What looked like an entertaining weekend in the Stock Car season opening turned into a survival exercise for Prati-Donaduzzi Team this Sunday in Goiânia. A multiple accident in the first lap involved the riders Julio Campos and Antonio Pizzonia, who started on the 8th and 11th place respectively, forced the mechanics to overcome the competition in the second round, but the reward came at the end: with one suffered 12th place, Pizzonia secured the sweaty three points for the team led by technical director Rodolpho Mattheis.
It was a bitter Sunday for Prati-Donaduzzi Team, back after the year away from the category. Pizzonia lost 20 laps in the pits, tracking the repairs in the car, and entered the second round at the sacrifice by aiming to obtain at least the possible score. Campos not even that: with more severe damage, only managed to leave the pits in the complement of the double round, receiving the checkered flag in 15th place. He complained about the difficulty with the bent steering wheel, while Pizzonia reported a deficiency in the brake system.
Mattheis, however, maintained the optimistic speech for the further calendar, scheduled for next day 23rd in Velopark (RS). "The qualifying practice was good, I think we were not able to deliver our full potential. We would be able to put Júlio's car among the top five on the grid and Pizzonia´s among the 10. It was a good qualifying start, but races are races. It ended up having a twist that took the chance of our pilots to fight for pole position in the first race. It was difficult to evaluate the pace in the other.We tried to recover the cars, but they are never 100% in terms of correctness.Julio's car was affected in the aerokip, in the passage of the gear oil, had two tires pierced, the rear extractor, the central extractor, side exhaust, front hood... It was a mess. Pizzonia´s car suffered a little less, which enabled us to run with the preparation for the second round”, he said. "We have done what we could and now we have to continue working to achieve the results we could not match today", he added.
The double round featured the victories of the pole position Daniel Serra (RC), who led the first round from end to end, and Ricardo Zonta (Shell Racing), who did not complete the first race and took advantage of better tire conditions and more uses of the overtaking button to win for the second time in Stock Car.