06-13-05
SCHEER MAKES FINAL IN SECOND ATTEMPT AT ITALIAN OPEN MASTERS
American Dominic Sheer finishes 14th in ICA at this past weekend’s round of the Italian Open Masters at La Conca.
La Conca, Italy — The weekend started out on an impressive note for Scheer #10. In the first practice on Thursday morning, Scheer scored a time within 7/10ths of the winner at Sarno, and Birel Motorsports lead ICA driver Nicholas Risitano. Sheer put down a fast lap of 49.05 in his first time on the track and looked to have his weekend off to a much better start than Sarno. As the rubber began to build up that afternoon, Scheer found it somewhat difficult to adapt. Because in Italy when there is a lot of rubber build-up on the track, the driving goal changes from the fastest possible line to the “avoid the rubber” line.
Scheer and his mechanic Nathan Brown, who had not attended Sarno worked without pause until Saturday morning in order to improve Dominic’s pace for qualifying Saturday morning. In the round of practice before qualifying Sheer was once again back to lapping at the 49.0 mark and the leaders were not able to improve much on Friday’s fast time of 48.33.
As Dominic went out for qualifying he was suddenly much slower than the morning’s practice session. Scheer posted a lap of 49.335 while the pole fell at a blistering 47.991 a lap that had not been seen in ICA all weekend. Dominic qualified 58th overall and would start his first heat in 29th. Due to the communication barrier between the mechanics, Scheer’s Italian mechanic sent him out with 15 psi of air pressure in the tires, which doesn’t work out so well with vega white tires..
Once the tire pressure issue was solved Brown made some changes to Scheer’s kart to help adapt to the increasing level of rubber being laid down on the track surface “I mean like damn its different setting up a kart here in Italy than in the states, but it also didn’t help that I had about 4 degrees of toe out. But you cant fix the past, only look toward the future, and I’m definitely looking forward to the races so I can show these Italians how its done!” said Scheer.
As the green flag fell on the first ICA heat of the weekend it was clear that Brown had put the setup going in the right direction. Dominic quickly moved forward through the field, lapping as fast as the leaders he would finish an outstanding 12th.
Sunday morning was just a little bit hotter yet cloudy. All Scheer had to do Sunday morning was finish 19th or better. Scheer and Brown made a few more changes for the mornings practice and for the first time all weekend Scheer broke the 49.000 barrier that had a “iron curtain” on him all weekend. Scheer posted a fast time in Sunday morning practice session of 48.87. Scheer was now within 3/10ths of the fastest drivers of the session, “The kart handled really well this morning” said Scheer, “I’ve figured out how to drive on the rubber, we really have the kart set up well, and I’m really looking forward to moving up in the next heat race and to make the final” And move up he did. At the start of the second heat Scheer was lapping faster than the leaders for the first 6 laps. Scheer was quickly up to 7th place, But a quick off track excursion dropped him back to 10th at the end of the 12 lap heat.
12th and 10th places finishes in the heats would mean Dominic Scheer would make his first appearance in an Italian Open final starting 19th. “To come here and make the final against 60 of the best ICA drivers in the world and to start inside the top 20 is amazing. Now that we have found our pace I’m really excited about seeing what I can do in the Final.”
The ICA final would be 25 laps on the most intense conditions of the weekend. In some corners the rubber was 2 inches high and in the afternoon heat of 95 degrees it would be a test of both driver conditioning and kart set-up. When the green flag dropped Scheer once again started his move forward. Before the half way mark Scheer was running up as high as 11th place once again lapping as fast as the leaders. Unfortunately for Scheer he was not used to the grip level, thus got tired around lap 22 and dropped off the pace slightly while being passed by 3 drivers to finish in 14th spot.
An Exhausted Dominic Scheer would finish an impressive 14th in his first ICA final of the Italian Open Masters. “To come here to La Conca and make the final and finish 14th is incredible and to do that after qualifying 58th is such a great accomplishment for me. These European drivers are no biggie, but I just have to go back home now and work my muscles so I can finish a race without getting tired.”
The weekend was a great success for the young American driver from Miami, Florida. Dominic will return home to finish final exams and move to Canada to spend time training and testing with Brown and the rest of the 3S Go Karts team before the next round of the Italian Open Masters in Val Virbrata June 30th – July 3rd.
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