Hildebrand Takes Strong Second Place on Overseas Debut

Nov 5, 2005
Snetterton, Norfolk, England (November 5, 2005) –– J.R. Hildebrand, from Sausalito, Calif., flew the patriotic Team USA Scholarship colors to a strong second-place finish this afternoon at Snetterton in the opening round of the six-race Formula Palmer Audi Autumn Trophy.

The 300-horsepower FPA car represented a significant step up for Hildebrand, who began his racing career in 2004 by winning the SCCA Formula Russell Championship, based at Infineon Raceway, and this year, in his first season of professional racing, finished a close second in a hard-fought Pacific F2000 Championship. After only one brief test in the FPA car a couple weeks ago at Bedford Autodrome, the 17-year-old qualified second quickest this morning, behind British Formula Renault veteran Josh Weber.

Conditions today were cool and dry, and Hildebrand was eagerly looking forward to his first-ever standing start: “I was fairly confident, although I didn’t really know what to expect. I was able to talk about it with Joe Tandy, who won this year’s FPA championship and was working as an instructor for the weekend. He was a big help, just giving some kind of concept of what to expect.

“I had a fairly decent start but it wasn’t quite as good as Weber, and the guy from the third position also got a flyer and came up alongside me probably only 30 yards after the start. So I got on the boost button [an identical concept to the “push-to-pass” system used in the Champ Car World Series] and I was able to hold him off into Turn One.”

Hildebrand maintained pace with the leader for the first half of the race before settling into a secure second.

“I realized I wasn’t going to pass him unless he made a mistake, so I eased off to look after the tires, because we only have one set to last us the entire race weekend.

“I’m very satisfied with the way it ended,” concluded Hildebrand. “Just being able to run over here in England and show well as an American has been a lot of fun. Everybody at Formula Palmer Audi has been great to deal with, so it’s been a really good experience.”

The youngster will have two more opportunities to continue his learning curve on Sunday. He will start from the third position in Race Two tomorrow morning, while the grid for the third and final race of the weekend will be set according to lap times posted in both of the first two races.

The Team USA Scholarship, now in its 16th year, has received support this year from Mockett.com, a Torrance, Calif.-based producer and supplier of “Fine Architectural Hardware For Your Fine Furniture,” Sparco USA, RACER magazine, Mi-Jack Conquest Racing, Dale Coyne Racing, Jim Russell Racing Schools and former Scholarship winners Jimmy Vasser (1990), Bryan Herta (1991), Tony Ave (1992), Memo Gidley (1995), Buddy Rice (1997), Paul Edwards (1998/’99), Andy Lally (1999), Joey Hand (2000), A.J Allmendinger and Bryan Sellers (2001).

(Meanwhile, this afternoon in Mexico City, a dramatic final round of the Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series saw Gidley team with another young American rising star, Michael McDowell, to take a dramatic maiden victory both for themselves and the Finlay Motorsports team. And in the GT category, Edwards took the victory spoils in a Pontiac GTO.R shared with Danish veteran Jan Magnussen.)

Today’s results from Snetterton:

1. Josh Weber (GB), 18 laps in 22m24.798s (94.05mph), 2. J.R. Hildebrand (USA), +7.038s; 3. Viktor Jensen (ISL); 4. Andy Demetriou (GB); 5. Joshua Southall (GB); 6. Paul Warren (GB); 7. Chris Hyman (ZA); 8. Rob Lofting (GB); 9. Mark Powell (GB); 10. Tom Haines (GB); etc. Fastest lap: Weber, 1m05.084s, 107.87mph.

Photography courtesy of Andrew Ferraro/LAT