Ups and Downs for Robinson's Rookie Campaign
My rookie season in F2000 has been up, down, up, down, down, and up again. Regardless, I have learned a lot about setting up a car and not taking unnecessary risks which has started to show in the last few races.
Thompson for sure was our best weekend to date. We were pretty quick from the get-go, but I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that we had a good set up at Pittsburgh, so we were already “in the box” so to speak. I think another factor to our success at Thompson - and Pittsburgh for that matter - was the fact that no one had had a lot of experience at either track which put everyone on a more even par.
From a driver's standpoint, I found Thompson, probably like most people, challenging and very technical with no room for error. If you went off, you were more than likely going to hit the wall. Overall though, it was not a bad little track. Actually the more I think about it, the more I kinda like it. My personal favorite turn was either turn 3 (because it’s fast and flowing), or the apron of 3 and 4 in the oval. The camber changes and the fact you could roll monster entry speed made it a lot of fun. It was also neat running right next to the concrete walls on the oval. It almost made it feel like a street course… or what I imagine a street course would be like as I haven’t been on a street course before.
From a spectators point of view, one of the really cool things I found about Thompson was that you could get so close to the cars on track, especially in turn 4. It almost seemed like a go kart circuit because you were no more than 10 feet from the edge of the track. It was pretty neat to watch the Atlantics through that section especially with the sound. And that pretty much sums up Thompson for us.
Watkins Glen should be a lot of fun. The championship is going right down to the wire, and with drops, we calculated that I’m currently only 4 points behind Tim Minor (the leader at this point). I think the key to having a good weekend is just focusing on the moment, and not worrying about the points situation.
Regardless of what happens next month at the Glen, this year has been a good year not only from a results standpoint but also in my maturing as a driver. In regards to my team, it has been an awesome year. Eric is a legit engineer and has been super fun to work with. Aaron’s been putting in work all year long, on the car and on the bike (if you haven’t watched him on the bike, I recommend it). We all have had a loads of fun together both at the track and away from it (getting ice cream and rental karting).
So … we'll do our best and see where we end up!
Written by Skylar Robinson