RVO to miss Miami-Homestead this weekend
Rockford/Chicago, IL USA
March 25, 2008
Due to an unexpected turn of events - RVO Motorsports #12 Car/Team owner - Roger Schramm - must pull the Pontiac/Riley DP entry from the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 at the GAINSCO Grand Prix of Miami-Homestead Speedway/Road Course, this weekend.
Early reports are that Roger has had a mishap while enjoying a snow skiing 'getaway', before what was to have been the second Grand Am event of RVO's full GAC season plans.
As of now, Roger isn't allowed to put any weight on his leg injury, 'for 9 weeks'. RVO Motorsports Co-pilot Tonis Kasemets was notified about his teams withdrawal, late yesterday. We wish the best to Roger on his road to recovery.
Thank you for your patience & understanding of this unfortunate turn of events.
Press Room/Tonis Kasemets
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Kasemets and Team RVO 'Tune-Up' for Homestead
Chicago, IL USA
February 27, 2008
Tonis Kasemets, with RVO Motorsports teammates Roger Schramm and Justin Bell, took full advantage of recent open test days (February 25 and 26) on the Homestead-Miami speedway/road course. The "Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal" 2008 season officially begins during the weekend of March 27-29. Technically, the season began for the RVO #12 at the 46th running of the '24 Hours of Daytona', however, that became the '210 minutes of Daytona' for RVO. Due to the front left brake rotor 'exploding' in the "Bus-Stop" area, Justin Bell used his large arsenal of skills to remove the permanently damaged #12 out of harms way. Team RVO realized, these things do happen, although this particular 'explosion' is somewhat of an anomaly and it's a miracle Justin wasn't hurt, as parts of the brake rotor flew through the cockpit, just missing Justin's left side, the momentum so strong, the parts continued out the back of the RVO entry, rolling down the speedway/road course. Once it was determined that no one was injured, the RVO crew immediately began to completely focus on the next event.
Having been given the honor of starting at Daytona, Kasemets realized his compatibility with the RVO #12 car and crew "is right on". Tonis is no stranger to either Grand Am DP racing or Homestead. During the 2006 season, he made two Grand Am starts in a Ford/Crawford DP, giving the car owner of RSR Racing the fastest and best results in the history of their Grand Am program. Kasemets also led his own team to a 30 lap-gap victory at the "NASA 25 Hours of Thunderhill" in Tonis' DP (Ford/Crawford), last December in Willows, CA. Tonis has contested on both of Homestead's tracks: the 2.3-mile, 11-turn speedway/road course and the oval, in his Formula Ford 2000 during 2001. Tonis is "Very excited to take on Homestead-Miami in the RVO Motorsports Pontiac/Riley DP", after making such an excellent, yet calculating start at 'Daytona 24'. As Tonis shot forward quickly from 19th to 7th in two laps, all involved with the #12 RVO car knew-they have what it takes to be up front and stay there, as Tonis played the field wisely for his 2-hour stint.
For Kasemets, simply jumping into just any car, isn't… that simple. It's the "chemistry of all involved" as he explains further: "The Team is working hard with me to make RVO better and faster. Chemistry seems very good and there are no EGOs. The only idea is to go faster. It takes time to earn trust within a team and I think they trust my feedback. And it shows on the stopwatch. We were 4th fastest day one in testing, 4th fastest on day two. Combined results of both days, we were 6th quickest." Tonis adds: "I believe I've learned the - how's and what's - to translate the DP 'language' during our recent testing time together."
"The Gainsco Grand Prix of Miami/Homestead" gets underway on March 27th. The race is March 29th at 3:00 PM ET. Speed TV will air the race at 6:00 PM ET, via tape delay. The length of the Gainsco Grand Prix is 250 miles or 2 hours-45 minutes.
Tonis has one final thought to share: "I want to thank my team and teammates Roger and Justin for having me on the #12 RVO roster."
Press Room/Tonis Kasemets
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