Kyojo Cup: Kelsey Pinkowski on racing in the wet at Fuji
With two rounds yet to be run in Kyojo Cup, New York's Kelsey Pinkowski looks back at last month's wet contest in which she battled mechanical problems, with the aim to continue her upwards trajectory in this weekend's second-to-last round at Fuji.
In her second season in Kyojo Cup, Kelsey Pinkowski has demonstrated positive growth in the first three rounds of the year, as part of KCMG's four-car lineup. The last of these three rounds was held in early September, which saw a mix of dry and wet conditions, adding on to an already challenging weekend for the Rochester, New York native.
The first batch of testing sessions on Thursday, held in dry conditions, Pinkowski gathered valuable experience on her return to Fuji Speedway. That experience proved useful for Friday's testing, in which she set the 15th-fastest time of the day ahead of frontrunners Kokoro Sato and Miki Onaga.
While her weekend had seemingly one off to a rather usual start, mechanical issues had been plaguing her throughout both days. Those issues almost put an end to her weekend, but a monster effort from the KCMG mechanics made sure she was able to partake in qualifying and the two races.
"We had some mechanical issues early on that put us behind before we even got to practice properly. The team worked incredibly hard to get the car sorted and ready in time for both the qualifying, sprint and the final, and I'm grateful for their hard work. Without their effort, we wouldn't have ever been on track."
After recovering from mechanical issues, Pinkowski qualified 17th on Saturday morning, before a straight-forward sprint race later that day saw her finish 18th. Things changed for Sunday though, as rain set in and drenched the track, making conditions difficult to traverse and forcing Pinkowski to adopt a different mindset for the final race of the weekend.
With visibility extremely limited, Pinkowski stayed out of trouble to finish 16th in the treacherous conditions, but was left hungry for more as the third round of the season came to a close.
"It wasn't our best weekend, but it was certainly not the worst," said Pinkowski looking back on the weekend. "The results weren't what we were chasing for coming into this round, it wasn't for a lack of effort though, as the whole weekend threw challenges at us from the start."
"Then the weather didn't do us any favors either," Pinkowski added. "The rain made visibility really difficult out there and it was tough to see where other drivers were on track, especially in tighter sections. There were moments where I was a bit nervous just to keep awareness of the cars around me in those conditions."
"Racing in the wet always requires more caution, but when you can barely see the cars near you, it changes how you have to approach every turn. Given everything though, I think we did what we could to bring the car home in one piece and gain more experience. It's not the weekend we wanted, but there's a lot to learn from it. We keep working hard and pushing forward."
Kyojo Cup is back in action this weekend on 10–11 October at Fuji for the penultimate round of the season, in which Pinkowski will aim to continue her steady progression and bridge the gap to the rest of the field.
