Race 02: Round of Carbondale

Atkins has a short day at Carbondale

Ben Atkins, driving for Scuderia Tutino, had another race end early on him at Carbondale after getting into a crash early in the running when he was slowly making his way through the back half of the field. Atkins had a mechanical failure after an already bad day at California as well, and he currently is without points this season.

"We're two damn races in and I'm already sick of it." said Atkins "I plain sucked at Carbondale then today we just had nowhere to go. I haven't had a good run in Master Cup since Quebec last year. I'd just love to score points in a race. Hell, I'd love to finish one."

The next race in Georgia is one he is optimistic for, as he believed his first points of the season will come to him, but he realises the effort he has to put in for the results to come.

Rossini blames "no one" for engine failure
After a successful weekend with the Tutino team in California, Alessandro Rossini had hoped to continue his form and was on target to repeat the success in California when the Tutino engine ended it's day early with an engine failure while running in the Top 10. Tutino, who saw an engine failure at the hands of Briton Ben Atkins last race weekend, develop their own engines and are well known for their engine troubles.

Rossini, 24, was running within the Top 10 and was set to give Tutino their highest finish in the TM Master Cup after a clever pit strategy positioned the Italian behind the-then race leader Luciano Soveral. After qualifying in 38th and last, Rossini remained toward the back, where he briefly swerved early on with the belief a tyre had gone down. Careful and quick driving moved the Italian further up the order and with the help of caution flags was able to move into the Top 10 after staying out on track with used tyres. The #42 continued to run in the Top 10, higher than the previous Tutino best of a 14th set by Scott Steudler, and was running at the back end of the Top 10 on Lap 80 when the Italian's day was brought to an end.

Despite the disappointing finish, Rossini remained in high spirit and was available for the press. "It's no ones fault, I blame no one", responded the Italian when asked to comment on the failure, "they worked hard to improve the engine from last season and when you have the lesser funds of course it's difficult to have the perfect engine and without the help of the tacticians of Tutino I wouldn't have been where I was".

The TM Master Cup circus head to Road Atlanta next week for the Round of Georgia.