// Learn and forget in Road America hardship
// Swede pockets team’s best result on difficult weekend
Joel Granfors picked up Exclusive Autosport’s best result of the weekend in a challenging USF Pro 2000 event at Road America.
Granfors scored a best finish of sixth in the concluding second race of the double-header meeting in Wisconsin, where an uncharacteristic lack of pace halted the Swede’s run of podiums from each of the previous three championship rounds.
“It’s been a really tough weekend for us, but what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” says Joel Granfors. “We simply didn’t have the pace here, and that in turn makes you more vulnerable to incidents in the pack. It’s a vicious circle. I had a drive-through penalty in the first race, which obviously didn’t help, but mainly we were just not quick enough. We will learn from this weekend, and then we will move on.”
USF Pro 2000 resumes at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on July 1-2. Already this coming week, however, Granfors and Exclusive Autosport will travel to the Ohio road course for a scheduled test that is now set to bear added significance.
“It’s great to have a test scheduled in just a few days,” Joel Granfors concludes. “We need that at the moment to find out what went wrong here. It has been very difficult, but that’s motor racing sometimes and what counts is how you recover. We know we’re a lot better than this, and we will be back to prove it.”
Joel Granfors entered the weekend sitting second in the USF Pro 2000 standings, but now slips to fourth with half the season completed.
RESULTS
USF Pro 2000 Presented by Cooper Tires
Rd. 5 – Road America (USA)
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
USF Pro 2000 Presented by Cooper Tires
After 5/9 rounds
1: Myles Rowe (USA), 209 p.
2: Francesco Pizzi (ITA), 161 p.
3: Kiko Porto (BRA), 159 p.
4: Joel Granfors (SWE), 154 p.
5: Salvador de Alba (MEX), 142 p.