Rigon Drives Gloria To Pocono DSR Win

Photo by Ted Simmons
Davide Rigon, the nineteen year old Italan F3 driving sensation, and his Gloria B6-S matched the best efforts of Bob Gardner and his Stohr WF1, winning the second race of the Double National race weekend at Pocono International Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. Both drivers were under Gardner's previous DSR track record by almost 2 seconds.

In Saturday's race, Bob Gardner drove his Stohr WR1 to the win, leading Rigon's Gloria B6-S/2005 Suzuki GSXR by 11 seconds at the chaeckered flag. Gardner's best lap time was a 1:33.0 compared to Rigon's 1:33.8 best lap. Peter Frost in his OMS FL1 finished third, followed by Ted Simmons - LeGrand Mk18, Bob Urso - Decker Mk5, Laurence Meisner - Radical, and Bill Gendron - Dragon Sr2.

Sunday's race saw Bob Gardner lead the first 6 laps, only to drop out following an oil leak, leaving Rigon to take an unchallenged win. Best lap times on Sunday were 1:33.2 for Rigon, and 1:33.8 for Gardner before he retired. Ted Simmons finished second in his LeGrand Mk18, Bill Gendron improved from Saturday to take third in his Dragon Sr2, and Bob Urso ended in forth piloting his Decker Mk5.

Alex Miller was the only CSR competing in the field. So, he took the class win both days. Mathew Direnzo, former DSR stand out, topped the results each day in the S2000 class.

Who's Davide Rigon?
Rigon "won last years Formula Azzurra (Gloria F1000) Championship in Italy - National Champion in effect. He got a Minardi test as a prize and is currently doing Italian F3 with Team Corbetta [and is currently third in the championship after winning two races out of the ten to date]. Mr. Glorioso (Gloria), with support from OMP, has put him in the DSR as a prize and hopefully a career builder", reports Phil Creighton who assisiting Gloria to import cars and get established in the USA.

"We are supplying [Gloria] with all the resources to try to make the Runoffs in DSR [via] the NE - 3 down and VIR to go. It all ties in with their F1000 program. Originally the plan was to run two cars, the second for Federico Glorioso but time ran out."

Davide Rigon's bio (in Italian), pdf file

Chassis pages:
Decker
Dragon
Gloria
LeGrand
OMS
Stohr