A strong home showing

Kosuke Matsuura comes in to his home race at Twin Ring Motegi 18th in IndyCar Series points and greatly needing a strong race weekend to appease his team, his sponsors, and himself.

“Before Motegi I wanted to bring a good result for the fans, but unfortunately we had two races and two retirements. That has hurt me a lot,” said Matsuura who finished 14th at Homestead and 17th at St. Petersburg.

Both of those dismal results came with the help of Jeff Simmons, adding to Matsuura's frustration. Simmons spun in front of Matsuura at Homestead, then punted the young Japanese driver from behind in the treacherous turn four on the streets of St. Petersburg.

The second incident caused Matsuura to utter an expletive on both his radio and TV interviews, leading to a fine from the IndyCar Series.

Trying to put a pair of bad races behind him, Matsuura spent the last two weeks doing media and sponsor events in his native Japan. This seems to have helped him move on and he now looks forward to a solid race weekend.

“This is another race and I don't want to remember what happened with me and Simmons. I spoke already with Simmons and we are okay now, so we will just do our best.”

So far this moving ahead is working. Matsuura turned the second quickest time in the afternoon practice session, behind Andretti Green Racing driver Danica Patrick.

ORS / CAPSIS International