“We can be satisfied: we made no mistakes during the race, which we finished in a respectable position. In addition, our new driver line-up was quick and consistent right away, and there is still good room for improvement”. This is how Jerry Canevisio assessed Oregon Team’s seasonal debut in the European Le Mans Series.
The two new additions to the team, Riccardo Ponzio and Clément Mateu, joined returning Colombian Andrés Méndez (in his second year in the ELMS) and performed positively at Circuit Paul Ricard. The trio brought their Norma M30 LMP3 racecar, and the Italian squad led by Giorgio Testa and Canevisio, to the 11th place in class.
The result was affected by a spin in qualifying that jeopardized Ponzio’s qualifying attempt and forced the team to start from the back of the grid. The Italian was consistent and, despite being at his debut with this car and at his first experience on the French track, he put up an excellent pace.
The same goes for “Bronze” driver Mateu, who stayed behind the wheel for one hour and 45 minutes in a row without any drop in performance in a really consistent run. The last stint by Méndez was impeccable, and he eventually capped the comeback started by his teammates.
“Two of our three drivers were making their debut and Ponzio had never raced at Paul Ricard before but they all went very well – continued Canevisio – Méndez also grew up further even compared to last season and the car run troublefree”.
There are now all the foundations needed to perform in the second of the six rounds of the 2018 ELMS schedule scheduled for May 12th and 13th at Monza, at the team’s home circuit.
