Perfect! What a weekend. Round 4 on the FRP schedule marked the midpoint of the season and a return to the track Mateo scored his first win last year. This would be the third FRP race weekend at Pitt for Mateo and his experience showed. It was a weekend sweep with Mateo being fastest in every session and winning all 3 races.
Friday consisted of 2 30-minute practice sessions around Pittsburg International Race Complex. In session 1, Mateo’s fastest time of 1:48:870 was 0.325 seconds faster than the closest competitor and 5 of his 16 laps during the session were ahead of that pace. Practice Session 2 saw a modest improvement on time of 0.008 seconds, but the next closest competitor was 0.6 seconds off the pace. Seven of Mateo’s 14 laps were faster.
The plan for qualifying on Saturday was to get out ahead of the pack, work with his Team Pelfrey teammate, Timothy Steele, to set a fast lap then come in to save tires as degradation looked like it might be an issue over the weekend. Mateo and Timothy worked together to execute the strategy perfectly qualifying 1-2 with Mateo catching a great draft and a 0.592 second advantage. He also reciprocated providing Timothya draft to a 0.45 second gap to 3rd…a Team Pelfrey front row for Race!
In Race 1 Saturday afternoon, Mateo and Timothy were able to pull away early and it looked like it would be a race to the finish on the final couple of laps before a caution came out on lap 9 and the race was shortened and finished under yellow with Mateo in the lead. Mateo again set fasted lap of the race on lap 4 at 1:48.585 which put him pack on pole for Race 2.
There was an incident in turn 2 of Race 2 as the front of the pack was still tight and jostling for position bringing the safety car out for laps 2 & 3 before the single file restart. Mateo got a great jump and opened up a clear gap to the field which he never relinquished. He crossed the line 3.291 seconds ahead of second and set the fastest time of the race in lap 5 at 1:48:621.
Race 3 was definitely the most challenging of the 3 and the closest his competitors were all weekend. The field broke into a few well-defined groups, creating the pack racing and drafting that the F1600 class is well known for. The lead pack consisted of 3-6 cars for much of the race. Mateo was finally able to pull a bit of a gap in the final laps of the race as the group behind him began fighting for position. In the end he finished with a 2 second advantage over the field and the fastest lap of the race on lap 11 of 12.
Fastest in every session and 3 victories. Maximum points haul. 5th consecutive win. And a perfect podium record for the season so far with 7 wins, 2 seconds and 2 thirds. On to Road America to try and defend his June Sprints title followed by the FRP races the following week at another of Mateo’s favorite tracks.
