Oct 31, 2009
\nSilverstone, England \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Brett Smrz took a clear victory in his Heat race for the Walter Hayes Trophy this afternoon on the Silverstone National circuit. Team USA Scholarship teammate Connor De Phillippi had to make do with a close second-place finish following his fraught eight-lap encounter.<\/p>\n
The two Americans qualified comfortably for tomorrow\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Semi Final round which will comprise a pair of 12-lap races to determine the starting positions for the all-important 15-lap Final on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Smrz was unchallenged in the fourth of today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s six Heat races. He qualified impressively on the pole in wet conditions and made a fine start in the #21 Team USA Scholarship\/Cliff Dempsey Racing Ray GRS08. Smrz was helped when Cliff Dempsey Racing teammate Cormac O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Neill spun at Brooklands on the first lap, collecting Dempsey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nephew, Morgan Dempsey, and eventually took the checkered flag 4.298 seconds clear of Jordan Skinner\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s similar Ray GRS08.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I was wondering what happened when I came onto the front straight because I had quite a big lead,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d related 18-year-old Smrz, from Coeur d\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Alene, Idaho. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Next time through the Complex, I saw Morgan Dempsey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s car in the gravel trap so I figured they must all have taken each other out. After that I took it easy and made sure I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make a mistake.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m happy,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he continued. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s good to be up at the front for the Heat race. It puts us up front for the Semi Final. Now I just have to be smart in the Semi Final so I can start up front in the Main.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
De Phillippi had an altogether tougher road to the Semi Final. He, too, reveled in the morning\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wet conditions to qualify on pole, narrowly ahead of Formula Ford Festival winner Rory Butcher. His Scottish rival appeared to jump the start and was level with De Phillippi as they crossed the timing line, despite a staggered grid, but somehow escaped a penalty. The pair then embarked on the most thrilling race of the afternoon, swapping positions on a regular basis before Butcher took the flag a scant 0.283 seconds ahead.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Extremely fun,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was how De Phillippi described his race. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It was really similar to the Skip Barber races in terms of the drafting. It was a good performance overall.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, the 16-year-old from San Clemente, Calif., admitted to some frustration at the straight-line speed differential between the top two cars.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153He just drove right around me [on the straightaways],\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It was ridiculous.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
The discrepancy was readily apparent from trackside, especially under acceleration out of the Complex and onto the front straightaway, although to his credit, De Phillippi wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t looking for excuses.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We gotta keep working on [the car] to make it quicker,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sitting around complaining isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t going to fix it. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll have a look over the data, go to the Semi Final race and see how it goes.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
2008 Team USA Scholarship winner Josef Newgarden hit trouble during his Heat race, finishing 15th after a spin while challenging Tom Bradshaw for the lead. The incident was caused by a balky gearshift and braking difficulties on Newgarden\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s National College for Motorsport Van Diemen RF92. He will have one more opportunity to qualify for one of the Semi Finals via the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Last Chance\u00e2\u20ac\u009d race tomorrow morning.<\/p>\n
Fellow American Doug Prendeville, from Whippany. N.J., enjoyed his first race in a year, finishing fifth in the same race. Prendeville displayed his intentions by posting the third fastest lap, within a few tenths of Newgarden\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s best.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Oct 31, 2009 Silverstone, England \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Brett Smrz took a clear victory in his Heat race for the Walter Hayes Trophy this afternoon on the Silverstone National circuit. Team USA Scholarship teammate Connor De Phillippi…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1216,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1215"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1215"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1217,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1215\/revisions\/1217"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}