Positive debut for Subaru despite logistical problems

Luca Rangoni finished the first race in the Subaru STi TCR yesterday despite never having seen the track and having only driven a few laps on the Japanese car.

Top Run had logistical issues which forced the team to skip almost the entire weekend, but progress was clearly visible according to the Italian driver: “It has been a real challenge, given the circumstances out of our control that we all know,” said the Bologna based driver. “The 15 race laps we completed over the weekend are to be seen as a real-life shakedown. What is clear is that the potential of the car is very high and the development work starts only now.”

Rangoni acknowledged the progress between the two races was remarkable, despite the short amount of time allowed to work on the car: “Already from Saturday to Sunday, the progress has been impressive. In Race 1, the gearbox had a very long response time, the brakes weren’t functioning properly and the set-up was obviously not the right one for this track. Today, most of the problems were corrected, and the progress quite visible, despite having only 40 minutes to work on the car.”

Team Manager Renato Russo confirmed he is happy with the data collected, but the real work starts now as the potential of the car needs to be delivered. “We collected a tremendous amount of useful feedback and data,” explained Russo. “Now we have a very good basis upon which to start the real development work. We took the commitment of debuting at Singapore and are very happy to have been able to stick to it. It has been fifty days of non-stop work for us since we took delivery of the car, and despite the difficulties, we are very happy of our debut: the car has shown a great potential and proven already it is a wonderful addition to the highly-competitive TCR International Series.”

With the next stop of the championship in Buriram, Thailand, next month, Top Run will continue their developement work in order to make the STi TCR more competitive.