Darin Mock Learned Lessons in Sonoma
May 4, 2022
Darin Mock and the No. 75 Hodgdon Ford Mustang team of Mike Cope Racing certainly had their hands full at Sonoma Raceway this past weekend.
While that may sound like a bad thing, they weren’t the only ones who struggled a bit during the TA2 Trans Am Series race on the Wine Country road course. Since it was the series’ first visit there, there were few notes to learn from beforehand.
This led the No. 75 team to work on the car with extra efforts.
“The crew busted their guts getting our Ford Mustang ready for Sonoma after that Leguna Seca wreck,” Mock said. “When I first went out for practice, I could tell something was off when I tried to power out of the turns.
“The good news was, the Mike Cope Racing crew did what they do best and fixed us right up. We ended up top-20, of 44, cars for the second practice and I was looking forward to qualifying once I know we were good to go.”
After qualifying 21st, Mock had two goals in mind. The first, was to finish the race and second, was to take it to the hauler in one piece.
During the race, it quickly became apparent to many teams competing that a lack of previous experience and notes for a track like Sonoma can take a toll.
“We started and I had to come in pretty quick to make a track bar adjustment,” Mock said. “That’s really unusual in our races, especially with it being just 1:15 hours long. But, it ended up helping us out some as we finished 21st among the teams running for points in the National Series.
“There were other teams who already won races this year who were struggling with their set-ups, too. We accomplished our goals of finishing the race and loading the car up in one piece, so those are good things. Credit to everyone at Mike Cope Racing for never giving up.
“I have to give a huge thanks to Hodgdon and everyone who joined us in Sonoma for the race. That part went great and they all had a good time the entire weekend. Having their support and doing the throwback scheme to my dad’s NASCAR days the past two weeks has meant a lot to all of us.
“We’re now 21st in Driver Points and only a few points behind the four positions ahead of us. We definitely took some good notes away from this race.”
Next up for Mock and team is Lime Rock, CT on Memorial Day weekend. For more information about Darin Mock and the MCR team, log on to www.DarinMockRacing.com
