Liam Doran and Robin Larsson had one tricky weekend after coming short of the final. Each driver was prepared to be on pace but mistakes on the starting grid and a mid-race roll stopped them short in the LCQ.
“There’s no doubt, this first round has been a tough one. We knew with these tracks and these jumps that it was going to be extreme with some challenging racing and that’s what we’ve got. But, you know, that’s what we came for. That’s what we want”, Doran stated after the event.
After struggles in the bracket heats the drivers found themselves in the highly entertaining LCQ race. With a bad launch from Liam, it dropped him further on the grid than anticipated. Doran later caught a puncture that sent him into the wall retiring the car and red flagging the session.
“I had some issues getting the car off the line and we need to work on that; if you can’t make a clean start and see where you’re going once you’ve got off the line, you’re going to find it hard to win a race.”
Meanwhile, Larsson got away decent but the track state had worn so much that it caused him massive issues. Namely, he rolled the car coming out of the gap jump into the berm but the swede couldn’t be stopped as he got the car on all fours and continued to drive until the session was stopped.
“When the track here in Utah was fresh, it was really nice to drive – but I think we could see there were more ruts coming as the weekend passed”, he said.
The team has much work to do as they get ready for Minnesota this weekend. The cars need to be repaired, transported, and unloaded all within the next few days to prepare for round two, three states away.
Doran remains excited despite the outlook, “It’s going to be a week of real adrenalin. I can’t wait to get on with round two now. I knew these tracks, these jumps, and this championship would be demanding, but round one’s just been gnarly!“
