My First Skip Barbera Race Weekend

Posted On 9 May, 2013 by admin

This race weekend was very good. I learned a lot about using the draft and passing in the qualifying session.

I was second in the first race, but I fell to the 3rd position at the start. On the first lap, I passed second positions and then passed into first position all in one move. I was able to open up enough space between the second position driver and me so he couldn’t use the draft to pass me again after that.

I started opening from them after I took the lead because I did not make mistakes. I kept a good average speed and won the race more than 7 seconds ahead of the second position.

It was raining in the second race I started in the pole, but I lost a position in turn 3 in the first lap in the same lap I tried to brake harder in turn 14 and unfortunately I had a 4-off. I had to stop in the pits for the Skip Barber crew to check the car.

So I had to start from the bottom and do some very fast laps so I could finish 3rd just 3 tenths behind the second. Going on the fastest lap, without that mistake, I know that I could have won that race, too.

But I will look forward and not repeat this mistake in the next race.

I want to thank Skip Barber Racing School and MAZDASPEED who provide me the opportunity of racing in this championship. It will be an amazing championship if it continue being so competitive like this 1st race weekend.

F1600 at VIR

Posted On 2 May, 2013 by Jake Edison

Going into the first round of the F1600 Championship Series race at VIR, I was feeling very comfortable with the new Spectrum car after having a great testing session at Gainesville Raceway.

Once we made it to VIR, the first few testing sessions went very well after getting the car dialed in.

Once qualifying came around for the first race, it was very intense after both me and the pole sitter beat the track record by 3 tenths of a second. After missing pole by only two tenths of a second I started the first race in p2. From the start of the race till the end it was very exciting and action filled racing as the leader changed many times throughout the race but ultimately I finished where I started p2.

Qualifying for the second race was an event I’ll never forget. During qualifying, I was battling for pole position, towards the end of the session I was going down the back-straight and out of the corner of my eye I saw a deer running at me. I did my best to avoid it but sadly hit it with the back right side of the car. There was quite a lot of damage done to the car. As soon as I returned back to the pits the Cape Motorsports Team did an amazing job with getting the car fixed in time for the last race.

For the second race I had to start last but didn’t waste anytime after taking an advantage of an incident at turn one on the start of the race. Coming out of turn one I was already in p3 and on the opening lap of the restart I moved up to p1. Having another very close battle for the lead, I finished the race in p2 by just .056 of a second.

Overall I’m pleased with my performance at VIR and know that I learned a lot of valuable information about how these cars race. I also feel very comfortable with the Spectrum car and want to thank the Cape Motorsports team for all their hard work and help. I’m looking forward to applying everything that I’ve learn’d to the next F1600 Championship race at Road Atlanta.

Eidson is a 3-time Skip Barber Race Series Champion. He will compete for a $200,000 MAZDASPEED driver development scholarship towards USF200 in the 2013 Skip Barber Race Series Championship Shootout.

Race Series Debuts

Posted On 30 Apr, 2013 by Brett Johnson

University of Speed contributors and Skip Barber scholarship winners started their journey up the Mazda Road to Indy this weekend in the 2013 Skip Barber Summer Race Series opener at Virginia International Raceway.

Yago Cesario, 17 from Goiania, Brazil, is the 2012 Skip Barber Karting Scholarship Shootout
winner. He joins a long line of champions that have progressed from the Karting Scholarship Shootout into INDYCAR, NASCAR, Grand-AM and ALMS to name a few.

“I am feeling great because I know that racing in the Skip Barber Race Series will improve my driving skills because the cars are the same for everybody so the only thing that makes difference is the driver,” said Cesario after his Wednesday lapping session. “Also, because many great drivers passed through the Skip Barber system, it makes me feel that I am taking the right path to Indy.”

Cesario qualified second for his first race behind Italo Leao who would end up breaking the Skip Barber Formula lap record. But his first race was a true success as he won with a clear 7-second advantage.

Starting on the pole for a rainy race 2, Cesario finished 3rd. in a close battle with Patrick Dussault for 2nd and Brandon Angel close behind in 4th. Leao won the race.

Andre Gomes, 25, from Nashua, New Hampshire, is the first-ever Skip Barber INDYCAR Academy winner. As the first-ever winner of the shootout for drivers without professional racing experience, Gomes is making history at every turn.

“I’m extremely excited to start my race series since I’ve never raced before. I know it is going to be very challenging, long season,” said Gomes before arriving at the track. “I couldn’t have done this without Skip Barber Racing School. Not only because of the scholarship but the instruction that the help they have given me to become a better racer.”

Gomes started strong qualifying 3rd for his first race behind Colton Herta and Yuri Ceasrio (Yago’s twin brother). Both Herta and Cesario competed in the 2012 Karting Scholarship Shootout.

Lacking in race experience, Gomes finished his first race in 13th position suffering some crash damage. He would recover in his second race to finish 6th.

The scholarship winners will compete again during rounds 3 & 4 of the Skip Barber Summer Series will be May 15-19 at NOLA Motorsports Park. Look for their posts about the weekend in the coming days.

Skip Barber Karting Scholarship Shootout and INDYCAR Academy
Applications are now being accepted for the 2013 Karting Scholarship Shootout and INDYCAR Academy. The shootouts will be held at Sebring International Raceway November 4-6 and 6-8, respectively. Qualification guidelines, applications and more information are available online at skipbarber.com or over the phone at 800.221.1131.

UofSpeed Contributors and Scholarship Winners Start In Race Series

Posted On 26 Apr, 2013 by Brett Johnson

UniversityofSpeed contributors and Skip Barber Scholarship winners are starting their journey up the Mazda Road to Indy this weekend in the 2013 Skip Barber Summer Race Series opener at Virginia International Raceway.

Yago Cesario, 17 from Goiania, Brazil, is the 2012 Skip Barber Karting Scholarship Shootout winner. He joins a long line of champions that have progressed from the Karting Scholarship Shootout into INDYCAR, NASCAR, Grand-AM and ALMS to name a few.

All race groups will practice and qualify on Friday, April 26. Race 1 will be on Saturday, April 27. Race 2 will be on Sunday April 28.

Skip Barber Karting Scholarship Shootout and INDYCAR Academy

Applications are now being accepted for the 2013 Karting Scholarship Shootout and INDYCAR Academy. The shootouts will be held at Sebring International Raceway November 4-6 and 6-8, respectively. Qualification guidelines, applications and more information are available online at skipbarber.com or over the phone at 800.221.1131.

Rain and Red Flags Everywhere

Posted On 25 Apr, 2013 by Mark Patterson

There is nothing more heartwarming than to wake up in your RV on race day at Silverstone with blinding rays of sun splashing through the window blinds—quite destabilizing actually. Overcoming wrong instincts, believing for a moment we might be in Cabo San Lucas, I was overjoyed, soaking in buckets of false confidence that we’d get to race these magnificent Murphy machines in the dry for a change. Four laps so far. This was not to be, as we were in, um, well, England. Even before the 11 AM qualifying stint the bright blue British sky had gone where only those rare occurrences go (Spain maybe?), replaced by low deep dark shifting clouds loaded with North Sea wetness just waiting to rinse the track once again. Temperature readings exceeded freezing by a handful of degrees, so lots of lower lips jabbering and shivering in the weather, but even with the 10 mph winds, probably just a gnat’s finger nail above freezing.

The green, red and white LMP2 # 18 car emblazoned with a bright red JAZZ logo, had been perfectly primped, primed and prepped overnight to look like Dolly Parton ready for the Emmys, except we have slightly smaller headlights, though Brendon Hartley’s hairstyle comes a close second. His isn’t a wig. Great crew led by a fearless and thoughtful race engineer (Lee) and race team manager Malcolm Swetnam, never a bead on his brow even in the most chaotic of times. He was a maestro at extracting cooperation, collaboration and capacity from a crew of excellent mechanics, tire men, refuelers and data engineers, plus of course the occasional bribe for the black and yellow clad professionals from Dunlop (a cup of tea). Greg Murphy generally busied himself opening forklift trucks full of team gear, meeting and greeting our guests and smiling when Eddie Jordon just would have punched someone in the mouth, readjusted his wig and never looked back.

Pit box exercises at 8:30 followed by driver change practice at 9 AM with Brendon whining about the damn seat that F1 seat-maker Vaughn Cartright had made us 2 weeks before at Brendon’s behest. La-Z-Boy Chair Co is going to hire this guy if they ever read this race report. He’s so good. Damn, the seat is at least as comfortable as my last colonoscopy exam, but given the Oreca’s limited cubic volume of space Vaughn had to work with, the seat gave us a feeling of compact aggression. We even have an inflatable lower back sac embedded in the breathable seat cover which sort of acts like an adult whoopee cushion. Amazing stuff. Actually, we’re both 6′ 1″ (excluding the hair) and we chose to mold the seat to his reed-like frame, so I should be the one bitching. It’s tight for both of us and the room for error around the pedals is where we struggled to get comfortable. Knees resting on the steering column, shins scraping during driver changes, and an inch or two to spare down at the pedals. But we’re driving this amazing race car, so who’s to complain?

At 11 the GT contestants went out on slicks, with the LMP2 and LMPC classes qualifying just 20 minutes later. Lee held Brendon in the pits till there were less than 13 minutes to go and like an F1 driver, he runs 3 laps looking for those invisible tenths of a second and then radios calmly that he’s coming in, nothing left….compared to Zak and me in the Audi and McLaren out killing our qualifying tires for the entire qualifying stint, searching for those most visible half second chunks. So, so different with a world class pro. We gladly took P2 behind a Zytek LMP2, which normally runs at its best here at Silverstone, realizing we’d have some of the least visibility problems to deal with in the rain, forecast ever more darkly by the hour, starting at 3 PM, almost like God had an advance copy of our racing program. Chris Dyson had also flown over to compete in this race (plus the WEC race too as it turns out), teamed up with Mike Marsal who I drove with at VIR in the 2nd Dyson LMP1 car. Their steed was not able to perform at the pointy part of this field.

After a quick carbo-pasta lunch, 1 PM offered a 30 minute gap to sign hero cards and to meet stalwart British race fans in their best rain gear and brollies trailing unhappy children pretending to be happy out with unshaven drunk and toothless dads for some family time. As usual, an unusually attractive array of racing faces presented a wide choice of subjects to fill a few sketch pad pages. Best was a Tim from South Africa, tall, lean, short scraggly goatee beard, shaved head and bolt-on earrings – couldn’t miss. More important we had a visit from all the male Osbornes: dad Mike, my old co-driver from GT3 days Joe, and his IQ monopolizing younger brother as well. I’m happy to say teaming up with me set Joe back considerably, but his BRDC (hope that’s the right sequence) status has now propelled him to a paid pro drive in the British GT series where we crushed him at Oulton Park. Pay is overrated.

By 2:30 Brendon was on board taking the car around to the grid on slicks. Guests from our London office, Jurriaan van der Schee and Tyler Lonsdale, both athletes, gulped down loads of data and racing experience, walking the pits and the gridded up race cars along with the team’s mechanics, noticing the grid girls far more than I did. My old southern-boy engineer from the Dyson LMP1 races, Vince Wood, pounced on me unexpectedly with a beaming grin and a bear hug, having landed an engineering job with one of the best GT teams on the grid. The cold English wind was blowing uncomfortably, everyone was freezing cold, all the temperatures had long left our tires and the rain was only minutes away from our 3 PM green flag. For technical reasons beyond the understanding of anyone raised outside England, while we used the old garages, the race would start and finish from the “Wing” or new F1 pits, so there were 1.5 safety car laps instead of the normal single safety car lap procedure.

It was in the final half lap that Brendon made an excellent tactical call that only a few others made, feeling the drizzling rain collecting on his visor and betting that slicks weren’t going to manage for very long. Our garage leapt into action to get both the wets and intermediates ready, air guns in hand even before the race had even started. The green flag saw cars slipping and sliding all over the place, including one LMPC car pointing precisely 45 degrees into the F1 pit wall to ensure most of that car’s front end ended up in the waste bin, their race over within 15 yards versus the allocated 3 hours. Brendon came into pit lane first, swapped for rain tires and took off like a lethal crocodile in familiar waters not kind to those who hadn’t chosen to pit. Within a few spins and a few laps, everyone came around to Brendon’s instinctive choice and were running on wets. More important Murphy Prototypes was back in P2 with Dolly Parton shutting down the gap to P1 by about 2 seconds a lap. As the rain got worse, Brendon passed for P1 and proceeded to step on P2′s throat, pulling out a 12 second gap by the time Lee called him in for a driver change after about 20 laps.

Our weekend went from joy, pride, optimism and ambition to shucks and scheize at this particularly point: hammering the brakes late into Stowe in 6th gear at the end of Hangar Straight, the car couldn’t make the turn as water settled deeper and deeper all around the track, allowing the car to aqua-plane just enough to slip into the kitty litter, not making the turn. Certainly got us lots of TV coverage, which we’d already dominated up to that point. Once back on track, a faultless and un-panicked pit stop had me out in the largest set of Pampers they make. The car felt way better than my first practice run in the rain, but I fouled up 3 very slow and tight corners (17 and 4) by applying gas a fraction too early, spinning the car 3 times in the first 2 laps. Not alone in my elevated state of incompetence, though pride is seldom elevated in the company of fools, I plowed forward using a portable Geiger counter to measure more accurately when it was safe to begin hinting to the engine that more power would be appropriate somewhere around now. It worked. We ended up running a full stint in ever-wetter conditions at the same lap times as those in positions we should have occupied. Such is life. Most striking was the team’s clinical psychologist, Lee, parading around on the radios on pit wall faking it as the race engineer – he couldn’t have been more calming and stabilizing when I was driving like Muldonado on an overdose of Red Bull concentrate. I know the team’s unwritten marching orders are to make the damn paying Bronze driver feel like he’s something he’s not, but Lee was all business in the business of getting good race results, no matter the cards he was dealt.

All good and barely wet inside the cockpit despite the uninterrupted rain. After 40 minutes or so Lee asked if I was OK for a second stint, same rubber, just a refuel stop – each corner felt like I was trying out for the Ice-Capades, very tense, huge concentration effort and generally a feeling of uncontrollable fragility in these rigid high down force monsters that spill grip like the grasp of an ailing grandmother, but overall I felt full of beans, so opted to stay in. Hitting my marks in the pit box, our damn Kill Switch wouldn’t kill the engine, which was weird, so we used a back up procedure to shut down the engine, refuel and get ready to roll….but the engine wouldn’t restart. During the effort to get the engine fired up again, Malcolm or Lee calmly radioed to the crew that there was a “little smoke” coming from the cockpit area next to the driver. Nice thought right after refueling. It wasn’t the engine, but it was fired up – an electronical problem from all the water we’d taken in.

An amazingly quick fix and out we went, but the safety car that had been called before the pit stop to allow 4 separate cars smashed into various walls to be scooped up by racing pooper scoopers, was still out, so no laps allowed in anger. Some teams’ full annual crash budgets were being absorbed at a rare rate at this magnificent track, so intelligently, so ATO’s French Race Control actually did control the race, keeping us out there in 2nd and 3rd gear behind the Safety Car for 40 more minutes, freezing our buns off until the mandatory minimum of 70-75% of the race time had lapsed and points had been earned before they red flagged the race for good. Too bad, no fun unless you’re into water torture and prefer driving in 5% visibility conditions; meandering around behind another LMP2′s rooster tail of spraying liquid in inches of puddled water at every corner, with good breezes chilling you to the bone….eventually you were soaked and uncomfortably cold. Next year all the LMP cars need to have a driver cabin, so at least we’d be dry in situations like this.

We were stopped by French FIA officials strangely on the race track exiting Luffield right before pit entrance, which was never explained – Parc Ferme remained as empty as our trophy chest. We ended up P7, down a few laps in a situation where courage and ambition parked could have won us the race. All the fast teams ended up in the kitty litter or the walls, which was a pity. Chris Dyson ended up stone last in the entire field, with inexplicable car issues too many to mention. All in all as in all racing, all racing is fun, challenging and occasionally has a disappointing ending. As I walked towards garage 3B in the pouring rain with the other drivers back up through pit lane, to be greeted by a filthy dirty, scruffy, cold, tired and grinning crew, plus Malcolm, Lee and even Greg, how could you not love spending part of your life doing just a little of this kind of thing? Then with outstretched arms Brendon Parton said: “You ready for Imola?”. What a goofball.

Unfortunately I’m open that weekend.

Insight on History at Sebring

Posted On 23 Apr, 2013 by Jake Edison

Going into the last round of the 2012-2013 Skip Barber Winter Series I felt surprisingly comfortable. Most of the season I was leading in championship points but at the last race weekend at Sebring International Raceway, the gap in points was only 7 between me and Aaron Telitz.

I knew that in order to clinch the Championship I had to finish in at least one race ahead of him. The first few days of practice was very eventful because of the weather. Clouds would roll in and pour rain for an hour or so and in no time the track would be dry just a few hours later. Both practice sessions I was in had rainfall, but I was completely fine with it because I absolutely love driving in the rain. In both sessions, I was on top of the time sheets.

Qualifying came right after practice and by then the track was fully dry. I was feeling very confident going into qualifying but couldn’t finish any higher than fourth for the start of the race. To make matters worse, the only person I was battling for championship points was going to start the race on pole.

Race day came around and I knew that I had to get a good start in order to battle with Aaron for points. On the start there was a bit of drama in turn one when p2 had contact with the leader, which was Aaron. In Skip Barber Race Series rules, if there’s any contact with another car you have to come into the pits for a contact check. However, if the Skip Barber instructor at the corner where the incident occurred sees damage on one car but not the other, then after the race is over the officials go over onboard video that every car is mandatory to have to see which other car had contact and gives that car a 20 second penalty.

Aaron knew that he had contact. Even though the officials never waved the black flag at him because they didn’t know that he was the other car with contact, on the last lap he decided to come into the pits for his contact check and cross the finish line in the pits, so he would not be given a 20 second penalty after the race. Meanwhile, during the race I was able to fight my way up to second but by then Aaron had opened a gap and on the last lap when Aaron went into the pits for his contact check and crossed the finish line in pits. I was just able to beat him to the line by .3 of a second to win the race. At the end of the race I crunched some numbers with Jeff Lail, one of the Skip Barber Race Series staff, and discovered that win had also clinched the Championship. I was extremely excited and glad but mostly relieved after winning my third Skip Barber Championship in a row. The second race I started pole and lead every lap to finished ending the weekend with two wins.

I couldn’t have done it without the help of everyone in Skip Barber including the staff, instructors, and mechanics. I also want to thank Jonatan Jorge and Phil Lombardi (JJRD) for coaching me throughout most of my Skip Barber career. Lastly I want thank my parents for always supporting me since day one. Now were focused on the F1600 Championship Series and hopefully will have the same success as we did in Skip Barber.

My first test with the Cape Motorsports Team in the F1600 car at Gainesville was a great learning experience. When we first arrived at the track it was fairly well hidden because of how far it was out in the fields. Most of the day during testing, we were able to hear the cows mooing. It was also very difficult to see the layout of the track for several reasons–one being that there were hardly any curbs to have an idea of where the apexes were. Another reason was that the track was very flat and didn’t really have any barriers. Also a few corners were made of cones so it took me several laps of going around the circuit before I had an idea of what I was doing. After I had an idea of what the layout of the track was I jumped into the Spectrum F1600 car and did several sessions. Once I got used to a few little things such as the gearbox and pedals I was beginning to feel very comfortable in the new car. After a few sessions, the team set a target lap time and after putting a slightly less used set of tires on. We were able to hit that time right down to the tenth of a second. Tire wear at that track is very substantial because of the material that they used in pavement.

The testing went great. Overall, I felt very comfortable in the new Spectrum F1600 car and was very excited for the first round of the F1600 Championship Series season header at VIR.

England At It’s Coldest

Posted On 18 Apr, 2013 by Mark Patterson

Elena and I grabbed a weather delayed overnight flight from JFK, but the lightning and rain storm bombing New York had nothing on the English Spring which hasn’t yet sprung. Temperatures are above freezing, but the incessant drizzle, wind, pouring rain and cup after cup of tea are very distracting indeed. And that’s before you get into the race car in conditions preferred by Navy Seal instructors rather than us timid race driver types.

The World Endurance Championship (WEC) involves seven 6 hour races in Spa, Le Mans (24 hours), Sao Paolo, Austin TX, Fuji, Shanghai and Bahrain with a laundry list of some of the world’s most competent drivers. A sampling might include Tom Kristensen, Allan McNish, Alexander Wurz, Nick Heidfeld, Anthony Davidson (no he didn’t star in Brokeback Mountain, but did break his back at Le Mans last year), Sebastian Buemi, Antonio Luizzi, Kobayashi-san, Pedro Lamy, Fisichella, Bruno Senna and many more top sports car drivers. This weekend’s Silverstone race opens the season for 31 entrants from the LMP1, LMP2, GT Pro and GT Am classes.

They race Sunday and our European Le Mans 3 Hour race runs on Saturday afternoon. Our list of 23 LMP2, LMPC and two GT car classes has an equally impressive list of combatants, but perhaps you’ve never heard of them. Given the equipment’s identical by class though the drivers’ skill levels vary like the English weather, it’s uncertain how this field will race. There are 9 LMP2 entrants, giving us at least a fighting chance of a top 10 finish. The rules make it almost mandatory to share the 3 hours equally, so unlike Grand Am, you can’t have your mule leave the car after 30-45 minutes and rely on the pro to stomp all over the field. Given my partner, 23 year old Brendon Hartley (attached to gorgeous Sarah also from New Zealand), is the quickest lunatic on the grid, I have emotional flashbacks to Grand Am at times, wishing this rule was different, but it’s not. Most likely, dehydration, endurance etc aside, each team will double stint both drivers, yet have just one driver change at the halfway point.

After a 90 minute drive northeastward from Heathrow along the M40, we were escorted by team owner Greg Murphy to a lovely RV where Elena could turn up the heat and pretend she wasn’t really in England. Greg looked like an out-of-season Santa with a huge swag bag full of green Irish team kit, racing shoes too big by 2 sizes, Sparco suits for a basketball player, fireproof underwear for a 7 year old, but the smile and the charm of another of his countrymen, Mother Teresa. Great team of super-competent mechanics, gearmen, engineers and team managers and then Greg. This race weekend really allows the team to gel on the mechanical side, the driver connection and of course use race conditions to stress test every aspect of the operation. The only missing bolt is Karun Chandok, the ex-F1 driver from India, who will be filling the 3rd seat at Le Mans with us. Should we win our class in late June, this would mark a first for both an Indian and an African American driver, so we have our hearts set on a great result. We will be showcasing some great sponsor logos there. This weekend, Jazz at Lincoln Center gets the sponsor billing on the side pods (“JAZZ”) in bright red letters.

At 4 pm on Thursday after the red eye flight, no shower and a very quick bite, our speckled engineer Lee urged Brendon and me to accompany him on a track walk. Wonderful idea in weather that threatened to but never broke, however the track is so long and involves at least 7 major straights that you may celebrate a few birthdays before reaching the pits again. Along the way we encountered Jorg Bergmeister on a very sensible device called a bicycle (apparently no green bicycles for sale in England), then the great Tom Kristensen who pretended to know me because he thinks I drive with another F1 great called Zak Brown. No nicer man than TK, despite his 7 Le Mans LMP1 victories. His midget partner McNish was gracious too, for sure and wonderful to see him still walking after last year’s misjudgment at Le Mans. Later near Brooklands we bumped into none other than Kevin Sweedler from Beverly Hills and Switzerland proving that all Americans pay their taxes, and his notoriously abrupt French driver Douschou or Boushout or something, who though never before, not only extended his hand graciously to greet all of us, uncharacteristically broke into a broad smile, looking almost human for a brief moment. I’ve seen track walks all over the world, but this one was very crowded as everyone, even the greats, wanted all the enigmas of Silverstone seeping up through their soles.

Slept like a corpse on Thursday night and was ready an hour before the bell for the 9 AM 1st Free Practice. Throughout the night it often sounded alarmingly like the English heavens had opened to spill wet fury upon this track that needs no further trickery. So wet tires it was with Brendon out on track first, apologizing after his stint for how slow he’d felt. On only one lap was he a notch below P1 and jumped out the car with a 2 minutes 16 second lap, three seconds ahead of P2. Not to scare me too much, though in hindsight he should have, he mentioned just one tiny spot before Hangar Straight where there was pooled water and it was a bit tricky. I didn’t get that far before spinning 360 degrees effortlessly, efficiently, enigmatically and for the life of me, without even detecting the beginning of the rear end snap. Almost like when you hear someone breaking wind at a cocktail party and you’re totally stumped as to why that happened at all.

Radioed in my magnificent achievement in case there were awards for this kind of thing and set off around the track at 12 mph knowing this had to be an anomaly. Started to get my testosterone storage devices back in position as Copse came into view and that’s all I can remember about forward looking views. Now the outside of Copse has more black marks and disfigured tire walls than virtually any corner in racing other than halfway through Eau Rouge, so the imagery in your mind, even if you hadn’t already spun leaving pit lane, is vile and off-putting. This helped me apply Schwarzenegger-like strength to the carbon brakes, which achieved two rare things: (a) no tire wall impact and (b) a massive flat spot on a wet tire. I’ve heard of a massive wet spot on a tired…never mind.

Lee promptly elevated my crumbling courage by suggesting I pit immediately and bend over and take a caning. Good advice. Calmed down, talked to Brendon about the things we should have talked about 2 spins ago and went out to run several frightening laps that each knocked 5 seconds off the lap times. Mine, not Brendon’s. This was easily one of the more embarrassing and depressing driver debriefing sessions I ever sat through, but I’m a man with thick skin (no backbone of course), thick hairy skin as it turns out, so somehow survived the indignity.

Free Practice 2 looked both like drying and maybe even driving conditions, so Brendon set out on the wets again to demolish the field, testing lower all around ride height. Came in after still not bottoming and took off another mil. Jumped to the top of the leaderboard, this time around 2 minutes 4 seconds. I went out on the same set of wets and managed to avoid anything resembling a spin, but only managing 2:12 laps until we all decided to come in and try slicks. Brendon try slicks, I meant. This team has a budget. SOB does 3 laps and finds a 1:52, humiliating drivers even remotely getting their confidence up at this famous track in this infamous weather.

Lee consulted Greg and they took some risk, allowing me out in near dry conditions on slicks that produced a 14 second a lap improvement 3 laps in a row (1:58s each time, all in traffic conditions). Still a country mile off Brendon, but at least a modicum of self-respect. When he jumped out, Brendon was quickest and on slicks I was in the top 2 of the non-pro drivers, too. I have a sneaking hunch Lee will be asking Brendon to Qualify at 11 AM tomorrow, but you never know. He may lose his mind before breakfast.

We’ve had a ball on our first team day together, caught some peoples’ attention, worked our mechanical team to death, avoided some fences and feel pretty good about tomorrow’s race on the assumption this isn’t one of England’s coldest, wettest springs.

Kyle Shields on ‘The Moment’

Posted On 18 Apr, 2013 by Brett Johnson

Kyle Shields got the chance of a lifetime. As part of USA’s new reality show THE MOMENT, he was able to audition for Richard Childress Racing.

Before his episode airs tonight, Kyle spoke with UniveristyofSpeed about his experience on the show.

Q: How did you get involved in the show? Or, how did the show find you?

A: The whole thing was such a surprise! My wife heard about the show and nominated me, and the next thing I know, Kurt Warner is there at my door.

Q: What kind of racing experience do you have?

A: I have raced for over 27 years in everything from Zip Superkarts, Formula 2000, GT-1, GT-3, and even Indy Lights cars in Mexico where I was teammates with Oswaldo Negri. Oswaldo also worked with Skip Barber Racing School and test drove the Skip Barber Pro Cars before the races.

Q: What is the hardest part about wanting to drive professionally?

A: The hardest part about racing professionally is finding the sponsors to fund the ride you are looking for. The old phrase of money makes the world go around is especially true in racing.

Q: Without spoiling anything, how much closer are you to your dream now?

A: Any time you gain national exposure on TV and print ads like people magazine and the Katie Couric Show helps a ton. I am continuing to do my best as a high level of motorsport.

Q: What’s your Skip Barber Racing School story? Did you race here before you instructed?

A: I did not race in the Skip Barber Race Series before instructing. I have been an instructor for over 20 years and have worked for just about all of the racing schools that were offered. From small schools like Track Time Driving Schools in the 90s to the Marlboro Racing School with Penske Racing. I started with Skip Barber at Road Atlanta when the Panoz Racing School was being dissolved.

Q: What is a lasting piece of advice that you will carry with you after the show?

A: Alway pursue your dreams and don’t give up even when life throws you a curveball or two.

Please root for me!

THE MOMENT airs Thursdays at 10/9c on USA Network

Crash on the Pace Lap?

Posted On 16 Apr, 2013 by Mark Patterson

The English prefer to wake up early on Easter Sunday, moving their clocks forward an hour, but no one told me, not even the English members of our team. I spent Sunday doing an early (except I was late of course) data review with Erik, Ben the data engineer and Matt over at the track, watched some painful qualifying video from Saturday, then a couple of practice driver changes with Matt that broke all records, then off to Liverpool to try to find the Beatles first performance location on Mathew St, the Cavern Club.

It first opened back in 1957 and 4 years later the undisciplined and unshaped band played their first gigs down in this basement cave with limited seating and no Beatles memorabilia on the walls back then. Epstein discovered them in November that year, found them a new barber, chose a third rate drummer and the rest of their shaped and undisciplined history is history. Liverpool and its dominant docks image are very impressive, having undergone an enormous reinvention and reinvestment phase, so now it’s only partially lethal and dangerous downtown. The Cavern has live music shows continuously 7 days a week from about 10 in the morning, quite amazing. I was the only one wearing a racing jacket in the place.

Monday morning press breakfast in the United hospitality tent at 8:30 AM and it was cold. Very cold; zero to 1 or 2 degrees. Then the wind. Looked like a mid-winter Alpine climbing event given all the warm woolen caps, ear flapped hunting hats, heavy sweaters, fleeces and ski jackets on men jabbering away over English tea with puff the magic dragon smoking from their mouths and nostrils.

9:10 for the 10 minute warm-up in sub-zero temperatures makes for tricky driving, no good lap times and fortunately, no wiped out cars. The F3 series right before us needed 2 trucks to go out and collect two warm-up victims of the cold. But they’re younger drivers. Good driver change practice at the end of Matt’s 10 minutes, brake pads bedded, so we’re good to go. Zak said it took a full 4 laps to get temperatures working in the tires on the McLaren. Right before the warm-up the series race manager popped his head into our trailer to apologize for their Nissan decision (slightly difficult decision with two Nissan entries and only a single factory driver each, no bronze drivers, but not the end of the world assuming they race only this event which is what they are saying now).

Then it popped up that the gentleman driver pairing in the Mercedes who have pole in Race 1 are both Silver rated. There’s another car with 2 Silver drivers too and the stated penalty is 65 kg, but once the regulating body starts breaking away from the fundamental tenet of a bronze gentleman driver with a pro driver, the series will lose its appeal, just like the European GT series did a few years ago. Tough being a regulator and balancing the literal rule book with the compromises presented to you at every event.

Race 1: not much snow, but some. Coldest winter in about 60 years and it’s not even winter here anymore. Recon lap felt good in P8 somewhat near the front, but sitting on the grid for almost 10 minutes means you lose all the tire temps. One pace car lap and just where we begin to pair up at Druids, as I crested the hill, there’s Jay Palmer starting P2 in his black Ferrari parked rear first hard into the wall, spewing tons of mud all over track. I presumed he’d be trucked out of the race, but blow me over by the final turn he came crunching his way left and right through the paired up starting line-up…never seen anything like it. Pace car kept the lights on (so still yellow conditions). Jay should have started at the back. For whatever reason the corner workers holding brooms and spades never cleaned the track before we went green. All the drivers paired up except Jay Palmer who tucked in behind P1 like it was a restart. He really needs some racecraft advice from his pro driver or his team manager.

The start was clean and the racing was very close–intense. Zak Brown pulled out the big gun and kept it pointed at the back of my head from the word “go.” I just managed to hold him off through the first kink in 5th gear before Shell Oil turn, by giving him no more than an eighth of an inch of room at the apex, but a mile later coming out of Druids my initial blocking move was pointless as the 23 McLaren shot by like a Pistorius bullet down to the final 2nd gear turn. Within a few laps a Ferrari spun wildly and inexplicably 400 yards past Cascade on a perfectly straight part of the track, almost taking Zak out. Given Zak had put the Blackberry down a little more than 5 minutes before the race started, he was completely alert and focused, missing the Ferrari criss-crossing the track like in reverse. He kept moving up as I moved back, damn him. Two cars stole positions from me as I downshifted to miss the Ferrari and then we managed to hold the 25 Audi in place for the rest of the laps till the car in front of me burst into flames from over-exertion and started spraying oil all over the track and onto my windshield. I’d luckily been called into the pits on that lap, so all felt cool till Matt and I had finished another good driver change and the mechanics came sprinting out with another tire in hand. Not routine.

In British GT the pit stops require a driver change within a 25-35 minute window, but no refueling or tire changes are allowed. Marcus the tire mechanic had spotted the left front at only 0.8 bar versus the normal range of 1.8 to 1.95 bar (yes, just like the Fahrenheit thing, the English prefer to measure tire pressure on a scale more in line with their Friday and Saturday night habits). So the quick decision was to use one of our Race 2 tires and get one with it. Good decision, but not without an expensive time delay versus cars not changing a tire. Ate 15 seconds up so Matt had to rejoin in P17, halfway down the field, while Zak’s maniacal partner, Scotsman Glynn Geddie who keeps forgetting he hasn’t been in a race car for 6 months, pounded his way relentlessly from P5 to close the gap on P4 and then 15 minutes from the end, passed a very greedy real estate owner (especially in Turn 1) in a Mercedes for P3.

An unbelievably good pro race developed from P4 to P8, all a tenth of two apart and driving incredibly hard for passes. More than 20 seconds behind Matt, and Matt Griffin in a Ferrari a car length ahead, pushed their way through mid-pack traffic and closed to within a hundred yards of the P4-P8 squad of drivers. Without the flattish tire (which turned out to be a cracked wheel rim – no Richard Miens, rim, not rib), Matt surely would not have finished P10, but more likely P4 to P5. And that’s not the worst tear that was shed in our garages. A few laps from the end, with Glynn leaving the white Mercedes far in the dust, for some reason the 23 car’s gearbox decided to shut down, forcing the McLaren to lose all traction and drop back out of the points. Not bad to be able to score points in a session with a flat tire that my superior driving skill was unable to detect at all.

United Autosports had both cars in the points, one of them heading for heavy metal on the podium, but it was not to be. Only small ray of light was one Porsche was penalized for causing an ugly Turn 1 incident, so Matt and I moved up to P9 on a technicality.

Race 2: Started around 3 pm with Matt in P7, so his view of our Pit Babe’s rear end was identical to mine in Race 1, except one spot closer to the green flag. While these magnetically attractive devices are on hire to amplify the frequency of photographic opportunity for discriminating crowds, they are a huge distraction for drivers trying to unclutter their minds before a race, especially old ones.

It’s amazing how violent and dangerous the start of a race appears from pit wall and how totally oblivious you are as the driver of the vehicle trying to lay claim to important real estate that will make for great stories and great positions later in the race. This race, quite unlike the first, had all the pro drivers driving fantastic lap times, almost all of them flawlessly, but more of a processional affair than the non-pros all swiveling around like bobble-head dolls and doing manically stupid things to entertain the British crowds freezing their cold cross buns off out in this miserable weather. With very few passes and almost no crashes (OK one or two mechanicals), Matt held firm in P6, but most others also held their position. Gwynn had a tough starting spot in P17 so he was being held up by mid-filed traffic by at least a second or two a lap.

As Erik Petersen called Matt in early for a driver change to avoid the chaos of a crowded 30+ GT car pit lane built for 15 Mini’s and 3 Fiats, standing calmly in the garage I let my mind rollback to a comment Matt had made before the race: “We’re going to podium today”. That may explain why I went to the bathroom 3 times in the final hour before jumping in for the finals tint. I knew we had 25 seconds on Zak, but knowing Zak, that may not be enough when he’s on his game. Last night I’d generously paid for everyone’s dinner but it was really just a cover to ensure Zak got 2 helpings of everything he wanted plus as much wine as they had in the cellar. It was a great timing call by Erik as the “road” was wide open as we went out and I could attack right away without bothering about a gun at the back of my head like in Race 1.

Dutifully the gentlemen drivers fulfilled their fan obligations by careening into places and obstacles that don’t leave cars in the shape they arrived in. Without us lifting a finger we had moved from Matt’s P6 to P4 as other drivers literally got locked up in pit lane bottlenecks. Then 2 leading cars decided to remove the large stacks of rubber tires marking the critical turning point in both chicanes, completely ruining their race for their pro partners. The obstacles are points to be aimed around, not through. Some continued on way down in the field, while others parked their broken steeds trackside and became spectators for the rest of the race. Right as the pace car was being called out a Ginetta elected to imitate an Indian fire burial right before pit lane – after fire truck after fire truck emptied their white foamy- smokey stuff all over the car for 3 full safety car laps, the ashes were collected in a matchbox and the race could be continued for just the remaining 2 laps. I’d secretly been hoping, now that the field had been allowed to compress up to us leading cars (therefore Zak was nowhere near the safe zone of 25 seconds behind), that they’d just let us take the checkered flag under yellow, but alas they made us race.

Richard Dean, Matt and Erik had tried to induce a not-for-position Nissan between me and the leading Porsche GT3 R driven by David Ashburn (probably seen as insensitive by the Ginetta owner) to step aside at the restart so I’d at least have a few opportunities to crash into Ashburn. Reluctantly the Nissan let me through not on the re-start straight, but right as we turned into Turn 1, so I got cramped into the apex as Ashburn burned his way off to maybe a 100 yard lead. So at this stage, you can decide to cede the race and be satisfied with P2 or you can listen to the goblins in your head and start believing you can stalk this monster down, creep up behind him and pounce at least once for a shot at the win.

The Audi’s brakes are superlative, especially on the rare occasions when I’m able to hit the center of the pedal (have to right foot brake these days for strength reasons), so I started to close in on him with 3/4s of a lap to go and he knew it, so he blocked an inelegant attempt I made to appear to be trying a run around him, but in the final right hand corner, I ran to the no-grip outside to try to outrun him to the flag and he deftly pushed me left off the track till I had to concede space, crossing the line a few hundred yards later half a car behind.

Matt and the mechanics were in very good spirits, ecstatic at pulling off points in both races this weekend. I was in a bit of a daze for sure, not knowing exactly how this had come about, but knowing deep down inside my partner Matt was mostly to blame for our good fortune. The podium was fun, of course, and they awarded me some gentleman driver of the weekend trophy that looks remarkably like a mounted proctologist’s training device. Love British humor. In turn, the British fans love racing and the press enjoys someone with a weird accent, confusing dialect with racing skill, so I got hounded by a lot of people with microphones, cell phones and crooked teeth.

A happy weekend with our sights now set on Rockingham’s “roval” course near Birmingham in early May. Let’s hope hell is finished freezing over by then.

Race Car Spelled Backwards

Posted On 11 Apr, 2013 by Mark Patterson

Can’t be done. Just the mirror image. Spells the same thing. A genius I grew up with in coastal Port Elizabeth, South Africa, who has never raced a car in his life just pointed out that I can’t spell Race Car backwards without spelling the same damn words. Am I the last person in racing to know this?

What you can do is move backwards in racing, which I managed to do in Qualifying at Oulton Park today (Saturday), but lots happened before the United Autosports team arrived with its bevy of beauties in this year’s uncharacteristically wintry clime: two McLarens and the Audi R8 all tricked out in new trim and of course the UPS logo on both McLarens commemorating Zak’s latest commercial success in Formula One.

I left Thursday night from Newark, NJ, on United Airlines to Birmingham’s airport, just a short hour and a bit from Murphy Prototypes’ shop in Brackley, where I was due for a seat fitting at 8 AM. Delays on Flight 26 from Newark, though, caused the seat fitting to be delayed 3 hours or more, but any delays or deferral is better than the alternative, which is never. After a weird, noisy, bumpy, uncomfortable take off and an immediate leveling off around 5,000 feet after the captain had been trying noisily to crank the undercarriage back into the fuselage, he announced that everything was normal and routine and we’d be returning to Newark for a quick check up. Pilot captains are bastions of belief and credibility on good and uneventful flights. They lie like drug dealers when something goes wrong.

So I drafted an email just in case to Greg Murphy and Brendon Hartley in Brackley, as we’re doing a few European LMP2 races together this year, to suggest that I may be late or I may never show up , depending on how much the captain was lying. Then I just left the Blackberry on knowing it would transmit the email once we got close to the ground, even if it was a bit of a serious crash. It wasn’t. The front wheels indeed had refused to go up again as often happens with aging equipment I’m told, and United arranged another plane within 2 hours (not counting the hour flying towards England and back) to get us back on track, baggage on board etc, so it was completely uneventful in the end.

The 2-hour seat fitting ended up taking 5 hours, same delay as United but felt less risky, and fortunately they had a Sparco size 58 suit for me to use to go through the tedium of having a seat made. There were acres and acres of excess green cloth, so we reduced my suit order size to 56, which is what Brendon wears and he really looks like he should be wearing a skinny suit like that. His Kiwi F1 seat maker pal is as fastidious and careful as anyone could imagine, but was determined to build a seat that both the emaciated Brendon and the crippled, bent and creaky grandfather could use without an insert. Now that’s ambitious. It’s so tight a loud pop will echo across to the grandstands when I get in and out of that seat at Silverstone in a few weeks and there’s every chance I may be propelled from the seat like a choker after the Heimlich maneuver, expelled from the cockpit like rubbish from your throat.

Exhausted and facing a 2.5-3 hour drive northwards to Tarporley near Oulton, I set out to become swallowed whole by the British on Easter weekend on their intricate motorway system where they all drive on the wrong side of the road without having lots of accidents. It’s always entertaining and sometimes even amusing to note the charming names of towns, inns, places and farms that must say something about the British, but I haven’t figured out what it is yet. Not far from Brackley I passed through a small village barely worthy of a name it was so small; it was called Farthinghole. It would take only a small pronunciation error or a distracted sign painter to embarrass the entire community who would probably kick up a bit of a stink. Mickle Trafford near Tarporley is a mouthful and in reverse is somewhat awkward too. That’s why Trafford has been reduced to one word.

Also striking as the drive wiggled north and westwards was the substantial amount of snow on the surrounding farmers’ fields. The conditions are predicted to be dry for all 3 days but very cold, around 5 or 7 degrees (40+ degrees for the literate among us). Last year at this time the temperatures were three times higher.

Our entire squad assembled around a large dining table on Friday night with famous not-so-fat-anymore Mark Blundell looking like a huge threat with stand-in speedster from New Zealand, via Russia via Monte Carlo and now via London, Roger Wills, who is standing in for the repairing Richard Miens in the repaired # 24 McLaren. Zak and Glynn Geddie, with tattoos gracing his gladiator-like muscled frame looked scary too, but he always does. Glynn is helping add some speed as McLaren pro driver Rob Bell is off for a day or two catching his first baby who deliberately stayed in the hatch longer than permitted, but Rob wasn’t going to miss first little 10 pound 4 ouncer, Oliver, who popped out the next day about as easily as I’ll be leaving the LMP2–easy for me to say. The kid’s a beauty with a perfectly symmetrical face and head despite no C-section. I was expecting a Saturday Night Live conehead or something.

On Saturday we had 2 one hour practice sessions, with the first free practice at 9 and the second around noon. Fresh new rubber (we use ovens of a sort) and a frozen track made for some interesting out laps. By the second practice the quick fellows were dropping in 1 minute 35s. For most of Matt’s first session he was in the top 3, ending up around P6 for the session. On his tires I was able to follow through on testing with some more than OK laps in the high 1:37 area and among non-pro drivers, top 2 or 3 in the first session. In the afternoon, staying with the really old tires, I still found a high 37 but the laps were a lot more work by then, for sure. However, this raised expectations for Qualifying. Zak was in the mid-38s, Glynn a mid-36 and Matt on new tires, a 36 flat. Goes without saying that a 33 car field on a narrow, undulating classic UK race track with barriers close by, traffic was an issue for everyone trying to find perfect times.

British GT has a mandatory schmuck driver Qualifying session for Race 1 (no pros) and a mandatory pro driver Qualifying immediately thereafter for Race 2 – both one-hour races on Monday this time. So at 4:30 I held back 45 seconds in the pit box to try to find some open qualifying space as the hornets’ nest of young drivers took off like the 15 minute stint was about to expire before it had even started. Got 3/4s round the track to Druids and came upon an array of Ginetta parts, masses of grass and clay scattered across the track and lots of marshals urging everyone to slow down and avoid making a bigger mess out of one slightly too ambitious right foot in this cold air and so early in Quali.

The session was immediately red flagged which meant we’d have even a madder scramble for lap space on the remaining minutes. Little did we know at that time that one of our McLarens, halfway round Lap 2 when the tires are really coming in, decided to snap loose coming out of the first chicane at Foulstons, only narrowly clipping the outside wall but at those speeds in 3rd gear, despite how much all drivers think their car needs more juice, it’s pretty quick and the 24 car will not be able to be repaired in time for Monday’s races. For the first time it dawned on the entire team why Richard Miens had timed his own incident well in advance of the race so he could never be blamed for this. Clever guy.

In the remaining green time we got the Audi tires up to trustworthy temperatures and chipped blocks of time off, but the driver unfortunately was having an extraordinarily hard time recalling all the advice Matt Bell had gratuitously poured into one ear before securing the other one. The end result was only a 1-minute 38-flat lap, even with these new shoes and light fuel. Very disappointing. Good for P6 when I came in, but after everyone got their last lap done, down to P8. Zak had more traffic than I did and was wallowing down in P20 until the very last lap and then pulled out all the stops but mine and ended up in P9 a millionth of a tenth behind the Audi. Should make for an interesting start and our objective is to ensure there’s a finish. Mine is. 31 cars will take the green flag on Monday.

Quali 2 had all the hot-shoes out and about demonstrating why this mix of pro and non-pro teams when well administered, makes for great racing. They were exceptionally fast with half a dozen 1:34s and even Glynn Geddie with a solid 1:36 had to be satisfied with P19. Matt Bell was a bit disappointed with his P7 as his mid-1:35 was maybe half a second or more off his expectations. So it is.

This track is unforgiving; it giveth and it taketh away. We had our share. I found the Cascades kitty litter in Practice 2 sliding sideways and powering through and lucky not to get stuck. All these corners can grab you by the throat unexpectedly and shake your confidence to the core. That’s why we race here. That and the team’s hot cross buns (no, not attractive, angry British rear ends), toasted with butter and some English tea. Marvelous, said the Queen.

USF 2000: St. Pete

Posted On 9 Apr, 2013 by Peter Portante

Coming off a disappointing weekend at Sebring I was very eager to get back on the track. St. Pete is one of the most challenging tracks on our calendar, as well as our first street circuit. The IndyCar races here have been fantastic and I knew that it would be a fantastic race in USF2000, especially with 31 cars!

First practice was underway early in the morning. We got good laps in, and it was nice to get a feel of the track. We ended Practice One in P11. As I came in the pits we did a quick bleed of the brakes to get air out as I was experiencing a soft pedal. It was a fairly long wait till the next session so I went over data with my engineer, then pretty much got ready and waited. Going out for Practice Two I felt immediately that the brake pedal was better. It was a very decent session; I was able to get more comfortable with the brake points around the track. Also, I had corrected the braking issues that plagued me in Sebring. I was now getting a very good pressure on the pedal, but there is always room for improvement. I needed to push the brake zones more, brake deeper. All in all the session went well. An electronic problem plagued the overall pace of the car, but the Belardi guys were all over it and had the car in tip top shape for qualifying.

The following morning I took a bike ride around the paddock. It was great to see all the “rungs” of the Mazda Road to Indy program. Not only were the Pro Mazda Championship and Indy Lights there, but the IZOD Indy Car Series. This would be my first experience watching an IndyCar race. It was soon time to get in the car for qualifying. The track was initially a bit damp but became dry very soon. I ended the session P17. The biggest lesson that I learned was to attack early in the session, be more aggressive. I waited just a bit too long to push on the damp track. But it was a good lesson learned, and something I can improve on for the future.

Race 1, in typical St. Pete tradition, had a very chaotic start. I was able to take advantage and make some spots up. And over the next laps I picked up a couple more positions. I soon was fighting for 8th place; I had a good battle going. I finally made my move into Turn 10; we came out side by side and went through the S’s. I ran out of road, and was pushed over the curb. The car became unsettled and I spun. It was no fault of the other driver, just hard racing. After the spin I was mired back in 16th. I fought hard for the remainder of the race, climbing my way back up to 11th where I finished. I learned a lot, and it was good to get some really fun, tough racing on a street course.

After the race, I met with Dean Case (Mazda Communications Officer). I was informed that I would be doing a quick photo-shoot. So at six, I put my gear back on and made my way to Turn 2, to meet Dean and the photographers. It was really good to spend time with Dean, and we had some great conversations, in which I learned a lot. The photographer came and we took some shots. It was pretty cool working with professional photographers, and most importantly, they were great pictures. But this to me was more than just a photo-shoot. It was another example of how Mazda was helping me. They have already given me so much, but they have continued to help me and teach me. And for that, I have to give Dean Case, John Doonan, and everyone else at Mazda and MAZDASPEED a huge thank you.

It was soon time for Race 2. Before I could blink I was on track warming the tires. I would start Race 2 in 21st, which was tough. We had finished 11th the day before, and it would have been nice to start up there. But that’s the way it goes (Race 2 starting position is fastest race lap or second fastest qualifying lap). The start was clean. I again started picking up positions; I was moving my way up the field nicely. I was soon up to P13. Until, when attempting to overtake a driver, I was hit and the driver launched up into me. I was luckily able to continue but this contact dropped me in the order. I was again fighting my way back up. I soon was behind one of my teammates, Daniel Burkett. I would be locked in a battle with him for the rest of the race. With two laps to go I was right on his gearbox. But a slowing championship car was thrown into the mix. We both made our guesses, and mine worked out. I was able to make the pass and then keep the position to the
finish.

It was a great two races at St. Pete. I learned a bunch about race craft and also where I still need to improve. There is a lot to work on but with the help of everyone around me, I know we can succeed.

Pro Mazda Season Begins

Posted On 8 Apr, 2013 by Spencer Pigot

After a long off-season we’re finally back racing! All of the guys at Team Pelfrey were hard at work during the break, repairing, repainting and preparing the cars and now it’s time for the drivers to get everything dirty again. We got started a few weeks ago at the new Circuit Of The Americas Formula One track in Austin, Texas. Wow, what a place! It’s an amazing facility with an even better racetrack. The team and I were out there for over a week because there was a series test before the official race weekend started.

We made progress throughout the test sessions; we hadn’t done as much testing as the other teams so we started out a bit behind. By the first official practice of the weekend I was fastest with a 2:06.6s which ended up being the quickest lap out of any Pro Mazda session all weekend. Only about 30 seconds slower than Sebastian Vettel’s F1 pole lap! Qualifying was extremely close, the top four were within 0.08s! I was third, I know we could have been on pole but as the other series laid down more rubber it changed the balance of our car and we had a bit too much oversteer.

The start turned out to be a bit of a mess with the green flag waving before we arrived in the “zone” where it was supposed to wave. This made things interesting, it didn’t work out great for me and I left turn one in 7th. The car was great and by the end of the race I had worked my way up to 2nd and with a few more laps I could have won. It was a really good way to start the season! I started 2nd for race two and unfortunately it only lasted a few seconds as I was hit from behind in turn one. It damaged my car too much to continue.

From Austin the team came back home to St. Petersburg, FL, which happened to be the location of our next race! Our shop is only about 15 minuets from the track in the downtown area. It was our home event so we had a lot of attention from the local media. First thing Thursday morning my teammate Petri and I headed to the children’s hospital with IZOD IndyCar Series Champion Ryan Hunter-Reay. I really enjoy doing visits like this, we were able to see lots of kids, take pictures with them and sign some autographs. Later that afternoon we had a media lunch and to end the day I was part of the parade that goes through the streets of St. Petersburg.

Friday morning was finally time to get in the car for our two practice sessions. I had won three out of my four races at St. Pete so I was really excited about the weekend. Practice could have gone better but we were in the top five knowing we had more speed. Qualifying was extremely close once again; I was 4th only 0.1s off pole. We made some changes for race one but they didn’t work as we were hoping and I finished 4th.

Starting positions for race two are based on your second fastest qualifying lap or fastest lap from race one. This put me back in 6th on the grid. I made up a few positions during the race to finish 4th again. We wanted more but in the end it was good to finish both races and pick up some points toward the championship. We have a bit of a break until our next race in Indianapolis at the Night Before the 500 event so we’ll be hard at work to improve.

Big thanks to everyone at Team Pelfrey, Doug Mockett & Company, Mazda, CalciumPro, California Scents, OMP, Skip Barber and Cooper Tires for their support.

Keep up to date with my racing online at www.SpencerPigot.com Twitter @SpencerPigot or on my Spencer Pigot Racing page on Facebook.

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