Preston Pardus and Selin Rollan triumph at NASA Sebring event

NASA Florida region hosted their summer race at Sebring this past weekend and several Rossini powered drivers were there to compete.

In qualifying Selin Rollan put his car on pole with Preston Pardus 2nd and Nick Malatesta was 3rd, making it a Rossini 1-2-3.

In Saturday’s Race 1, Pardus and Rollan got to the front and were switching back and forth for the lead. Pardus got held up when they caught traffic allowing John Davison and Alex Bolanos to get by. He struggled to get around them and this allowed Rollan break away. After a few laps Pardus got passed the Autotechnic team mates, but it was too late to catch Selin. And then on the last lap, Pardus spun on the exit of T1, and got stuck in the mud. Selin got an easy win over Davison and Bolanos. Nick Malatesta finished 4th and Papa Rollan finished 5th also winning the hard charger award.

In Saturdays Race 2, Pardus had to start at the back of the grid due to his DNF in Race 1. At the front Rollan, Bolanos and Davison were fighting back and forth and this allowed Pardus to catch up to them and on the last lap it came down to a three car race with Rollan, Davison and Pardus. Pardus made his move on Davison exiting the hairpin, and caught Rollan on the back straight and passed him before T17, but Rollan did the over-under and they drag raced to the finish line. Pardus got the win by 81 thousandths of a second. Malatesta finished 5th, Rollan Snr 7th and Alex Acosta finished 9th

The Sunday morning Race 1 was a standing start and was the “feature” race of the day. Pardus, starting from pole, got the early jump on the start, while Selin Jr. got shuffled back going into turn 1. Pardus managed to break away while Selin Jr. got stuck racing in the pack. With 15 minutes to go in the race, it was red flagged for a crash, and track repairs prevented the race resuming. Final results were Pardus 1st, Davison 2nd and Selin Rollan Jr. 3rd. Malatesta finished 6th, Acosta 7th and Papa Rollan 8th

Due to a late start and impending rain, several drivers decided to head home. Only 5 racers started Sundays Race 2, but they were all the front runners Pardus, Davison, Selin Jr, Bolanos, and Malatesta. Malatesta pulled in after 3 laps leaving four to fight it out. The first half of the race was crazy with three wide racing for the lead, multiple times. Each one of the drivers got the lead at some point. Selin managed to break away and hold on the for the win, Davison held off Bolanos to finish 2nd and 3rd respectively, and Pardus finished 4th after a big off in the tower turn with 2 laps to go.

Really pleased to see our Rossini drivers doing so well in both NASA and SCCA