HARTSDALE, NY. (March 18, 2024) – Nick d’Orlando is determined to kick his career back into gear, so when he was finally given the opportunity to compete he wasted no time to prove he deserves to keep going.
After spending the last two years with limited opportunities in open-wheel single seater competition, NTT INDYCAR series legend Graham Rahal, put his faith behind the 20-
year-old Hartsdale, NY native, now living in Charlotte, NC. Getting the nod to pilot Graham Rahal Performance’s (GRP) #15 Radical SR3 1500 machine for the newly formed Radical USA Indianapolis team, competing in the Radical Cup North America series, was an unexpected privilege and d'Orlando proved it was the right decision.
With Radical Cup’s season commencing on the legendary circuit of Sebring International Raceway in Sebring, FL, d’Orlando took to the track with only one day prior experience with the race car. He quickly jumped to the top of the charts and kept it there for the official qualifying session, ultimately starting pole position for the first two of the three main events. He turned the first pole position into a second-place spot on the podium. And in the second race, after contact at the start required a pit stop to repair car damage, d’Orlando would ultimately drive through the entire 32-car field to earn another podium spot in third-place. And finally, he would cross the finish line in third for the final race of the weekend, which included a mandatory 60-second pit stop, but was ultimately disqualified for missing the time requirement by a mere 2/10 of a second.
“Coming into Sebring there were no expectations beyond learning and finishing every
session, but we shifted focus to results quickly as we got off to such a good start.” explains d’Orlando. “The chemistry within the GRP team and I was great, and I found that we work very well together. I’m super thankful that Graham and the rest of the team gave me this opportunity to run for them,, and for my partners at Rising Star Racing and Priority to help make this all happen. We know we have the potential for some fantastic results in the future. We are working very hard to try to make it happen again for Barber and the rest of the season.”
All-in-all, d’Orlando’s performance proves it’s beyond the time for him to come off the sidelines permanently and get into action full time. He continues to work with GRP and his partners at Rising Star Racing and Priority to build the budget to get back in the seat for the next round. Radical Cup North America returns to racing action in support of the NTT INDYCAR series at Barber Motorsports Park on April 26-28.
Replay of the weekend's events at Sebring can be found on YouTube on the Radical Motorsports channel.
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