Oct 16, 2009
\nBrands Hatch, England \u00e2\u20ac\u201c After three days of testing on the short but demanding Brands Hatch Indy circuit, Team USA Scholarship drivers Connor De Phillippi and Brett Smrz are ready to see how they shape up against some tough European competition during this weekend\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 38th annual running of the Formula Ford (Kent) Festival.<\/p>\n
The two talented American teenagers will drive a pair of identical, patriotically liveried Ray GRS08 cars prepared by Ireland\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Cliff Dempsey Racing. Both youngsters are aiming to replicate the feat of Josef Newgarden, who last year became the first American ever to win a Formula Ford Festival final.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in the ballgame, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s put it that way,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said team owner Cliff Dempsey, coyly, after testing was concluded this afternoon. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153These two guys, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re just great \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a pleasure to deal with. I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be happier.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
While Dempsey was reluctant to talk about lap times, De Phillippi, 16, from San Clemente, Calif., and Smrz, 18, from Coeur d\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Alene, Idaho, were a little more forthcoming after turning laps in a variety of weather conditions.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I am running times fast enough to win the main event,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d declared Smrz. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It rained for the first session today, and Connor and I ended up being the two quickest drivers. We were both dead even on the lap times, and we had six-tenths of a second over the third-place driver.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Today was excellent,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d added De Phillippi. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It really couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have gone much better. We improved the car\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s handling and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s now extremely consistent. We had a chance to drive in the wet today, which was great. Brett and I pretty much smoked everyone in the rain, which was a bit surprising, because we know the Europeans have a lot of experience in the wet, but our cars felt really good.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Both young men are confident of being able to show well over the weekend. The pair have been separated by the draw in the two 15-lap heat races which will be held tomorrow afternoon, following a 20-minute morning qualifying session. The finishing positions from tomorrow\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s races will determine the starting positions for a pair of 18-lap Semi Final races on Sunday morning, from which the top 14 finishers in each will progress through to the 25-lap Final on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n
* Josef Newgarden also will be contesting the Formula Ford Festival \u00e2\u20ac\u201c in the Duratec class \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and is hoping to become the first driver ever to win both the Kent and Duratec categories. Newgarden finished second in the 2009 MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain with nine race wins to his name.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Oct 16, 2009 Brands Hatch, England \u00e2\u20ac\u201c After three days of testing on the short but demanding Brands Hatch Indy circuit, Team USA Scholarship drivers Connor De Phillippi and Brett Smrz are ready to see…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1236,"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\/1235"}],"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=1235"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1237,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235\/revisions\/1237"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}