Although the expectations were higher, the eighth place secured by Oregon Team in the 4 Hours of Monza confirms the potential of the crew and car this weekend. The second of the six rounds of the 2018 European Le Mans Series could have provided the team led by Jerry Canevisio and Giorgio Testa with a better result, especially considering the excellent sixth spot grabbed in qualifying on Saturday by Riccardo Ponzio. For the team, it was the best performance in the last two ELMS seasons.
The young racer from Pescara, who shared driving duties aboard the team’s Norma M30 racecar with Andrés Méndez and Clément Mateu, proved extremely fast despite being only at his second race in the series. On the other hand, he was not equally lucky. There were three key episodes that affected the home race for Oregon Team. The first concerned just Ponzio, who was immediately given a drive through for an alleged jump start that was actually perfectly fine.
The Italian had to restart his race from scratch before leaving the wheel to Méndez. The Colombian set a very high pace throughout his driving stint, but he was significantly hampered by a safety car, the second circumstance that affected the team’s run.
Finally, a further safety car, behind which Mateu got stuck in the final stages, effectively increased his gap to the front to a full lap. Considering the pace, without this sequence of drawbacks, a fourth place (at least) would have been in the frame. A top-flight result at home would have been good for the spirits of the whole team.
In any case, from a pure performance point of view, the balance of the weekend remains positive and certainly lays good foundations for the next round of the ELMS calendar scheduled on the Austrian Red Bull Ring circuit on July 21st and 22nd.
