Return to the UK
Indianapolis, Ind. (September 22, 2009) – I have just returned from a trip to Northern Ireland and England to test a Formula Renault car. It was my first time driving a race car in the UK since the Walter Hayes Trophy! I was very excited to return to the UK to drive because it’s my goal to be competing in Europe.
I first got into the Formula Renault Monday the 14th which was the start of a three-day test at the Kirkistown circuit in Northern Ireland. I was testing with Wayne Douglas Motorsport which is primarily a Formula Renault testing team. Wayne has run drivers such as Ali Jackson, Adam Christodoulou, Bruno Senna and Martin Plowman. Wayne probably knows everything there is to know about a Renault so I knew I was in good hands. My first thought when I saw the car was that it was really small! It was very different from the Star Mazda car. The cockpit was also quite small. I started the day by making a seat and getting fitted to the car which didn’t take long. I’m not especially picky when it comes to fitting well into a car, I like to just get in and drive!
After 10 laps in the car I was pretty impressed. The car was actually quite quick and very nimble. The rest of the day went very well and I got up to speed quickly. The second and third days were surprisingly dry and also went very well. I ended up being the quickest person they had around Kirkistown.
Next on the list of things to do was to hop on the ferry to England. The last time I was on the ferry I had an absolutely terrible experience! Right after the Brands Hatch Formula Ford Festival last October, Josef and I flew over to Ireland to visit with my family and hang out for a while. After our time in Ireland we went to take the ferry back to England in the worst possible weather. The ferry ride was incredibly rough and I felt sick the entire time! So fortunately this time on the ferry it was very nice and smooth and I slept the whole way to England. Once we got to the port of Holyhead we had a long drive ahead of us to get to Rockingham. We were going to Rockingham to pick up Wayne’s road car so we all didn’t have to ride in the big truck. Then we started the drive to Snetterton so I could test there Friday.
I was hoping to really get to know the track and turn some quick times but when we got there, there was a massive amount of other cars testing at the same time as me. The entire day I got around two clear laps! So unfortunately I couldn’t do any quick times but at least I learned the track. I had heard a lot about Snetterton and my Dad had raced there in his day. I thought the track was really fun! The track flows well and is really enjoyable.
The Snetterton test took place on Friday and there was actually a Formula Renault race weekend on at Rockingham on Saturday and Sunday. I went to Rockingham Saturday morning to meet with some teams just to get a feeling for the series and see how things might work if I wanted to do the championship next year. I was really impressed because the teams looked extremely professional. After talking with some teams and watching one of the Renault qualifying sessions, we decided to try and make it to Brands Hatch to watch my fellow Team USA Scholarship winner Josef Newgarden qualify for one of his British Formula Ford Championship races!
I was riding with Wayne toward Brands when something very frustrating happened… We ran out of gas! The weird thing was that the gas gauge still said we had a quarter of a tank! So there we were, standing on the side of the road unable to make it to Brands to see Josef. So when we got the car fixed (Wayne had broken something while trying fix the gas gauge…), I had to make it to the Birmingham airport that night for a flight Sunday morning to Atlanta for my next Star Mazda race.
My goal for next year is to be competing in Europe and this trip to the UK was hopefully the first step to achieving it!
Sebring Race Week
Indianapolis, Ind. (March 23, 2009) – I arrived at the famous Sebring International Raceway on Sunday, the weekend before the 12-Hour race weekend. I was a bit tired because I arrived after suffering through an 18-hour drive with my Dad, Derek Daly, at the wheel. The problem was that he was driving something new to him which made the ride scary. This year I have a new sponsor, Optima, and my Dad was driving the new Optima RV. The RV is absolutely fantastic and an amazing piece of equipment, but when a former Formula 1 driver gets behind the wheel it becomes a whole new adventure!
After settling into our parking spot right next to my team, Andersen Racing, I went to sleep to get ready for practice the next day. It was the first day of one of the biggest weeks in my life. Every practice session in my Star Mazda car on the first day was a big learning experience. I was very pleased to improve every session. There is so much to learn about the cars that I have to try and do it as quick as possible if I want to be on pace.
By Tuesday I had continued to make improvements on the setup and my driving. My engineer, Mike Reggio, is very good at what he does and was able to understand what I needed from the car and adjust the car accordingly. Heading into Wednesday, we felt very confident because we had been slowly moving up the time charts.
Wednesday was the first day of official practice. I only had one session all day so it gave me some time to watch some of my friends in the Skip Barber National Series and the Mazda Atlantic Championship. When the time came for my session I was very confident that I could set a quick time. The session went very well with a couple pit stops for adjustments. However I felt as though I didn’t set a quick enough time for how well the car was handling. I was almost disappointed because I really wanted to be quickest. When I came in and got out of the car, I was told that I was quickest during the session. This immediately brought my spirits up and I was very satisfied heading into qualifying the next day.
Now we really started getting down to business. Before we qualified, there was a warm-up session. The session wasn’t as good as I expected because of some handling issues and a strange gearbox noise that I started to hear. I was still very confident and could hardly wait for qualifying. As soon as I went out for qualifying I could sense there was something wrong with the gearbox. There were several noises that did not make the race car sound happy! After six or seven laps, I came into the pits and while I was downshifting to enter pit lane I had no second or first gear. I rolled to the pits in third gear and my engineer and mechanic determined that it was best to stop before anything got worse. Unfortunately this put me 16th on the grid with a lot of work to do in the race.
I was definitely nervous before my first race in cars with big wings and lots of downforce. I was starting in the middle of the field; the danger zone. I knew what I had to do and I was on a mission. I wanted to put on a show and make up as many positions as possible. This situation was much like what I encountered at Brand Hatch in the Formula Ford Festival! I had to start mid-pack and work my way up. The Star Mazda Championship also does standing starts which I got practice doing in England.
As I rolled into my grid position I knew what I had to do and I knew it was going to be a lot of fun. The standing start went fantastic for me, and I made up several positions in the opening few corners. The race was much more intense than I thought. There were cars passing everywhere and I was one of them. I think I was up to sixth after only a few laps. Now things became difficult. I was doing my best to catch the cars in front when I got the help of a safety car period. This put me back into the fight. At the restart I was able to pass Peter Dempsey, who was very much a mentor of mine when I was over in England racing for Team USA. I was now focused on making it to the podium which was only one spot ahead. It was the final lap and I was pushing very hard. I attempted to pass the car in front of me but I was blocked heavily headed into Turn Seven. As I exited Turn Seven, I got right alongside of my competitor and was forced onto the grass which upset my car quite a bit and I was unable to make the pass. I came to the checkered flag in fourth, a little upset that I wasn’t able to get the podium. When I got out of the car I was told the person who blocked me was under review and could get penalized. Fortunately for me, he was penalized and I ended up in third position. I was extremely happy for my mechanic, Dave, and my engineer, Mike. They worked incredibly hard, along with the rest of my team, to give me what I needed to make such a great drive to the podium.
Overall I think the week was a great success and a huge learning experience for me. I had a great time with my whole team and I truly enjoyed being at Sebring. Now with some good points I can focus on making the best of my next race at Virginia on April 25.
Star Mazda Test with Andersen Racing
Noblesville, Ind. (November 23, 2008) - I got the opportunity to test a Pro Formula Mazda car at the Sebring Short Course just recently. The opportunity was provided by the Team USA Scholarship program and the Andersen Racing Team! This was a great opportunity for me because I will be racing in the Star Mazda Championship next year.The day started off early by taking a few laps around the track our rental car. I had already driven the track previously in the year with the Skip Barber National Series so I knew what to expect. Josef and I both got in different cars in the morning and went out together. During my first run I was focusing way too much on the initial brake pressure going into the corners, so I was messing up the rest of the braking zone. After sitting down and going over some data I returned to the track. I was immediately more comfortable with the car in the brake zones and my times started dropping.
As the day went on I was able to look at data and talk with the engineers and really get a better understanding for the car. The car felt much quicker than the Formula Fords in England! They were really a lot of fun and the brakes were incredible! I was really happy to be given the opportunity to test the car. I learned a lot for next season and it was a lot of fun so thank you to everyone at Andersen Racing for giving me the opportunity.
Victory at last!
Silverstone, England (November 2, 2008) - Luckily this morning Josef and I were able to sleep in because the semi finals didn't start until later in the day. So we arrived at the track around 11:30am and went straight to watch Peter Dempsey, Cliff's son, hop into a last-minute entry into the progression race to try and make it to the final. It was very entertaining watching Peter dominate the field coming from about 21st to first in six or seven laps! Immediately after that was Peter racing again in the last chance race. He again came from the back of the grid of 36 cars to score the victory which was a lot of fun to watch.
After seeing Peter dominate in the very wet conditions I knew Josef and I could do the same. Around noon time we finally saw the grids for the semi finals. Josef and I were in semi final two along with Doug Prendeville, our American teammate. Peter Dempsey was in semi final one and came from the back of the grid AGAIN and finished fifth which meant he made the final! Everyone on the team was thrilled! Now it was our turn. Josef started on pole and I started third because my heat was one of the slowest heats even though I won. I had an excellent start but as I was passing for second the guy on the inside shoved me right into the grass causing me to lose traction and not be able to pass him. So I put my head down and started to catch him again. As soon as I got near him he had a mechanical failure putting me into second place. I then focused on trying to catch Josef. We were running identical times all the way to the end of the race so I was not able to catch him.
Going into the final I was pretty confident but still disappointed with a second row starting position. I had had brilliant starts every time at Silverstone EXCEPT for the final... I just slipped the clutch a little too much and got some wheel-spin. I didn't lose any positions but I didn't gain any either. So I started to catch the top four In front of me when unfortunately my teammate Josef went off into Brooklands, the second to last corner. I had found myself in third putting pressure on second. I was able to get a good run out of the first turn and pass for second position into the second corner around the outside. I then was extremely focused to try and catch the leader. I was slowly gaining on him when he made a small mistake going a little too hard into the last corner and going off track. I then found myself in the lead pulling away from the field.
All seemed good with a few laps to go when the safety car came out. This worried me because it bunched the field back up and I had never done a wet restart before. After a few laps behind the pace car we went green. I tried getting as little wheelspin as possible and got a good restart pulling away from the field behind me. I held on for the remaining laps and took the win! It was a great victory and it was even more special for me because of the difficult conditions. I enjoyed every bit of it and learned a ton about wet weather racing. I want to thank everyone at Cliff Dempsey Racing for all the support and good hard work they have put in over the last three weeks to give Josef and I the opportunity to dominate over here in England.
Above photo courtesy of Jeff Bloxham
Final Day of Practice
Silverstone, England (October 31, 2008) – Today was the final day of practice before qualifying for the Walter Hayes Trophy. We only got two practice sessions in the whole day! It was a really long day because of this. We did not do a lot of sitting around however…
After my engine troubles yesterday, we changed carburetors for this morning’s session. The track was quite damp when I went out so we had a damp setup on. The car ran well, I thought, and we were quickest in the session but we couldn’t get a very good reading on the engine because of the conditions. So we were forced to wait several hours until the next session which was at 12:20pm. In the meantime, Josef was out practicing with his group when he had a bit of an engine mishap where four valves and a cam follower broke. So it was a bit of a mess for him. Unfortunately he did not get out the rest of the day because his motor had to be rushed up to Manchester to be rebuilt and brought back later tonight.
After all the chaos on Josef’s car, it was my turn to go out for my final session. I ran a few laps but I was not happy with the car or the engine. I came in quickly and Cliff [Dempsey], the team owner and head engineer, changed something on the engine and then made a handling adjustment. I went back out and could feel the motor was better immediately. I did my quickest time and then came in again because the handling was still not right. I had a pretty bad understeer from the middle of the medium and slow speed corners to the exit. But I came in right as the checkered flag was waving so we didn’t get a chance to make a change. We got the data off of my car and then off of Josef’s because Josef did several quick laps before having the engine problems. We looked at the data and I was STILL down on power. I was losing just about four tenths of a second on the straights! My quickest time of the session was only about 2 and a half tenths off of the quickest time all day so the engine is costing me crucial time.
The team doesn’t quite know what to do with the engine. We are all a little befuddled after these last two days. No matter what, I cannot be as competitive as I want to be with this engine and the team knows that and want to do whatever is possible/necessary to get me what I need, and that’s what I really like about the Cliff Dempsey Racing team. We asked around for an engine to possibly borrow and we found one but it will not be available until tomorrow night which is after qualifying and the heat race. So basically I have to deal with the engine I have in the car for qualifying and the heat race. This is unfortunate but I am sure I will learn from it and benefit from it in the future!
McLaren Factory
Silverstone, England (October 28, 2008) – Today was one of the best days of the whole trip. We got a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to visit the McLaren factory. After seeing the new factory in magazines and on TV we expected something very large and flashy. Our expectations were absolutely blown away.
We arrived and were given a special key card and map at the gate. We were to use the key card to get into a parking lot to access a certain area of the building and the map, well that was for if we got lost… Imagine that, they handed us a map just to figure out where we were going at a Formula 1/McLaren road car factory! Josef, Jeremy Shaw and I eventually parked where we were supposed to and started walking toward this cylindrical shaped entrance in front of what looked like a massive space station. In fact it was the main factory building!
We entered and walked down this spiral staircase. When we got to the bottom we were a bit confused because there was a long white hallway full of nothing but two big doors. It looked like something from Star Wars. But thanks to our man at the gate and our map we had the directions and knew right where to go! So we walked all the way to the end of this hallway and entered a very nice cylindrical elevator which took us up to the reception level. We walked out and were above the main ground floor which contained all the prominent McLaren F1 cars and sports cars. The coolest part was that the building was basically all glass and right out front was a big lake that was practically part of the building! We started taking pictures but were immediately stopped and asked to delete them…
We started off the tour by looking at all the cars on display and the HUGE trophy hallway. Our tour guide, Neil Trundle, told us that the deal with the drivers is McLaren gets the actual race trophy and the drivers get replicas which I thought was interesting. But after checking the trophies out we got the privilege to eat lunch where EVERYONE at McLaren was eating. It was a VERY nice lunch buffet area that had an incredible view of the lake because it was level with the ground floor that we were on. I had a nice egg and ham egg compilation, some peas and corn, and a fruit mouse thing… I think… During lunch we sat with Lewis Hamilton’s data engineer which was very cool.
After lunch we set off to tour the massive structure that McLaren calls “home.” We went everywhere it seemed like. First we looked at the race bays, which were empty except for the test car because the race cars were already in Brazil. We then looked at where they were working on the 2009 McLaren F1 chassis which was very interesting. After this then we looked at where they produce the McLaren SLR road cars. This was a really cool sight to see because the SLRs are expensive cars that I don’t see often in America. We got to see all the high-performance bits and how they were assembled on the car. Neil said they produce two road cars every day!
After all of this we worked our way to the lower level and went through the machine shop. I was amazed by all the test bays McLaren has! They had a test bay for everything, brakes, brake ducts, radiators, gearboxes, engines, basically everything you can think of on the car they had a test bay for it to simulate race conditions. We then got a real treat to see the wind tunnel. We didn’t actually get to go inside the wind tunnel but we got to look around under it and see the structure of it. We also saw a 50 percent model F1 car that they use in the wind tunnel.
We got to do and see so many awesome things I don’t even remember if I have said everything! Neil was an excellent tour guide and a very nice guy to let us see A LOT of incredible things at the McLaren Technology Centre. I would like to thank McLaren, Neil Trundle, Jonathan Neale, and Martin Whitmarsh for giving us the opportunity of a lifetime.
Race Shop
Ashbourne, Ireland (October 26, 2008) – I spent the night at the Dempsey residence last night and visited the Cliff Dempsey Racing team’s garage today. I woke up late to start the day off because we had a great time last night doing some fun karting and then watching the new racing series, Superleague, on TV!
After a good breakfast I headed to the garage. When I got there, there were cars galore. I saw my car and Josef’s car looking ready to go and both were being prepped for the Walter Hayes Trophy. Then there was another Ray chassis being prepped for Noel Carey to run at the Walter Hayes, and then a Van Diemen that was being prepped for another American Doug Prendeville. There was also a Mygale which Noel Carey ran at the Festival at Brands.
While I was there, Peter Dempsey, Cliff, and Bob put an engine into the Van Diemen and did many other things, but the big job was the engine. They work very hard at Cliff Dempsey Racing and I am glad to be part of a team that works hard and makes sure everything is 100 percent prepared before every race.
Irish Wedding
Dublin, Ireland (October 24, 2008) – Today was a very special day for my cousin Stephanie and her partner Stewart, who got married. In fact, it was the second day of their wedding. We missed the first day yesterday because we were coming over to Ireland on the ferry.
The morning got off to a late start because everyone was tired from the night before, and Josef and I were worn out from our trip yesterday. So we got up and walked into the pub for some lunch. Josef and I had some sandwiches and then learned that the wedding was about to start!
So Josef and I hurried back to our hotel room and tried to put something on that looked somewhat nice. We went back over to where the wedding events were just getting under way and had a great time chatting with my family that I hadn’t seen for a while. All my family keeps up with how I am doing in racing so both Josef and I got a lot of congratulations from my family which felt good.
The wedding was quite fun and different. At first, while the priest was reading something, a waitress came in and served one of them a pint of Guinness and the other a vodka and tonic! It was a great wedding and it is always fun to hang out with my Irish family. Congratulations to Stephanie and Stewart!
Williams F1
Grove, England (October 22, 2008) – Today we got the opportunity to visit the Williams F1 factory. It was a great experience mainly because it was a FORMULA 1 TEAM Factory and Formula 1 is my ultimate goal in racing. After Prodrive, which was incredible in itself, this was an awesome follow up!
When we got to the front gate at Williams F1, we were told there was a power outage. I hoped this would not affect our tour. The man at the front gate was very nice and assured us this would not be a problem – aside from the fact he couldn’t open the front gate because of the power outage so we had to park outside and walk in to the reception building!
We arrived at the reception building and right outside there was shrubbery/bush sculpture of an F1 car and pit crew – I had never seen such a thing before! Luckily the reception building at the time had power. Inside, the first thing we saw was a 2006 Williams F1 car. This was very cool but it took us a while to notice the Jacques Villeneuve championship-winning car HANGING above us from the ceiling!
Since the power was out in a few of the buildings, the receptionists offered us tea and coffee just to pass the time which I thought was very nice of them. Eventually we started the tour by going through the machine shop and race team bay where they prep the cars and load the team trucks. Everything in the factory was immaculate. It was so impressive just to see everything clean and in working order and everyone wearing the same team clothing. It was truly a very professional operation.
Since we weren’t allowed to go into either of the TWO wind tunnels, we headed back to the reception building. In the reception building they had an automated tour section of the building which was incredible! In this part of the building they keep one car from every year the team has been in operation. For every era there was a video that played explaining the drivers and how they did. There was some awesome race footage that I had never seen before. In the 80’s era they had one of the cars my Dad had driven and had his name up on the wall with the other drivers of the era. I thought this was very cool because I don’t really see much evidence any more of my Dad’s racing career other than pictures and trophies at our house. But now I see an actual car, his name, his helmet in a trophy case, and when I was introducing myself to everyone that I met in the factory and reception building, they seemed to acknowledge me as a very important person being the son of a former Williams F1 Team driver. I felt incredibly honored by this.
The fact that everyone who was with Josef and I – Francis, Bob and Cliff – was allowed to come on the tour with us was very a nice touch. It was a great tour and a great experience and I thank everyone at the Williams F1 Team for their hospitality!
Above photo of the unique six-wheeled Williams FW08B
The Day After
Brands Hatch, England (October 20, 2008) – The day after the big race started off late for everyone. One of the reasons why is that most people went out last night and had a good time with some drinks and some friends. I myself chose to head to bed early last night just because I was tired and a little disappointed and wasn’t quite up for the party.
Yesterday in my opinion was a bit of a disappointment for several reasons. This event really meant a lot to me and to come up very short was quite unfortunate. But having mechanical failures is racing and I am sure it will happen again in the future. Another disappointment was that I really could have and should have finished fourth, but I was knocked off the track while trying to make a pass on the last lap. Overall I learned an incredible amount of things whether it having to do with racecraft, being defensive, or passing. I know the results don’t quite show it but I learned more than I would have if I were leading the whole way or piddling around at the back. It was a hard fought battle the whole way through and I am now very prepared to go to the Walter Hayes Trophy event and show what I have learned.
Last night I went to bed around 10pm and woke up at around 10am. After checking up on emails and such on the computer and watching a bit of TV, my parents invited me down to the hotel lobby for some lunch before they left for Ireland. After lunch both my parents and Josef’s parents had left to go their separate ways and I called Cliff, the team owner, to see what we might do today. Cliff picked us up and we drove down to the transporter that was still parked in the paddock. Francis and Bob were barely awake, still suffering from last nights “events”!
Since the day wasn’t really a planned day we decided to just do some fun stuff. First we all went karting at Lakeside Karting which was awesome! I think karting with your friends is one of the most fun things you can do in your free time. After that we decided to head into downtown London to do a bit of sight-seeing. We ate on the outskirts of London and then headed into downtown. It was a lot of fun checking out the sights! It was a fairly relaxing day which was needed by everyone after such a long hard week.
The Heat Race
Brands Hatch, England (October 18, 2008) – Today started off with Josef’s heat race. Both of us had never done standing starts before so we were a bit nervous. Luckily I got to watch Josef first to see if I could learn anything. Josef didn’t get that great of a start and fell to fourth which was unfortunate. He ended up fourth and I was next out.
I didn’t have that bad of a start but the guy in third place had a great start just getting by me before the first corner. I was in third with the first two guys right in front of me. I had just started pulling a small gap on the guys behind me when coming out of Turn Three I sensed something was wrong with the throttle.
As soon as I went to shift to third gear the throttle stuck open but it went into third gear after a bit of over rev. So I was flat out into Kidney and Clearways thinking that that the throttle could well be stuck wide open. I went into Clearways and braked where I normally did and the throttle was indeed stuck wide open. I tried getting the car stopped but it wasn’t working and I was heading for the gravel.
I somehow thought of switching off the engine before I got too far into the gravel. I switched the engine on and off multiple times to keep the car going so I could get back to the pits safely. Luckily I got the car back to the pits. The team worked as hard as they could but I wasn’t able to get back out on track until there were just two laps to go. When we got back to the pits we found out that there was a bent valve in the engine from the engine revving too high when the throttle stuck open in the pits while the crew was working on it.
Through all this I am being very positive about everything. The car is very good and I am confident it will give me a chance to challenge for the win tomorrow. It will give me a chance to have a lot of fun in the semi final and final passing cars! I will be able to learn a lot about racecraft tomorrow and I can’t wait!
Above photo courtesy of Jeff Bloxham
Final Day of Testing
Brands Hatch, England (October 16, 2008) – Today was the final day of testing before qualifying. We had already had a very good two days of testing under our belts but today was still very useful. Yesterday we had some issues towards the end of the day with understeer from the middle of the corner to the exit. So today we wanted to work on fine-tuning the setup and getting the car to work well on new tires.
We started off in the morning with new tires and new brake pads. The first couple laps of the first session were spent bedding in brake pads and bringing up the temperatures of the new tires on the very cold morning. Then we really started pushing on the new tires. When I came into the pits after the session my lap timer said I had done a 50.45-second lap which was A LOT faster than anyone had gone all weekend. Unfortunately, we found on the data that I had somehow tripped another beacon and the time was faster than it should be… I was unhappy but oh well, those things happen! Even without this lap I had done the almost exact same time as Josef at a 50.8-second lap.
Throughout the day I still struggled with an engine problem. We could see in the data that I was very quick in the corners but as soon as I got to the straights I would lose nearly two to three tenths of a second! At first, Cliff Dempsey, the team owner and master mechanic/engineer, thought the problem was that the timing of engine was off. We tried changing the timing but it did not affect the performance of the engine…
For the final session of the day we decided to change the carburetor on the engine. We were hoping since it was the last session of the day before qualifying that our problem would be solved. I went out on track and decided to run with a pack of cars to start getting the feel for a European “racing” environment even though it was practice. The carburetor seemed to perform a lot better than the old one which was a major help. The track had gone off quite a bit though and the times had dropped off. However, Josef and I remained two of the quickest drivers on track which is always a good thing before qualifying.
So at the end of the day we felt very good for qualifying tomorrow. We are fairly sure we have the perfect setup for the new tires in qualifying. Josef and I qualify in separate groups tomorrow because we are in separate heats. Josef will qualify before me so I get the advantage of watching a lot of the competitors qualify before me and see if I can pick up any helpful information!
Above photo courtesy of Jeff Bloxham
Testing Day 1
Brands Hatch (October 14, 2008) – Today was the first day of driving in our long journey. We started early getting up at 7:15am and going to the hotel restaurant and having a very nice breakfast! We were ready to go when we arrived at the track. It was very cold however, which was somewhat unfortunate, but it’s England and it wasn’t raining so we couldn’t complain!
We started practice at 9:30am. There were many Duratec Fords going out on track with us but only one other Kent FF1600. The first time through Paddock Hill Bend was really impressive. I was so surprised at the steepness of the descent! As I built more speed up going through the corner I started using the outside curb. The car kept bottoming out badly though and I didn’t know why – I couldn’t really see a bump in the curb. I came in when the session was over and asked some questions about it. It turns out that there is a line that goes right around the bump. The next session I used this line and it worked perfectly.
The rest of the track was also quite fun. Druid’s was a very interesting hairpin because it was very long corner. Kidney and Clearways were the next challenging corners. You have to enter Kidney late enough to try and get as straight a line as possible through the corner to enter Clearways the right way. Clearways is a high entry speed corner. You have to carry a lot of speed in and around the corner. It is the most important corner on the track because it leads onto the long front straight.
At the end of the day everyone was pretty satisfied with our performances. I had a bit of an engine issue all day which was costing time but we only wanted track time today so we didn’t bother changing it until the end of the day. So we left the track very satisfied but with a lot more to learn tomorrow! We are going to learn a lot because it is going to be sopping wet! Welcome to England I guess…
The Trip to England
Croydon, England (October 12, 2008) – Our trip to England has started off great! Josef’s flight from Tennessee and mine from Indianapolis arrived in Chicago at almost the exact same time so that was a convenient start. We met at our gate to go to London but we had about three hours of time to kill.
Josef and I were looking around for power outlets to plug in our phones and laptops. There were almost no outlets in the whole airport which was very frustrating but we finally found one next to the gate for a San Diego flight, so we sat down there. The outlet turned out to be broken but something interesting happened next. I looked up from what I was doing and kind of did a double take because I thought I had seen the famous skateboarder Tony Hawk!
I looked at Josef and asked him if he thought it was him, and I was fairly sure it was. We were both in awe of how cool it was to see him there! I told Josef we should go get pictures with him. So we went up and I asked him if we could get pictures with him and he was very nice and said, “Yeah, sure!” We actually got to talking about why Josef and I were going to England. We said we were going to race cars as a part of the Team USA Scholarship and he thought that was very cool.
So Josef and I boarded the plane to London and we were fortunately sitting together. The flight was pretty uneventful. We watched a couple movies that the airline provided and then basically slept the rest of the way. It was a seven-hour flight but overall it wasn’t bad.
Cliff Dempsey picked us up at the airport and we went straight to the Ray factory. When we arrived we met Bob, who was working on my car, Francis, who was working on Josef’s car, and Gavin Ray, who builds the chassis. The day also had a fun twist to it! There were many people starting to gather right outside the factory on the street. There were all sorts of superbikes, performance cars and little motor scooters. All the people with two-wheeled machines were performing stunts and just riding really fast! They were at it almost the whole day doing street drag races with cars, the motorcycle stunts, and even some drifting! Josef and I had a great time watching it all. We are now just resting in our hotel room and hopefully going to get some dinner soon. We had a great time today and it’s only the first day here!
The Robo-Pong 200
Noblesville, Ind. (September 29, 2008) - This year I have been mainly focused on open-wheel car racing. But there is one big karting event that I look forward to every year. The Robo-Pong 200 is a 200-mile endurance go-kart race run at the Newcastle Motorsports Park. In the last three years, there have always been over 80 entries for this single race.
This year I was on the Racer of Tomorrow Too team. My teammates were fellow Team USA Scholarship winner Josef Newgarden, and Brandon Newey. However, Josef and I were not the only Team USA Scholarship winners in the race, Bryan Herta was also competing!
Our plan was to run two karts for three drivers. Josef and I had one kart each, while our third driver, Brandon Newey, would switch between both karts. The plan was for me to do a double stint and Josef to do a single stint and then for Brandon to get in. So I did my double stint and came in for my pit stop. When I came in however, Brandon was still in Josef’s kart! So I then had to go out AGAIN. After doing over 100 laps I was pretty fatigued.
One of the main reasons I was fatigued is that my kart had an imbalanced right-front tire causing a severe vibration in the front at speed. This caused my hands to get severe blisters. But I had to drive to keep us in the race so I got back in and kept pushing. After doing another stint I came in and finally got a break. Brandon hopped in and set off. Unfortunately, Brandon had made contact with another driver on the first lap of his stint resulting in a flat tire. After another pit stop, he was back on the track. But we had to make one more stop to make the end of the race. Even though my hands were in pain, I decided I wanted to finish the race. We ended up finishing eighth. The kart was a struggle to drive the whole race but it was fairly reliable which gave us a pretty good result.
Overall the weekend was a lot of fun considering there were many Indy Car and Indy Lights Series drivers competing. It was fun to go head to head with them and show what this year’s Team USA Scholarship drivers can do!
It's just sinking in!
Noblesville, Ind. (September 25, 2008) - Being selected for the Team USA Scholarship really hasn’t sunk in yet. I actually don’t think it will REALLY sink in until I get to England and get used to the environment. It means so much to me because I was thinking all year of how I could get over to Europe to start racing, and the Scholarship gives me that chance! Racing over in England will be a huge eye-opener for Josef and me simply because we haven’t experienced the European style of racing before. No matter how different the racing we experience is, we will be able to handle it!
As I looked at some of the names of prior Scholarship winners I was very impressed. I did not realize how many successful drivers had gone through the scholarship program before. I can only hope to try and follow in their footsteps. This scholarship really gives me a chance to pursue my dream of becoming a professional racing driver.
I think Josef and I will not only learn a lot about racing but also a new culture. I have been to England a couple times before and it is one of my favorite places to go in the world. This will probably be one of the greatest experiences in my career. Personally, I will be very interested in the road cars over in England. Some of my favorite cars are regularly seen in the UK. I can’t wait to see how everything turns out over in England, but no matter what happens it will be an absolutely amazing experience!
Conor Daly
