Carla Rosinski

Carla Rosinski (Born June 7, 1992) is a Dash Cup driver for Atlantic Motorsports, born in Krasnodar, Russia. She is the youngest ever champion in Dash Cup, winning the title at only age 17, and also the youngest race winner at only 16.

The Early Years: The Start of Something Amazing
Rosinski spent the first 5 years of her life in Russia, with her father, who was a Russian, and her mother who was American. But at the age of 5, she moved over to America as her father wanted to move to America with her parents. From the age of 7, Carla would watch races on the television on a regular basis, but her parents considered racing too dangerous, and never let her race. However, she managed to persuade her parents that she would take it easy and try her hardest not to crash, so Carla started racing karts in the American Under 12s National Tour at age 10, and was the 2003 and 2004 champion in the series. She instantly got a feel for go karts, and moved onto the under 16s division, which is controversial, since she was seen as too inexperienced for the division, but she won 7 races in the four years she raced in go-karts, and even won the championship in 2008. Dash Cup team NitrousAction Racing Inc then scouted her for the 2009 Dash Cup season.

2009: Welcome to Dash Cup
In 2009, Carla started to impress by finishing 2nd in the first race she ran. She then ran the Magny-Cours GP which she won after qualifying on the pole. She then went on to win 6 more races that year, including the Toddring GP, which was the closest finish in Dash Cup history (0.13 seconds). In the Norisring GP, she was en-route for a potential win, but Verity Logan blocked Atkins and her excessively, and this resulted in Carla spinning Logan into Atkins, and then hitting the wall, though this was not of her own doing. Dean Thompson, who sat in 4th, won the race and Carla still finished 5th. In the garage area, Carla's passion came to life, and she walked over to Logan and started yelling in her direction. Rosinski said "I don't think my parents would approve of my language, but she deserved it. I can't say I've ever been this angry over a 5th place finish." As she continued to collect wins in the 2009 season, she was labelled "the best driver Dash Cup had ever seen". She won the championship by over 75 points over Ben Atkins.

2010: The season to forget
In 2010, she only won the Rockingham GP, which was race 2. She failed to finish in the top 10 at Oulton Park, then in the next race, she had a horrific accident at Neva Ring in practice for the Russian GP where her car hit the barriers, broke the barrier, rolled over outside the track and set on fire. This is the hardest registered impact in Dash Cup history. She broke her left arm, and suffered a severe concussion. She took the rest of the 2010 season to recuperate. She has returned to the track for the 2012 season, although she was ready to return for 2011.

2012: The Comeback
Carla's 3rd season in Dash Cup started off well, qualifying 10th for the Eurospeedway GP, but after two spins (one under caution) not of her doing, she finished 21st of 30. A streak of bad events continued when she qualified 15th at Norisring, but she converted that into a 7th place finish after avoiding a lap 1 multi-car accident. A 6th place start at Rockingham shown potential for a good race, however the tragedy of losing her best friend Ben Tremblay overshadowed her 20th place finish. Things became better, however, after she crawled from the back of the field twice to achieve a 2nd place finish at Brands Hatch; her best finish of the season. At Mallory Park, she was like a pinball. She collided with many drivers, mostly not of her own doing, including an incident in which she took Anto Markov out of a potential podium. However, due to the unusually high attrition rate, Rosinski still managed to scavenge a 15th place finish, 2 laps down. At Brno, Rosinski never found the track easy, and qualified 28th, which was second to last on the grid. Rosinski never found her pace in the race, and finished 21st, mainly out of attrition and pit strategy.

Her season could have potentially taken a turn for the worse when Justin Keith initially planned to take Carla Rosinski's spot in race 1 in the GP of Monaco but with the entry of Luke Ackermann, Rosinski's spot in race 1 was safe. She silenced the critics who claimed she had "lost her talent" when she got the pole for race 1, and she never looked back, and she secured the win at Monaco. Team owner Ben Atkins said "She just reminded me of how she driven in 2009. She was fantastic, and determined out there today." Rosinski then jumped up to the top 10 in points with the win. Carla had a very quiet run at Calder Park, finishing 11th after running mid-pack all day. At Osaka, she had a collision with Verity Logan which was deemed intentional. Carla was running inside the top 5 at the time of the accident, and shown her anger via twitter. She still scavenged points with an 18th place finish, which was enough to keep her 10th in points.

Motegi started off a string of good runs, as she ran in the top 5 all day and finished 4th. She also took part in the 2012 Sarabai 300 and started up front after qualifying was rained out. Rosinski finished 2nd on her ARLA debut, which impressed, most notably, Dash Cup team owner Ben Atkins. Then, she qualified for Spa with ease, finishing very well in her qualifier. Her great pace continued through the weekend, as she finished 7th, being one of 4 Atlantic Motorsports cars to finish in the top 10, joining Harriet Wallace (2nd), Ben Atkins (9th) and Matt Tremblay (10th) in the top 10. Carla was then entered for the 2012 Round of Indianapolis, driving the 330 car Daniel Miller drove at Karjala, and she will attempt to make her first TM Master Cup Series event. At the 2012 Karjala GP, Rosinski qualified well, and finished 2nd, really bringing her championship hopes alive. Carla had to deal with a DNF at Toddring after a crash with Kellan Rogers and Carlo De Pretto, but then she went over to America, and she couldn't have started the American phase off better.

Coming over to America started off a challenge; a race for the Dash Cup title, and the potential of her first TM Master Cup Series start at Indianapolis, and Indianapolis came first. Carla said her car was quick in pole qualifying, and she put a good time on the boards. Good enough for her to be locked in with 9th on the grid. Rosinski stunned herself and her fans with her making it into the race, but team owner Ben Atkins said that he wasn't surprised she made it, as she is a very talented driver. Atkins too made the race, and himself and Rosinski became the second romantic couple to race together in the TMMC in the 2012 season. The first was Alexis Rainsford and Chris Davenport. Rosinski was not very quick all day, but she still managed to take home some points, finishing 20th.

Personal Life
She had a very good friendship with Ben Tremblay prior to his death. Her parents are a heavy influence to her racing career, and she even referenced them when in victory lane in her first career win. She is also known to be best friends with ex-teammate Harriet Wallace.

Rosinski currently resides in Norwich, England, but in the offseason, she spends at least a month over in Lincoln, Nebraska to visit her parents, and friends she had met in her childhood.