Lehdistötiedotteet - The Long Beach Massacre

The Long Beach Massacre

After Kelsey Curtis crossed the line to claim his 3rd victory of the season a mere 16 other cars followed him past the chequered flag. Long Beach, the famously sunny Californian street circuit had taken it's toll on the field.

An unusually changable weekend of weather saw all qualifying and practices in the dry and the races in downpours. More than a few drivers were caught out by this and the feature race proved brutal, with inexperienced wet weather drivers a little out of their depth.

1st Race winner Ve Kuba looked set to repeat until another poorly timed pit stop dropped him to 8th and the hot headed young driver threw himself into climbing back up the field, making mistake after mistake in the next set of laps until on lap 44 he finally spun out of the race.

But the real story of the weekend was unfolding at the top of the standings table. Youngster Jackson Storm is at the center of the controversy after coming together with championship leader Rick Deidrich. A pace car approximately 1/3 of the way into the race left Kuba in front of Deidrich and Storm, and all closely spaced. Firstly Deidrich got past Kuba, then when Kuba retook his position on the straight Storm tried to follow him through as they came into turn 2, but there was no way through and the resulting collision ended with Deidrich in a broken car and Storm continuing his race.

Storm himself was later hit by another driver and the damage to his car slowed him, finally finishing in 4th, importantly for him 2 spots behind Shackleford who closes the gap between himself and Storm to just 21 points. Also importantly this leaves the both in striking distance of Deidrich on the final weekend.

I caught up with Storm, who in a rare event, decided to speak to the media.

When asked about the collision with Deidrich
"Firstly I would like to apologise to Rick, I can absolutely guarantee that the collision was not planned, after all in these cars there is just as much chance I take myself out than anyone else. I'm not experienced in the wet and I think that showed, but I wasn't the only one, that race was brutal!"

When asked about the number of accidents in F3
"Absolutely I think it's too high. Not a week goes by where my car isn't damaged in a racing accident. These are delicate, single seat machines that are not designed to take damage and yet there is almost stock car like contact every race. I know as drivers most of us do our utmost to limit this risk but in my opinion something in the sport needs to change to make it less common. One race I was hit 5 times in the space of 10 laps, I think Staci took a load of contact yesterday. Something needs to change!"

When asked about the title race and his second place
"Rick deserves to win this season. Not that I won't be trying my hardest to beat him but he's run an amazing series and taught me a lot about the need to win vs the need to score well. As for Rusty, he's had some bad luck but is coming good at the right moment, it's going to be a real challenge keeping him behind me and holding onto these points next weekend."

When asked about his future
"I don't know yet, outside of the fact I will not be running in this series again I'm not sure where I will end up, it's kinda more up to my manager than me really.

So there we have it. The American series is very much Deidrich's to lose, but can Storm and Shackleford stay out of contact long enough to race for that second spot or will it all be decided on sheer dumb luck and our friend the high speed lottery? Tune in next Sunday to see who takes home the big trophy!