Testing, Testing!

Corby, England (October 21, 2013) – Starting off the Team USA Scholarship journey, I landed at the Heathrow airport in London, England from a nine-hour flight where I met up with Michelle Dempsey and Joey. We headed off to the Cliff Dempsey Racing shop where we greeted Cliff to begin seat fittings. After that Joey and I had a couple days of rest to get acclimated from the long flight before the first test day at Donington Park Racing Circuit.

Once we arrived at the track the weather was forecasted to be dry and sunny, but the first couple sessions were in damp conditions. I got a great feel for the car as well as the conditions of the track as it began to dry out until and few rain showers came in making the track wet again. During the test day Joey and I got a chance to sneak away for a short time to check out the F1 museum located just outside of the track. The museum was absolutely amazing filled with F1 cars varying from many different teams and years. Once we finished the tour of the museum, Joey and I headed back to the track to finish the test day.

The next morning, we made the short drive over to Silverstone to begin our second day of testing. The weather forecasted rain for the entire day but it was only wet for the first session and the track dried up for the rest of the day. I thought it was a little funny that Donington was supposed to be dry, but the majority of the day it was wet and the exact opposite happened at Silverstone (welcome to UK weather forecasting, Jake – Ed). I was still glad though to get some wet and dry experience at both tracks before the Formula Ford Festival and Walter Hayes Trophy.

Unfortunately, Joey and I weren’t the only ones at Silverstone preparing for the upcoming race and there were quite a few other F1600 cars and Formula Ford historics. This created a bit of traffic and made it hard to get a clean lap in. On the other hand, this gave Joey and I a great opportunity to work on passing and see what it’s going to be like when we come back for the Walter Hayes Trophy. Cliff and I also worked a bit on different setups and kept improving the car each session. I really enjoyed driving around the Silverstone Circuit, one track that has always been a dream of mine to race at and I’m extremely excited to come back for the Walter Hayes Trophy!

Thanks for reading,

Jake