MAPLE, Ontario (Sep. 16, 2014) – Having never been to Texas David Ostella has a trip to the podium and a local western apparel shop on his itinerary this week.
Ostella is packing his cowboy boots and heading west to compete in the Lone Star Le Mans at Circuit of the Americas with Performance Tech Motorsports and co-driver James French in Austin, Texas.
Ostella, 22, is looking forward to visiting the Lone Star State and the Formula 1 purpose built track. The last Formula 1 circuit the driver visited was in 2013 for the Grand Prix du Canada in Montreal, Quebec where he finished third and first in the double-header weekend in the Ultra 94 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Michelin series.
With fond memories of that weekend Ostella is still aware of the work that he has to do to make sure he is up to speed with the rest of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship field. Every piece of data, track walk and video will be analyzed meticulously.
“The big thing all year has been getting up to speed quickly and running clean laps,” Ostella said. “With this track it should be easier, it’s a large track so that should make it easier to get those clean laps. The team has video and data from last year that I’ll rely on to help me learn the track faster.
“Overall, I’m just excited to go some place new, I’ve never been to Texas. I’ll have to buy a cowboy hat and some new boots. My brother bought me a pair in Nashville, Tenn. and I’m brining those. The other cool thing is this is Charlie Shears home track so he’ll be out to visit the team and we’ll have a lot of other guests as well. It will be fun to have everyone back together and have them there to support us.”
On track activity begins for all United SportsCar Championship classes on Thursday, Sep. 18 at 5:30 p.m. Qualifying for the PC class takes place the following day from 5:15- 5:30 p.m. The Lone Star Le Mans drops the green flag on Saturday, Sep. 20 at 11: 35 a.m. for a 2 hour and 45-minute race. Fans can catch all the action from their own homes by following the live broadcast on FOX Sports 2; the broadcast begins at 12:30 p.m. (EDT).
For updates on Ostella follow him on Facebook and Twitter at @davidostella. For live updates of Ostella’s on track activity follow @OstellaCorsa on Twitter.