Bertrand Motorsports and Randy Cabral Win 2011 NEMA Title Their 3rd in Four Years
- Nov 15, 2011
"People think it is equipment," says Bertrand, a driver himself until 2004, "But It isn't." He insists that it comes down to Cabral's experience and ability to be in touch with what he wants from the car as a driver, and his team's knowledge to set up the car through that communication. "We are always trying to make the car go faster," says Bertrand. "We think about set up all the time. Not a week goes by that we don't talk five times or more about the car." It came down to consistency, brought on by the teams keenly honed communication skills, that helped them win the 2011 title. "Victory wise it was our worst season since 2006," said Bertrand. "But in terms of consistency we had nine podiums in 13 starts. Over the last eight races he (Cabral) was on the podium seven times. "We really had good set ups wherever we went this year and we made adjustments once we got there," explains Cabral. "I drove better this year once the car got to handling, and that's because I was communicating better."
There's one other intrinsic ingredient that goes into making Bertrand and Cabral such a successful combo, they both simply love to race. They will tell you flat-out that point chasing and defending championships is not what they focus on. "This season we didn't pay attention to points, not even after we took the lead," declared Cabral. "This year was more about having fun." And when talking about the last race of the season at Thompson Speedway's World Series, in which Russ Stoehr claimed the battle, yet Cabral won the war, Bertrand told K&N News "It was nerve racking to watch the two battle. At the time, I was more concerned about winning the race versus the championship. It's what I love about our team, regardless of the points; we are there to win every race!" Although Cabral set the fastest feature lap (18.076) at Thompson, Stoehr got the jump on him after the lap-19 restart, and he went on to win the 25-lapper. Cabral and Stoehr fully understood what even the slightest bump would mean to them, yet the two battled on only inches apart. "Nothing was more fun than the last race," remarked Cabral. "I went to Thompson extremely excited and I wanted no one to fall out of the race. I wanted this to come down to a great race for the fans. But, I also never lost sight that if we bumped, I had the most to lose." Cabral added that he remained totally focused on the big picture over the final two laps. "This one was the toughest one yet," commented the K&N sponsored team owner, regarding his third championship title. "The Russ Stoehr/Dumo's Desire team are on their game at all times, and they came out of the gates with three wins early in the year, while we had a DNF during the first three races due to a broken spark plug, the only DNF this year. We thought we were out of it." "We are all done for the year," concluded Bertrand. "We do indeed plan to defend our title for 2012. The cars are all apart, down to the frame already, and they will be back together before February. We'd like to be testing as soon as the snow thaws!" Find K&N products for your vehicle using the K&N application search then use the K&N dealer search to find a K&N dealer in your part of the world. |
