Niverville native and professional race car driver David Richert, experienced his first race in the extremely high-powered Formula 2 race car at this past weekend’s BOSS GP race at Monza in Italy.
The weekend started off in very challenging conditions as rain persisted throughout Friday causing both Free Practice 1 and Free Practice 2 to take place on a wet race track. Richert managed to navigate the difficult conditions and finish both practice sessions in 2nd position.
Qualifying took place under sunny skies and was set to be Richert’s first experience in a Formula 2 car in dry weather conditions. Unfortunately, due to Richert’s unexpected success in the first two practice sessions, by BOSS GP rules, he was forced to Qualify in the advanced group of cars and would only be allowed 3 laps to set a time, compared with the 13 laps that the majority of the drivers would receive. Richert managed to qualify in 3rd place, just two tenths of a second behind the BOSS GP championship leader.
After torrential thunderstorms, Race 1 eventually started, but came to an early end for Richert after his car slid off track into the waterlogged grass, from which he was unable to drive out.
Race 2 took place under brilliantly sunny skies on Sunday. Starting the race with a cautious approach left Richert with the task of playing catchup. After another car spun into the gravel late in the race, a safety car was deployed and brought the field of cars back close to one another. A thrilling 3 car final lap shootout ensued where Richert finished in 6th position, only 3 tenths of a second behind 4th.
“All things considered, it was a fantastic experience to drive a Formula 2 car around Monza,” said Richert. “The weather made it exceptionally challenging but it’s not in my control, so I’m happy we made the best of a difficult situation. Hopefully we can take care of the business side of racing now and find the corporate partners necessary to get back into this car… I’m confident we can win races in this championship.”
