Wayne Newby’s U.S. Nationals campaign ended with a first round loss to Leah Pritchett when the RAI car smoked the tyres at the hit, handing Pritchett the easiest of wins.
“The team is very disappointed,” said co-tuner Santo Rapisarda Jr. “To travel all the way to Indy and then smoke the tyres in round one was a major let down.”
“We have struggled since we arrived for pre-meet testing,” according to co-tuner Santino Rapisarda. “We initially had braking issues that we had resolved. Today it appears we had too much clutch and that may have contributed to blowing the tyres off.”
“We need to go back to square zero, analyse what happened and that may mean making dramatic changes. We are never this inconsistent – we can do better and will do better in the future.”
Returning to the track the next day for a test session, Rapisarda Autosport International recorded their best time ever of 3.73/324mph for 1000 foot distance, eclipsing their previous best was a 3.76 sec set at Reading, P.A. in 2016.
A second run of the day was good for a 3.77/323 mph.
“I knew my boys could do it,” said an elated Santo Rapisarda. “They have been working so hard since we arrived at Indy. The last couple of days have been difficult to say the least, its been a challenge and I’m so proud to see Santo Jnr and Santino bounce back.”
“When the time came up of the board all the team were so excited, jumping around and hugging each other – this has been one of the most memorable days since we started racing in America over seven years ago.”
