NOLA Test // January 28-29, 2023
TeamFSR traveled to NOLA Motorsports Park this past weekend for a two-day series-sanctioned test. This was a great way to get our newest driver, Robert Torres, back into the car and get him set up for his F4 U.S. Championship debut in March. NOLA Motorsports Park is a 2.75-mile road course with 16 turns and FIA Grade 2 specifications.
The first day of testing was greeted with sunshine and great weather. Robert was able to get in some great laps of racing in perfect weather conditions. This was a great day to get back into the swing of driving and get the proper setups for the car. Robert improved his time with every lap he completed and worked with driver coach Kelley Jones of Racecraft 1 to help improve even more with each lap. Kelley was generous enough to sit in this weekend with Future Star Racing and provide great feedback to help improve Robert for the 2023 season.
The second day of testing was not as generous with weather conditions, and the first session of the day was canceled due to large amounts of water on the track. While rain and a wet track are not ideal conditions for racing, the team set the car up with a new set of rain tires and were ready to go in the next session of the day. Robert utilized this test day to learn how to maintain a set of wet tires by finding the water to keep the tires cool. Robert said, “I feel like I made good improvement through the sessions, getting faster each time; it was a bonus to get a session in the wet weather on day two. As always, I can’t thank everyone at Future Star Racing enough for everything they do. I feel like we work well as a team, and I look forward to coming back in a few weeks to compete in the first event of the 2023 F4 U.S. Championship Season.”
“For limited seat time in a Ligier F4 chassis, Robert could utilize track time to acclimate himself well to the team and car and quickly showed pace with his competitors. The long in the wet sessions could pay off in the dividends at some point later in the season.”
— Bob Shutt, Crew Chief
“Robert’s performance on track exceeded expectations this weekend. We have a great baseline to go back for the race in March. Our chief mechanic did an amazing job putting the car together. The weekend went off without a hitch. Our new junior mechanic and DAG, Ryan McIntyre, stepped up to the plate in his new role this weekend. Kelley Jones, our guest driving coach, helped improve the communication with the driver and team to enhance the performance on track further. Team Coordinator Bri was on point with all logistics aspects and ensured the team had what we needed on track days. Overall, I could not be more pleased with our nearly perfect weekend, and I look forward to the 2023 season. We would like to thank Mark and Alora McAlister for believing in us and providing us with the means to come out and do what we as a team do best.”
— Joey Vallone, Team Manager
“I enjoy being at the track and the hands-on learning opportunities to help with the team and car to get closer to an engineering role. I would like to thank Mark and Alora of Future Star Racing for giving me my start in the racing community.”
— Ryan McIntyre, Junior Mechanic
“After a sunny and dry Saturday, Robert faced Sunday’s challenging wet and intermittent track conditions head-on. He implemented the team’s flexible run plan and responded swiftly to coaching inputs to get more out of his car and reduce his lap times.”
— Kelley Jones, Driver Coach
