Luca Casadei had never driven a touring car before and so a calm racewas expected of him - but instead, we got the total opposite. The nineteenyear old driver put on a great performance and won his first podiumposition in the Italian Clio Cup trophy in Valleunga.
After a very challenging race with 35 participants, Luca was 2nd in theunder 25 category and 11 overall.The collision with the driver Rinaldithat send him off track, was a pity. When he finally got back on track ,hewas 20th. However, Luca impressed his team by climbing his way up andby overtaking his opponents consecutively - the team was amazed at this positive debut, it’s not easy for a driver to adapt this fast to a touring car.
Luca Casadei“I will remember this weekend in Vallelinga for a long time and not onlyfor its result. I must admit that I had a lot of fun and I re-discovered thepleasure of driving on the track after a very bleak season in FormulaRenault 2000.
During the qualifying session, I found a lot of traffic and wasn’t able torun a perfect lap. It’s a pity but I don’t want to complain.I know very wellthat we are 35 participants and one must take that into consideration. Inany case, I was only six decimals away from the leader and it’s not badfor someone making his debut. My last race was in July 2003 and so Icouldn’t wait for the race. 8 months without racing are too long.I started off well but during the first few laps, my lack of experience inthis type of race made me pay the price. With a single seater, you haveto avoid “contact” with the others but in this category , collsions are veryfrequent. The others bumped into me a lot but this is part of the game.During one of these collisions, I lost control of the car for an instant andthus went off track. I didn’t panic and got back on track immediately.
I learnt the best way to overtake fast and recuperated at least 10positions. I only have to thank the team if I adapted so well to the car.The Rangoni Motorsport team was great right from the start and theygave me a lot of useful advice. I’m still not as clever as the other moreexperienced drivers but that will come with time.For the moment, I justwant to enjoy this result and I hope to improve at the next race."
