Isabella Robusto only operates at one speed, and that’s full throttle.
Of course, that pattern was put on hold last season after she suffered a concussion in a late model stock car wreck during the early stages of the CARS Tour season. The 19-year-old has ramped her schedule up since she’s fully recovered.
Exactly one year after that ill-fated crash, Robusto made a return to the CARS Tour during its recent stop at North Carolina’s New River All American Speedway, executed an incident-free night and finished in the top 10.
The next week at Orange County Speedway was considerably more chaotic, but nonetheless, there were still signs of progress.
“At Orange County, we didn’t finish. A left-front tire got cut and we got into the wall, but we ran top 10 the whole night, we were competitive and qualified sixth,” Robusto explained. “Just knowing that I could get back in the car and run up front was really good.”
She continued her top-10 trend by finishing eighth in the 24-car field at Ace Speedway last Saturday — yet another building block for Robusto and her team.
Last December, Robusto linked up with Lee Pulliam Performance, which is an affiliate of Toyota Racing. As Robusto is one of Toyota’s young development drivers, the pairing made sense on both ends, with the South Carolina native looking to further her stock car career.
While Robusto won’t be able to chase the CARS Tour championship with Pulliam, it’s still an opportunity she isn’t taking for granted, considering the time she lost while injured last year.
“I’m going to miss four more CARS Tour races (this season), so I’m not going to run for points or anything. Kind of just taking it race by race to help with my race craft so that when I get to the ARCA car, I can be a step ahead,” Robusto said.
She already made her ARCA debut — finishing sixth at Phoenix (Ariz.) Raceway in the No. 55 Venturini Motorsports entry on March 8 — but any and all seat time is critical at this point in her career.
That’s why Robusto will be piloting sports cars with Smooge Racing in her “free time” to accumulate road course experience. On top of her Aerospace Engineering studies at Arizona State University, the racing combination makes for quite the hectic schedule.
“It’s pretty crazy. We go nine weeks in a row with a mix of everything. We did Ace (Speedway) with the CARS Tour, then we go to Nashville (Fairgrounds Speedway) for ARCA and then COTA in a GT4 car. It’s a mix of all types of cars again, with back-to-back weekends, but I’m excited to just make up for last year and get all the seat time that I can this year,” Robusto said.
She’s hoping to focus on full-time ARCA racing next year.