"A big wreck on Friday brings issues on Saturday for the Floridian driver"

June 25, 2019 - In racing, the highs are high and the lows are low, and this weekend marked the lowest of the low for Tyler Gonzalez in his rookie car racing career. Competing in the fifth and sixth rounds of the Battery Tender Global MX-5 Cup Presented by BF Goodrich at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin's Road America, Gonzalez was involved in a huge wreck Friday and issues from the incident effected Saturday's race results.

 

"First off, I want to thank everyone who reached out to me on Friday. It was a pretty big wreck, but I am ok and just felt bad for the whole Copeland Motorsports team," explained Tyler Gonzalez. "We had a really good car, and I was able to move my way all the way to second on track. I was making a bid for the lead and got a little high on the exit curb. The car bottomed out hard when the curb ended and snapped right, then left, and there was nothing I could do to catch it."

 

With a car that was virtually destroyed, the Copeland Motorsports team went to work to rebuild the #57 machine for race two on the weekend that was scheduled to take place on Saturday afternoon. With their backs against the wall and only 22.5 hours between the end of race one and the start of race two, the team needed all of that time to get everything patched together.

 

Gonzalez added, "The team did an incredible job. Everyone pitched in when they were done with their assigned tasks and worked until after 1am on Saturday morning. Needing rest, they returned back to the track after breakfast and continued to assemble what they could to get me back on track. We knew the alignment was going to be way off as the left front wheel was further back than the right front, but we did the best we could. Completing the assembly less than an hour before the green flag on race two, I knew the odds were stacked against us."

 

Taking the green flag and running in the top-ten, Tyler looked to have a car that was capable of a top-five finish before a mid-race spin and eventual retirement.

 

"It was difficult to drive and turned better one way than the other," continued Gonzalez. "The brake pedal was softer than normal and it eventually went to the floor in turn seven. To avoid hitting the car in front of me, I jerked the wheel to the left and spun. I hate it for the team, but I did not want to do any more damage."

 

With a few weeks away from the race track, Copeland Motorsports will take the Tyler Gonzalez machine back to their Maryland shop and assess damage and develop a plan of attack for future events.

 

For more information and/or partnership opportunities on Tyler Gonzalez, please contact Alberto Gonzalez at 407.466.9083 or via e-mail to superiorcoatingsystems@yahoo.com.