires we were okay,” said Jones. “After practice our plan for this first national was to adjust the car as much as we could to learn how these cars react to changes so we would be ready for the remainder of the 16 race series.”
In the first race, with the adjustments team DJR made, the F2000 open wheel car worked well for the first couple laps, but it then made the car have too much of a push in the middle of the corner. The second race, Jones had better speed, putting down the 5th fastest lap of the race, but still lacked a strong drafting partner.
“We knew going into the race at Sebring that drafting is everything at this track. It’s worth at least two seconds a lap,” said Jones. “But what we didn’t realize, that we now know, is that you have to get a draft throughout the full 17-turn, 3.7 mile track, not just down the two longest straightaways.
“This series really requires that you have a drafting partner that you can leap frog with throughout the qualifying session. That is something we need to get nailed down before the next national race at VIR.
“This weekend we were defiantly off the pace and nowhere near where we needed to be,” said Jones. “And once you qualify in the back, you are then racing with people that don’t really want to draft – and only want to race at every corner. When you do that, you will never catch the lead pack. That’s what happened to us this weekend. I’ll figure it out, because I always do, and we’ll be ready for VIR next month.”
Team DJR will regroup, to ready itself for the second BFGoodrich/Skip Barber National presented by Mazda race weekend at Virginia International Raceway April 29 through May 1. Yet, first Jones will be back in his #35 Super Late Model for the largest Super Late Model race of the year – “The Race” at the historic North Wilkesboro (NC) Speedway. More than 75 Super Late Models will compete in the 300 lap event which will draw national attention and thousands of race fans, and awards $75,000 to the winner.
Links:
Follow Devin:
Team DJR Races BFGoodrich/Skip Barber National presented by Mazda at Sebring
12 Hour of Sebring -- Racing in Front of 100,000 Crazy Fans
Click here to add text.
Photo credit: Kelly Brouillet courtesty of Skip Barber Racing.
