The experience of a lifetime!
San Clemente, Calif. (November 11, 2009) – These past three weeks have been an experience of a lifetime. There were so many experiences within the whole experience, and each one of them has been extremely beneficial to my career already. Before the whole Team USA trip, there was that lingering thought in my head of how the Europeans may be that little bit better than we are in the States. Although, after the whole experience, my initial thought was definitely proven wrong!
As I woke up early Sunday morning at Silverstone, rain drops were falling and the wind was howling. With my pole position result on Saturday and runner-up result in the Heat race, I was prepared more than ever to prove myself. It looked like it was going to be wet all day, but then the rain let up, and since my heat was quite late compared to the others, it began to dry out before my Semi-Final. For the Semi, I was starting in the fourth spot and I needed to be in the top two for sure to secure a good starting position for the Final.
On the opening lap, I got a great start and moved into third as we approached Turn One. We made our way down the backstretch, then the drama occurred. As I made my move to pass for second, he made a block on me and at the same time found himself in the brake zone not prepared to stop. The second-place driver drove over the leader, flipped and I took over the lead [photo, above]. Putting my head down, I pulled out to a bit of a gap and just ran a consistent pace to secure the win. This win was a great way to start the day, and gave me a fantastic starting position for the final.
Now to the Final. Red lights went on and my shield went down. I knew I needed to have a perfect opening lap to capitalize on my car being quick on cold tires. Once the lights went out, I got away with a clean start and hit Turn One perfectly pulling out to about a three-car length lead. Once we made our way down the backstretch I was able to maintain the lead even with the draft. Lap after lap I continued to pull away until about lap four or five. Entering the last turn of the complex, I got too far inside where the track was still wet from the drying track conditions. The wet spot caused me to have a huge slide and nearly go off the track. I fell back to 4th, regrouped and began my assault back towards the front. Pace was not a problem for me; it was just going to be a matter of how difficult it was going to be to get back to the lead. After about four more laps I made my way back to the front and put my head down once again. While the laps continued to count down, I continued to pull out a to a bigger and bigger lead. At last the final lap board was shown to me by the team, and I knew I just needed to make no mistakes and bring it home. Exiting the last turn, I knew I had done it. I drove to the finish with my fist held high and my mechanic, Andrew, going crazy on the pit wall. Finally, that moment had come. The moment of victory.
The feeling I had after the race was like none other. As I came down pit lane to the podium, Andrew and the crew were there and I gave them the biggest hugs possible. It was the greatest feeling to have fulfilled my dream weekend, and fulfilled the expectations of the team. Everyone knew. It was a TEAM effort.
I would now like to send a huge Thank You to the whole Dempsey family and the entire Cliff Dempsey Racing Team. Cliff and Michelle were my mom and dad for these past three weeks, and I could not have asked for two better “parents.” Peter helped tremendously at the track with every tip possible to give, and is also a very close friend now. Also, my American teammate Brett Smrz. He is a great friend of mine, and I am glad I was able to share this experience with him. Working together when either one of us needed help led to each of ours success, and I am glad to have had such a great teammate.
More special thanks go to Andrew, Franky, Francie, Bob, Dave Hart, Dave Collier, Scott Malvern, Cormac O'Neil, Stephen Daly, Doug Prendeville, Patrick McKenna and Gavin Ray for a fantastic car.
Most importantly, a huge Thank You to the Team USA Scholarship. Without the opportunity that Jeremy Shaw and all of the supporters gave me, I would not be the even better driver that I am today. These experiences I will have for my career, and all of these new friendships I will have for the rest of my life.
-Connor-
What an experience!
Oxford, England (October 28, 2009) – Yesterday I had the opportunity to visit RML, the Lola Cars factory, and also had a radio interview with Le Mans Radio. The day did not start out that great due to the hot water heater not functioning at Josef’s apartment, but once we determined it was not going to work anytime soon, we got ready and made our way to RML. In case you’re not familiar with RML, it is a company that is capable of building almost an entire race car, including the engine – as it does with the factory Chevrolet team in the World Touring Car Championship – as well as running a British Touring Car team and doing private work on SLR McLarens.
We were met by Michael Mallock, who would be giving us the tour of his father’s company. Right out of the gate, we began with history. He showed us an older race car, a Mallock U2 Mk.6, built by Michael’s grand-father, that was so simple, yet was so successful! As we moved on, I got to check out their LMP2 Lola-Mazda Le Mans Series car. It was so great to be able to look at these cars closely and compare them to parts of a Formula 1 car that we had seen the previous day at the McLaren Technical Center. We made our way through the building and I noticed how everything that was done and built for the car was all done in-house! It was an entirely self-sufficient operation, including their own car body painting area and engine shop. Once we made our way to the next building, our jaws simply fell to the floor. When we entered, all that came into view was the seven built and prepped SLR McLarens. Their look was astounding, and I couldn’t stop admiring all the little details in the car. After a few pictures, I had the chance to take a seat in one and feel it out. The whole car just sat so low and it felt truly like a real race car. In the same building was their entire World and British Touring Car operations. All of their WTCC cars were in Japan for their latest round of competition, so we didn’t get to check out all of the cars, but it was still a great experience.
Next up on the list was a radio interview just about a mile up the road with John Hindhaugh from Le Mans Radio. Once we arrived at his house, he showed us a bit of his memorabilia on the walls of each room. Since he has such an immense history in motorsport, we got to hear a few stories and experiences from all of his time and dedication spent at the track. Eventually Brett and I made our way into the living room and did a taped radio interview. It went on for about 15 minutes and it was great to talk about our experiences thus far in the UK and our thoughts about the racing. Although it felt like a five-minute interview, we wanted to just keep talking about how awesome of a time we are having over here, and all the great people we have met so far. Since our interview was complete, we went and got a quick bite to eat at a Chinese restaurant, and shortly after began our journey down to Lola.
Once we arrived in the front lobby of Lola, the first car we saw was Sebastien Bourdais’ championship-winning Champ Car. We knew right away that this was going to be once of the visits at the top of our list. Sam Smith gave us the complete tour of the factory. I had no idea of what to expect but I had a feeling that this was going to fulfill all of our expectations. First of all we were shown the complete process of how they go about making a carbon-fiber piece from start to finish. It was very interesting, and I didn’t realize all the tiny little precautions that are necessary for making all of these pieces. As we continued, he showed us in order all the steps that the parts will go through before they are sent off to the purchaser. Each piece goes through a number of tests for its strength, and also it goes through a laser process that checks for fractures. After we were finished with the assembly area, we made our way to where they do all the of the designs and R&D. In their upstairs office, they had their entire design team. Sam had one of his main CFD engineers give us a little presentation so we could understood the basics of Computational Fluid Dynamics, and how they use the software to design complete cars. It was amazing how much they can do on the computer, before they even take the car – or any other piece – to the wind tunnel. Then we moved onto the wind tunnel, which was a great experience in itself. The presentation we had seen earlier gave us a much better understanding of how it all works. As our visit came to an end, Sam showed us a few more machines, including the seven-post rig which is used to replicate laps on a car’s suspension through an amazing system of hydraulics. The entire experience was a thrill. Now to we had a little over an hour driver back home to bring our day to a conclusion.
Thank you to Jeremy Shaw and the Team USA scholarship for all of these great opportunities and experiences. Also, many thanks to all of the supporters, as well Sam Smith at Lola, Michael Mallock at RML and John Hindhaugh from Le Mans Radio.
-Connor-
New techniques
Oxford, England (October 21, 2009) – Yesterday we headed to Bruntingthorpe in the English Midlands for the Grand Prix Shootout [photo at right of Brett, Rob Wilson, Connor and David Fleming courtesy of www.sutton-images.com] . We were up bright and early, after a comfy night’s sleep at the flat Josef Newgarden shares with F3 racer Philip Major, and began our journey to the track. It didn’t seem too cold, so we looked to be quite lucky to have another nice day in lovely England. Once we began driving, all of the talk began. Since Josef had already done the shootout – which offers a prize of a free drive in the 2010 European Formula BMW series – Brett and I picked his brain a little so I would have a better idea of what to expect once we arrived at the track. As we arrived, it didn’t seem like a race track. There were air force jets everywhere, and not to mention the variety of Ferraris, Lambos, and Bentleys!!
Once we found where everyone was, we saw the machines we would be driving. They were Abarth 500s – small, turbocharged cars that looked to be a blast to drive! This would be my first time driving a street car and pushing it to its maximum potential. We walked into the tent and checked in at the front desk. Everyone seemed really nice and I introduced myself to a few of the drivers and met everyone involved with the shootout. After having some breakfast, David Fleming, who runs the Shootout, and Rob Wilson, the chief driving coach, arrived. We spoke about my results at the Festival, and how the day was going to be worked out. Brett and I got to go in the first group, and the track was just a little damp from light rain. The cars handled quite well, and with the track being wet made it even more fun!
I took to the track and immediately got used to the right-hand drive setup. When I sat in the car initially I thought it would give me trouble, but I adapted to it right away. My instructor and I started the session a little slow, but after a few laps we got right to it. The track was really fast and open, with the first turn being flat out in fourth gear! With the track being wet, the car would move around a lot, but that just added to the fun. After about an hour and a half of driving, we made our way back to the compound and I was very happy with my performance, as was the instructor. When we returned we ate some lunch and had a media interview to see how well we spoke in front of the camera. Then we had one last session with Rob Wilson for him to evaluate us as drivers. I didn’t focus on pushing really hard, but I did make sure I maximized my time with Rob by not making any mistakes and running fast, clean laps.
All in all, it was a great experience and I learned a few new driving techniques. When we were done, we headed back home to the flat in Oxford and relaxed for a few minutes before going out to dinner at one of Josef and Philip’s favorite restaurants. The food was really good, and all of the sauces were really different.
I have to do some school work today (Wednesday), and then next up tomorrow is a tour of the iSport International GP2 team and then on to Lola Cars It should be another interesting day!
-Connor-
On the podium!
Brands Hatch, England (October 17, 2009) - It was finally race day. I didn’t sleep much last night because I had so many questions in my head. Although we needed to get up 30 minutes earlier than we have this whole trip, we somehow managed to get up quicker, even with less sleep! Once I got my morning rolling by listening to some music, I felt ready for the big day! I wasn’t sure what to expect for the qualifying and race. All I continued to hear is how aggressive the European drivers are, but it finally got to a point where I just told myself I would figure it all out on the track.
We headed down to the lobby early for once to get some breakfast, but of course this one morning – I guess because it was the weekend – the restaurant were opening a half-hour later! So since we were going to have to wait, we met Mr. Dempsey in the lobby and then made our way down to the paddock. He asked us if we were ready for today, and there was no doubt that we were.
My mechanic Andrew had the car prepped and ready when I arrived and the first thing I told him was that I was going to drive the wheels off it during qualifying! He has been working so hard and I wanted to start out the race days in excellent form. Since we were hungry, Mrs. Dempsey began to whip up some breakfast for the whole team. Each day she managed to beat the previous breakfast from the day before, and again she did!
So after a outstanding breakfast, the crew and I headed to the grandstands at Paddock Hill to watch Brett in Heat One. The first six laps were good to watch and it gave me a good idea of what to expect for my race. As Brett’s Heat continued, I had to walk back to our pit area to prepare for my race. The pressure wasn’t really kicking in. As long as I stuck to my plan of surviving the first part of the race, I was happy to just settle into position and keep any risky moves to the absolute minimum.
In the closing stages, I realized the car was not quite capable of moving forward any further without having some risky contact. So I finished in third place, although I was closing on the leader and the second-place driver. Overall I would have liked to finish higher, of course, but I was towards the front and will move onto tomorrow with great confidence.
I would like to thank again my mechanic Andrew and the whole Cliff Dempsey Racing team for preparing a great race car. And we’ll be closer to perfect for tomorrow after the setup changes tonight!!
Stay tuned.
-Connor-
Hey Everyone !
Brands Hatch, England (October 16, 2009) – The day started bright and early. Up at 6:30 and downstairs at a little after 7:00. Mr. Dempsey and some of the crew were already waiting in the breakfast lounge at the hotel – which is right by the entrance to the race track – as we arrive, and they needed to head down to the paddock to finalize a few changes on the cars since it was quite damp outside. The lads left us the keys to one of the cars, so we could take our time eating and head down to the paddock when we were ready. Which meant... driving a right-hand drive car for the first time! Even though it was a really short distance, it was not nearly as difficult or awkward as I built it up to be before I actually drove.
When arrived down at the pits and greeted the crew, they were delighted to see the car had returned in one piece! We then got straight to work and scaled the cars to make sure they were perfect for today’s practice. The first session was wet, so I took it easy for the first few laps. As I began to get really comfortable, I pushed harder and posted the fastest lap of the session. It was a very good feeling to see that we have speed in rain or shine – which is one less thing we need to think or wonder about when it comes down to race time.
Sessions two and three were both nearly the same. It continued to stay dry the rest of the day, so we got to try a few new setup changes on the car. Most of them improved the car, and we ruled out the ones that hurt us on the stopwatch. As the sessions came to a close, I was P2 just a few hundredths off my Irish teammate at the end of the day. Although it was not the quickest time, our consistency is much better than most of the drivers in the top five, which is a great characteristic for the long runs such as the races.
Overall, an excellent day. The car is prepped and ready for tomorrow, the graphics were completed this evening – the car looks fantastic! – and it’s ready to give everyone a run for their money tomorrow morning in qualifying!
Thank you to the Team USA Scholarship as well as everyone at Cliff Dempsey Racing for putting in 110 percent each and every day.
Connor De Phillippi
