All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy
Los Gatos, Calif. (January 9, 2012) – It’s the first weekend of the New Year and I’m finally back in the office writing blogs again! 2011 was arguably the busiest year of my life and I don’t expect this year to be very far off that. When I returned home from the UK in November I went straight to the SKUSA SuperNationals in Las Vegas to have some fun in a kart with all the boys at Kartel Motorsports. It wasn’t my best weekend ever but I had a blast seeing all my old friends again! That whole group of guys is like family to me; I had a lot of questions to answer as I was “fresh off the boat” from England! It was a great opportunity for me to come home and share my experiences with everyone at the biggest karting race of the year. Plus, I got to drive a kart again… It doesn’t get much better than that.
Once Thanksgiving came around, I was in total relax mode. Christmas was all smiles! I was on dessert duty this year and I decided to make an apple pie. As it turns out, I make a pretty killer pie. Not too sure what I’ll call my recipe yet, but maybe you can help me in that department? The past month or so was my time to just sit back, close my eyes, and slow down time for a bit. To take a moment and realize what I have accomplished throughout the entire year. Honestly, I enjoyed every bit of it. Nothing but good friends, good racing and good fun. Since I’ve been home, I’ve been able to spend a lot of quality time with my friends and family! Simply just enjoying life, not a worry in the world. Don’t get me wrong, I been working very hard to put together a schedule for 2012 but friends and family are pretty high on my list of priorities, especially this time of year!
In case you didn’t already know, I won’t be racing in Europe again this season. Instead I have signed a deal with John Church and JDC Motorsports to fight for the Cooper Tires Presents the USF2000 National Championship Powered by Mazda. It should be an exciting season considering the Mazda Road to Indy program is on the rise! Not to mention I will also be racing this season against my fellow Team USA Scholarship teammates, Spencer and Trent. How rad is that!? I’ve also been working closely with a friend of mine, Jonathon Zeigelman, to put together a new website for myself, which is basically finished and should be launched very soon. On top of that, I’ve been spiking my heart rate and dripping sweat with my trainer every other day at the gym for the past month. I’m easily in the best shape of my life and totally ready to get back into a car! I’m psyched for this season to finally get rolling.
As of now it looks like I’ll be in a car on Wednesday and Thursday of this coming week, and again with JDC and all my teammates at the end of the month. Then Winterfest in Florida! Looks like action is not too far away, folks. Actually, I just got back from the JDC headquarters in Minnesota where I spent a few days with John, his wife Katie and their daughters Sophie and Josie (the two happiest and funniest kids you could ever meet!). I was also there to get to know the rest of the JDC team and to do a seat fitting for the USF2000 car. Such a great atmosphere between everyone, I know for sure this is going to be a fun year. I almost forgot to mention it gets pretty darn cold in Minnesota this time of year… Far below zero, no thanks. “California thermometers don’t even go that low my friend.” Well, I hope you all enjoyed the holidays as much as I did!
Keep your nose to the grindstone.
Neil
When you’re thrown into deep water, you learn how to swim
Los Gatos, Calif. (November 10, 2011) – It’s Thursday morning after the Walter Hayes Trophy and I’m writing this blog from the comfort of my own bed. You know, it’s funny how at one point all I could think about was going back to California, and now here I am wishing I was back racing in England! I suppose it’s easy to take things like that for granted. All I needed to do was sit back and remind myself, “When I was 18, I moved to England to race cars for a year.” I’ve been to Holland, lived there for about a month with some really good friends. Went to Belgium, raced on the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. Been to Ireland, enjoyed my first wedding and played a round of golf in the pouring Irish rain. Now 
that I think about it, I checked a lot of thing off my list this year. No doubt it’s been a long, rough season, but don’t get me wrong, I loved every minute of it. Let’s see, I moved into my own apartment in February, took care of my own bills, had a roommate, bought a car (RIGHT) etc. There are a few other crazy things that happened this year, but I won’t get into that! This year wasn’t all about growing up and maturing as a driver. It was also about maturing as a person. To be quite honest, it was overwhelming at times. But I had Cliff and Michelle Dempsey to help me every step of the way! I made a lot of good friends this past year. I mean, genuine people. They’re all more so family than friends really. I have a lot to be grateful for and I couldn’t be happier. Hopefully, all of them will arrive on my doorstep at some stage.
So, Sunday… I lined up third on the grid for Semi Final 2. I got a great start and found myself in the lead straight away after the first two drivers put each other off. It was looking good at that point with open track ahead of me and a massive gap behind. All I had to do was drive a consistent race and it would be tough for the group behind to catch me. Unfortunately, there was a red-flag situation resulting in a full grid restart. After the restart I was second off the line looking for a way past Wayne Boyd. As I sat behind him nearly half the race, he was given several driving-standard warnings for excessive blocking. But to be honest, I probably would have done the same thing. It was a super frustrating Semi Final where I ended up fourth but had pace for a much better result.
My Semi Final efforts would start me seventh on the grid for the Final. I got off the line with a good clean start and diced my way up to fifth at one stage, before Abdul Ahmed drove straight over the back of my left rear going into Luffield, bending the track rod and ultimately ending my race. Between the chaos of the Semi Final and Final, it’s fair to say those were unfortunate circumstances that were out of our control. And that’s where the famous cliché comes from – “that’s racing.” But I’ll be back, that’s for sure!
I had a great time racing with Cliff Dempsey Racing. The team did a super job preparing the best cars possible for Trent and myself (LEFT, courtesy Jeff Bloxham). I am extremely happy with their performance, but naturally enough I’m disappointed I did not put the car up front where it belonged. Trent has been a super teammate these past few weeks. The kid is a real team player. I have a ton of respect for him and want to wish him the best of luck going forward.
Overall, I can leave the weekend with my head held high! It’s easy to say that is the most fun I have ever had at a race weekend and I would love to come back and give the Walter Hayes Trophy another crack! I just can’t believe this season is already over. That’s it until next year. The main event at the WHT marked my 44th race of the season. WOW! But that’s exactly what you get when you spend a year in Europe racing Formula Ford. Not to mention all the winter testing I did prior to our season even starting. It’s been busy, but busy is good. The amount of experience I gained this year is priceless and will stick with me for the rest of my career. By far the best decision I could have made going forward.
Thanks a million to Jeremy Shaw and all the supporters of the Team USA Scholarship for making such an incredible opportunity possible! It may be the end our British adventure but I’m really looking forward to what we have next in store!
Au revoir,
Neil
Pure Unsweetened Victory Juice
Silverstone, England (November 5, 2011) – I’m still at the track as we just finish up our first day of racing here at Silverstone for the Walter Hayes Trophy. We had some overnight rain, as expected, which left the track wet for most of the day. I was the first sessions out to see a wet and drying track for morning qualifying. We ended the session P2, which would start us on the inside going into Turn One. The main goal for today was to get through our heats clean and set ourselves up for a solid run in tomorrow’s semi. There were six heats today to divide up all 95 drivers for the racing on Sunday.
James Beckett has done a great job at organizing this event to get so many entries! The Walter Hayes Trophy is by far the biggest Kent Formula Ford event of the year. It’s also a great event to be a part of because with so many drivers coming from so many different forms of racing, anyone could win! The only thing that’s missing are some smokin’ hot grid girls. Then again I don’t blame them for not wanting to stand in the rain all day…
Anyway, I was in Heat One at 11:45 starting off pole to Felix Fisher. The conditions were extremely tough in the morning because there was somewhat of a dry line beginning to form, but at the same time the track was still very wet. As the lights went out to start the race I was able to get down the inside of Fisher into the first corner to take the lead. Once I was out front, the goal was just to keep a clean nose and finish the race with a good consistent pace (ABOVE, photo courtesy of Jeff Bloxham). We went on to win by nearly seven seconds over the second-place finisher. The tricky thing is that your Semi-Final grid position is based on your heat finish and overall race time. Unfortunately for me, even though I had won the race, I would most likely have the slowest heat purely because as the track continued to dry, times began to drop tremendously. But that’s just the luck of the draw!
Trent went on to match my result in his heat race to give us Cliff Dempsey Racing and the Team USA Scholarship victories all around! Not to mention Cormac O’neill who also won his heat for the CDR camp. So far so good! Although at the end of the weekend the only race that matters is the final. So we’ll just keep our heads down and make it all happen again tomorrow!
Keep your pecker up
Neil
Red Bull what? Christian Horner who?
Corby, England (November 2, 2011) -- It’s been a long day of driving, emails and sightseeing. A long day, but a fun day! Today, what did we do today? Oh yeah, Trent and I went to the McLaren Technology Centre. No big deal. It's probably just one of the most amazing Formula One establishments out there. This past couple weeks I've just been adding to the list of experiences I will never forget for the rest of my life. I mean, we were at McLaren today -- the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula One Team. Big thanks to Neil Trundle for giving us the behind the scenes grand tour of what exactly goes on at McLaren. Neil now looks after their "heritage collection" of cars, which means he is in charge of making sure all the older McLarens are maintained in full running order. He also oversees their exhibition appearances all over the world. I was totally blown away by the entire experience!
There’s just no possible way to describe their facility in writing. McLaren just seems so far advanced, it’s hard to believe it was built nearly 10 years ago. Neil was telling us that Ron Dennis was directly involved with the entire architectural design of the premises. As you drive to the McLaren roundabout – yes, McLaren has its own roundabout - you’re hit with a futuristic vibe! Everything from the glass McLaren entrance sign, to the guard gate securing the motorsport division, it all gives off a very star trek-like atmosphere.
As we approached the guard gate upon arrival, someone straight out of Men-in-Black greeted us with “system access” key cards to get us into the motorsport reception area. From there we drove through to the McLaren car park, which was packed! I guess that’s easy to understand considering they have around 1,500 employees working there daily. Now, I’m trying to think of the best way to describe the facility to you. Okay, say the car park is completely separated from the McLaren factory. On one side of the building there is a beautiful manmade lake, which pushes right up against the glass walls of the factory. On the other side of the main building, in-between the car park, there are these cylindrical pods protruding from the ground, which are the only way to access the main building. There was about five or six of these pods that take you to separate locations within the factory. With the swipe of a card, this pod opens and it leads to an underground spiral staircase. Keep in mind everything is built of mostly glass, immaculate white tile and contemporary stainless steel. Anyway, as we got to the bottom of this staircase we came to a long corridor that was white from top to bottom! Super futuristic looking. At the end of this long hallway there was another glass cylindrical elevator. Security access card required, of course. At this time Trent and I were just looking at each other absolutely blown away by how unreal this facility was. And we haven’t even started the tour yet!
The first floor is where all the working bays, simulators, machines, wind tunnels, trophy displays, etc… are located. Basically all the hands-on stuff goes on there. That’s also the floor where McLaren kept their most successful cars for display as their workplace/ museum. The second floor of the factory houses all the offices. The entire factory was built on an open plan, where everything is separated by glass. Even from the second floor you could see down and overlook all the cars, as all the second floor walkways were suspension bridges. So as we took this elevator up from the underground hallway, Trent and I could see all the F1 cars being worked on as went past the first floor to get to the second level where we met Neil to start our tour. We were not allowed to take very many pictures, as most of their development is kept secret but we were allowed to take one in front of Lewis Hamilton’s 2008 World Championship winning car.
Once we met up with Neil he gave us a 2 ½ hour tour of the entire McLaren Technology Center. We saw everything from the wind tunnel to Jenson Button’s 2011 MP4-26, which was actually being prepped for Abu Dhabi, as it will be Jenson’s Grand Prix car for next weekend. How crazy it that?! We actually got to touch Jenson Button’s Grand Prix car for Abu Dhabi. What else? We got to hold and change gears on the 2008 McLaren MP4-23 Formula One car. At that moment we were holding £20,000 worth of equipment. Just the steering wheel, £20,000! Believe it. Neil explained to us that it takes 50 hours to wire an F1 steering wheel with all the correct electronics. Every detail finished to military spec. Unreal. We also got the rundown of how all CNC machines work and how they make all the billet aluminum parts for the F1 cars. I could sit here and write a book about that day, but I think you get that idea of what we saw at McLaren. I was probably in shock for those 2 ½ hours of my life. I just couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that I was standing over some of the most famous cars in Formula One history. Senna’s cars, Prost’s cars, Hakkinen’s cars, Raikkonen’s cars, Hamilton’s past cars, Button’s current car. What an amazing experience! Definitely a day to remember.
Hasta la vista
Neil
Irish Weddings and Leprechaun Folklore
Corby, England (October 29, 2011) – Ireland was a blast! Cliff, Michelle, Peter, Mandy and myself arrived on Wednesday before Keith and Joanne’s big day on Friday. All of us went straight away into wedding celebration mode. Wednesday morning the guys were off to Louis Copeland’s to get their suits fitted. I was the runner to go fill the Dublin city parking meter and retrieve the fancy shoes they left back at the car. I also had the privilege of judging what seemed like a small fashion show. Everyone scored 10s. Unfortunately for them my scale goes to 20! Just in case you didn’t know, Louis Copeland is a world-renowned master tailor who has fitted suits for Peirce Brosnan, Kevin Spacey, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, Tiger Woods and Keith Dempsey to name a few. No big deal. And you know I’ve had plenty of suits personally fitted by him throughout the many years I spent on the red carpet.
That night we had a dinner at the best Chinese known to man, Eatzen! If I go to Ireland I make sure I eat at Eatzen at least once during my trip. It’s a small place in the Dempseys’ hometown of Ashbourne that Cliff absolutely swears by. And I will gladly back him up on that one. That same night Peter and I took the last bus into Dublin city to meet up with the groom himself; oh, and Peter hadn’t even started his “best man” speech and the wedding was only two days away. I basically went with Peter to meet all Keith’s best mates for the wedding, and let’s just say he didn’t make much progress on his speech that night either! I mean, I knew I was going to a wedding, but no one told me that Irish weddings were week-long festivities….
Rule No. 7.2.0 Section 1_Article 3: You are in Ireland. Surrounded by the Irish. Pace yourself.
Thursday afternoon everyone was just rolling out of bed and making the location shift to check into the Castleknock Hotel and Country Club. Castleknock is a beautiful part of Ireland. To me it’s one of those screensaver-like countrysides with the soft rolling hills, cobblestone bridges and what seems to be ancient homes probably worth millions. Apparently, it’s also the birthplace of Colin Farrell. A bit of useless information for you. Anyway, Castleknock is only a short distance from the church where Keith and Joanne wiould be getting married. And once we checked in, I was quite happy to just sit at the hotel and feed my face full of food. I sat looking out the café window watching golfers on the 11th green tee off into the parking lot. Not that I’m much better, but it was entertaining at the time – you know, something to laugh about on a Friday afternoon. Oh, aAnd I forgot to mention I was sharing a room with Gavin Ray for the weekend. Yes, Gavin Ray of Ray Racecars. The pair of us were being introduced to everyone as “the guy who makes the cars” and “the guy who tries to drive the cars.” Or the guy that crashes the cars and the guy who fixes them… Irish, I’ll tell ya, they got jokes. Peter was up until 3am polishing off his best man speech with the help of his girlfriend Mandy. If it were me, I’d just take a deep breath and wing it on the day. How bad could it possibly go? Apparently some people prep their speeches months in advance. Yeah, my advice is don’t take my advice.
Friday, I woke up just after 9 o’clock and realized I missed breakfast. Standard Neil. Happens to me all the time. So I had to settle for a half dozen scones and a cup of joe. Back upstairs to get my kit on for “I-do” day. Top hat, £250 shirt, maroon tie, old skool two button grey tweed jacket fresh off the rack, maroon pants, white leather Sperry Topsiders, no socks. From top to bottom it’s all true, except the top hat…and my shirt definitely didn’t cost £250. It was £2500. Haha! But seriously. Off to the church! It was my first wedding, my first Irish wedding (ABOVE RIGHT, Cliff and Michelle with Joanne and Keith). I was so stoked to be a part of the whole thing!
Now that Keith and Joanne Dempsey had officially tied the knot everyone was off to the Carton House for some fun – I mean, reception and lovely dinner. Now, I’m not exactly sure of the history behind Carton House but I’m pretty sure it was home to royalty at one stage. Anyway, we were greeted at the door with glasses of champagne, which I gladly accepted only for the celebration purposes of Keith and Joanne. Mandy and myself were the only American representatives in attendance at the royal wedding. And we did get a shout out. It was a special moment for me. Well, it was a close second to introducing myself to all the single bridesmaids. It was an extraordinary evening. Everyone nailed their speeches – including Peter – the bride and groom were absolutely stunning, the food was great, music was fantastic, and the company was even better. Congratulations again Keith and Joanne! I’ll leave the rest of that night to your imaginations…and maybe the night after that too.
To round off my weekend I played 18 holes of golf in the pouring rain with Pete and Dave Curley, close friends of the Dempseys, and myself. I was lucky enough to have a rain jacket in my bag, although it really didn’t make a difference because the amount of rain that came down was unreal. You might have caught the news about the floods in Ireland and how all of October’s forecasted rain fell in three days. Yeah? Well, we played golf on the first of those three days. Typical Irish weather, I guess. By the time we got on the back nine we were the only ones on the course still playing; even the clubhouse shutdown. But look, I didn’t come all the way from California to play 13 holes of golf. I came to play 18, and I will play all 18 holes. And I’ll play the last hole again if I feel like it!
Everyone decided to take a day off to relax on Monday. Thank god for that… None of us had the energy to leave the house anyway. Plus, the monsoon rain didn’t help with any outdoor plans. Before we headed back off to England on Wednesday morning we spent one last night with Dave Curley, his wife Angela, and his two daughters, Anna and Ellen. Together they organized a beautiful dinner for all of us. I wouldn’t even call it dinner, it was more of a family feast. We had starters, a main course, dessert, and what’s an evening in Ireland without an Irish coffee? The Curleys are great company and ever better friends. I think we ended the night talking about golf with Dave and sharing our stories from the other day. Pete and I might have even walked off with a few dozen golf balls courtesy of Dave and his 2,500 Pro V1 collection!
Well, I hope you enjoyed reading this entry as much as I enjoyed writing it. This past week is probably a week of my life that I will never forget. It was a good craic, that’s for sure! I’ll sneak onto the Team USA blog site 10 years from now and laugh my ass off reading this one.
Keep your stick on the ice.
Neil
Great result but mixed emotions
En route to Ireland (October 21, 2011) – It was a very mixed emotional weekend with everything that happened at Brands Hatch and in Las Vegas with INDYCAR. I’ll remember everything that day minute-for-minute. I was lucky enough to share some great memories with Dan Wheldon through his involvement with Joey Hand and the boys at Kartel. If you knew Dan, you knew the kind of person he was and I don’t have to tell you. I understand he passed doing something he loved. But as racing drivers we all understand the risk involved in this sport, and unfortunately that’s something we have to accept. I don’t want to reflect too much on Sunday, other than to send my thoughts and prayers out to the Wheldon family. It was a pleasure working with you, Dan; I had a blast getting to know you! We all miss you.
The Festival came and went so fast. The past two weeks went by fast. In fact, this whole season went by super-fast! Trent, Spencer and I drove five days straight at Brands. From Wednesday to Sunday. All. Day. Long. That’s why I think the Festival is so great. Even Formula Ford for that matter! We all woke up at about 7am everyday, walked to the track, suited up, cranked out about 140 laps throughout the day, walked back to the hotel, ate, slept and did it again the next day.
Let me put it to you this way, between Silverstone and Brands Hatch I logged in six races. That’s two race weekends back to back, where I was driving everyday except Monday and Tuesday. Eleven days total, nine of which I was driving. And that’s not just a special occasion. It’s been like that all season. After the Walter Hayes Trophy in a few weeks I’ll have close to 40 races under my belt - all since April this year. Not to mention winter testing prior to that. That’s a pretty impressive amount of seat time. Value for money, Formula Ford is the place to be.
So, for Saturday, Trent and I were drawn in different Heat races. I was in Heat 1 and Trent was in Heat 2. Both of us stuck it on pole and won our first races. I don’t think it gets much better than that. Trent and I were on it that day; we just needed to pull through and win the one that counts. Those results set up the two Semi Finals for Sunday, which turned out to be a Cliff Dempsey Racing front row lockout! I was on pole for Semi Final 1 with Ireland’s Cormac O’Neill off pole in his CDR-prepared car. Trent was on pole for his semi alongside Team Canada’s Xavier Coupal, also running with the guys at CDR. I managed to keep the ball rolling with a Semi Final win on Sunday morning. Unfortunately, Trent was punted during the early stages of his semi but worked hard to race his way through the pack and make it into the Final. The Final was again an all CDR front row shared between Xavier and myself. I went on to finish third. I feel that I should have won the main event having been so strong throughout the weekend but I was delighted to be on the podium for Team USA and Cliff Dempsey Racing.
Well, I’m currently sitting in the back of an Audi finishing up my blog. It’s 10:37pm and Cliff, Michelle and I are headed back to Ireland to celebrate their eldest son Keith and Joanne’s wedding! We only got back from Brands Hatch yesterday and now we have to catch the 2am boat out of Holyhead. That will put us in Dublin for the morning to meet Peter, the Dempseys’ other son, and Mandy at the airport. Then the fun begins! My first Irish wedding and I’ll have plenty of pictures for you guys to enjoy next week sometime! We have another two hours of driving until we get to the port so I’m going to take this opportunity to sleep. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you and goodnight.
Neil
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Brands Hatch, England (October 11, 2011) – Well, the MSA Formula Ford Duratec Championship of Great Britain is over. I finished ninth overall in my rookie season here in Europe. Spencer Pigot came over for the final race of the championship at Silverstone last weekend, which was a blast! Having a fellow American over gave off a real Team USA vibe, especially as our new Team USA Scholarship suits had arrived from Mike Hewitt at Sparco. They look and feel sensational! We also had our Team USA apparel from Kyle Werra and Steve Welk at Styled Aesthetic and our custom Racelite Protection gear from Jonathon Ziegelman. It was cool to see all the Team USA vinyl being applied to the cars, too!
The Friday test day before Silverstone was not only a test day; it was also my 19th birthday. After a day full of dark clouds and rain, all the guys at Cliff Dempsey Racing gave me a birthday card reading, “dude, chill.” I guess it was supposed to be some sort of a funny reference to the fact that I’m from California…Dude. Oh yeah, everyone got me chocolate cake and a Lego racecar too. Haha! And that wasn’t the end of the celebration. Jeremy was kind enough to take me and Spencer out to dinner in Brackley, where we met up with Ian Titchmarsh, who is the track commentator at Silverstone as well as an old friend from Jeremy’s days working at Autosport magazine. We went to a place called Kushboo, an Indian restaurant where F1 driver Karun Chandhok recommends certain dishes. Apparently he lives just across the road, although we didn’t get a chance to meet him because he was away in Japan for the Grand Prix weekend. It wasn’t the first time I’ve celebrated my birthday at the track but it was definitely one to remember.
Monday morning after Silverstone we met up with Trent Hindman and Sebastian Ordonez who had just flown in from the last round of the Skip Barber National Series at Lime Rock. From there we had lunch at a pub near the track called the Green Man. Can’t go wrong with the classic fish and chips, right? It was good! We had a tour arranged for 3pm at the Morgan Motor Company, so we bolted over there after lunch in a Mazda 5 with Jeremy at the wheel. Trent and Sebastian were passed out in the back while Spencer and I thought of good ways to wake them up! We just didn’t want them to be jet-lagged in the morning, that’s all!
Chris Witty, another friend of Jeremy’s, gave us the grand tour of the Morgan factory. That place is an absolutely incredible breath-taking, eye-opening, unreal, retro-vibe, oldskool, stellar facility. Just the smell of a car being built by hand! Yeah, I said it, by hand. Starting with the woodwork, watching the assembly process, drooling over customers’ cars, up-close with the historics from the Morgan museum, and meeting Charles Morgan himself! The best way to describe it is where tradition meets technology. Just an amazing experience.
So, Brands Hatch here we come. We had a bit of an adventure jumping from train to train to make our way from Beaconsfield station to Borough Green near Brands Hatch. We knew where we wanted to go but at the same time we weren't exactly sure. We got a little lost at one point but ended up asking around and running across the station to catch the right train – with Trent and Sebastian virtually sleep-walking behind us. Those two were zombies after traveling all day via planes, trains and automobiles. Good times! It sounds chaotic but we made every train with perfect timing. Surprisingly, we never got lost. It’s now 1:15am and I’m writing this blog because I can’t really sleep. I’m in a hotel room with Sebastian and he’s on Florida time so he’s wide-awake. Luckily, we don’t have to be at the track tomorrow until around 11am.…
Neil
From the Bay to the UK
Corby, England (September 5, 2011) - It has begun! Blog number one from the Cliff Dempsey Racing (CDR) headquarters here in Corby. Competing in England and parts of Europe this season has come with its fair share of ups and downs. After spending over five years karting and traveling with past Team USA Scholarship winner Joey Hand and his kart team, I decided to take the next step forward in my career and move on to cars. One thing led to another and I found myself relocating from the San Francisco Bay area in California to a small apartment in Northampton, England back in January, ready to begin winter testing with CDR.
Photo courtesy of Jeff Bloxham
As a rookie in this year's MSA Formula Ford (Duratec) Championship of Great Britain, not only did I need to learn the cars and circuits, but I needed to give myself a chance to settle into the European atmosphere. The first few months were a definite culture shock, but in a good way! I mean, my apartment is only about 12 miles from the Force India F1 Team, and both Red Bull Racing and Mercedes Grand Prix are close by, too. You won't find that in any other country, well not in California anyway. Now, here we are into September and I can easily say I have learned a lot about the motorsport business and the serious level of European competition. I have personally learned a lot about myself and a real world full of responsibilities.
At this point I'm entirely focused on making the most of my opportunity here in Europe as I continue to develop my career as a professional racing driver. This year has been a huge eye-opener for me and it's not over yet! In fact, it's only just begun.
There are only two rounds left to wrap up the 2011 Duratec championship before we get into the Formula Ford Festival and Walter Hayes Trophy territory with Team USA. I and the team have just returned from the Brands Hatch DTM meeting last night after a rough weekend. Unfortunately everyone has them, but it's important to keep things simple, learn from your mistakes, stay positive and move onto the next event. I just can't wait to hear some American accents when my fellow Team USA Scholarship teammates Spencer Pigot and Trent Hindman fly over in a few weeks' time!
It's an absolute privilege to be nominated for a second year in a row as a Team USA Scholarship candidate. But it's an even greater feeling to know that I have proved myself to be a Team USA Scholarship finalist for 2011. The fact that I did not win a Scholarship last year was my true motivation to work harder than ever to make it through the elimination process for this year's team. There's no doubt the Formula Ford Festival and Walter Hayes Trophy are two of the most prestigious Formula Ford events in the world, and they provide a great way to introduce young Americans like myself into what I consider to be one of the most competitive open-wheel classes. Between my up-and-coming experiences with the Team USA Scholarship boys and my current European racing season, I'm expecting to gain priceless knowledge that will surely stick with me for the rest of my career.
I am grateful for what this program has provided for new generation drivers like myself, and it's an honor to be part of such a great opportunity. Big thanks again to all the supporters of the Team USA Scholarship program for all their hard work and effort to make this happen every year!
Neil
