FR Americas Debuts in Canada

The FR Americas series made its way across the border to Canada, for the first time, as it raced at the classic Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (aka Mosport), near Toronto, Ontario.

Among the drivers, Nicole Havrda was excited to race in her home country. Unfortunately, it was a tougher weekend than the young driver hoped for.

Thursday’s testing saw the team struggle to find an optimal setup, with Nicole also focusing on improving her times – which she did, lap after lap.

It was a tough qualifying for Nicole on Friday, as she found herself unable to put together a lap she was happy with. The BC driver ultimately qualified a (for her) disappointing ninth.

Race 1
From her ninth place grid position, Nicole made her usual strong start and quickly moved up to seventh. However, after that, she found it a tough slog – the fast, flowing nature of the track causing understeer as she closed on the cars ahead, and the lack of big braking zones meaning there was no real place to outbrake her competitors. Compounding her problems, the team later found out that her engine was 6 km per hour slower than her competitors – making things even more difficult for the Canadian driver.

Race 2
Saturday saw Nicole line up eighth for the second race of the weekend. She quickly found herself up to fifth but could not pass a strong defending driver in front. She ultimately crossed the finish line in fifth.

Race 3
Sunday’s final race of the weekend had Nicole starting sixth.

Again, an excellent start saw her in fifth place as the pack went into Turn 1. Unfortunately, going into Turn 3, she was hit from behind and spun. She was now last.

Nicole now had the bit between her teeth. With aggressive driving, and a fortuitous safety car, she was able to catch the pack. Ultimately, the Canadian fought back to sixth place.

After the weekend Nicole said, “I was pretty upset with my performance this weekend because I know I could have been on the podium.

“I’ll come back stronger for COTA in two months.”