Nov 3, 2007
\nSnetterton, England \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Three intensely competitive qualifying sessions today at Snetterton saw Team USA Scholarship pair Patrick Barrett and Joel Miller regularly within a few tenths of the front-runners in cool, dry conditions but struggling to make it into the top 10.<\/p>\n
After languishing more than a second shy of the top contenders during Friday testing, the gifted Americans today made great strides. Indeed, Barrett and Miller topped the time sheets during this morning\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s practice session, held in damp conditions. Their positions were not fully representative, since many of the more experienced runners opted not to turn laps on their solitary set of fresh tires which have to last the entire weekend. It was nevertheless a productive session.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153That was a good confidence-booster,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d noted Barrett. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do many laps because we wanted to save our tires but we wanted to try a few things.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Both teenagers put the additional knowledge to good use as Barrett qualified just 0.288s adrift of Briton Jack Clarke\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pole-winning time of 1m04.497s during qualifying for Race One. The bad news was that he had to be content with 10th place on the starting grid \u00e2\u20ac\u201c directly behind regular season Formula Palmer Audi champion Tim Bridgman.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153How can I be three-tenths off and be tenth [on the grid]?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d asked an incredulous Barrett. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I saw the time on my dash and I thought this has to be top-five because I drove the wheels off the car and it felt really good.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Miller echoed Barrett\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sentiments, turning a best lap of 1m05.016s to secure a position on row seven of the grid.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I was P5 early on,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153When the sun came out [briefly], that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s when everyone else did their fastest laps and I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get a clear run. I picked up over a second from yesterday. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d say a half-second came from the [fresh] tires and a half-second from me.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Brands Hatch double winner Richard Keen took the pole for Race Two at 1m04.813s. Barrett was ninth fastest at 1m05.183s (ahead of Bridgman this time), with Miller 12th at 1m05.309s. Miller, however, rued the fact he was held up badly by Nick Tandy on his final flying lap as the data suggested he could have been among the top five.<\/p>\n
Tom Bradshaw became the day\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s third different pole-winner with 1m04.707s in the final session. Neither American found a clear lap and had to make do with 12th (Barrett) and 13th (Miller) on the grid.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This session was a bit disappointing but overall it was a good day,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d concluded Barrett. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think I made a lot of progress, just learning more about the car.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The car felt good,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d added Miller. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Unfortunately, I pushed a bit too hard at Coram and went off the road. By the time I came into the pits and then got back out, the session was over. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got a lot of work to do in the races but I showed this year in Skip Barber that I can come from the back, and there are passing places here….\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Incidentally, as an indication of the competitiveness of this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s field, Luciano Bacheta (who was sixth fastest in today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first session at 1m04.697s, after a whole year of FPA experience), took pole for the first Autumn Trophy race in 2006 with a time of 1m05.578s. American Dane Cameron claimed pole for Race Two in \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc06 at 1m05.544s. Furthermore, six different drivers today earned front row starting positions for Sunday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s three races: Clarke, Will Bratt, Keen, Legris, Bradshaw and Tandy.<\/p>\n
Team USA Scholarship supporters include Doug Mockett & Company, Champ Car World Series, American Honda, Snap-on Stars of Karting, Silicon Salvage, Dyson Racing, Integrated Performance Technology, Pacific Coast Motorsports, Andersen Racing Team, PitFit Training, iRacing.com, AutoRacing1.com, Metalore, Sparco USA, Cooper Tire, Cosworth USA, Champ Car Atlantic, Star Mazda, Buttonwillow Raceway, RACER magazine, FormulaCar Magazine, Pfanner Communications, Speedstar Management, Manifest Group, The Print Network and an array of past Scholarship winners.<\/p>\n
Photo: Patrick Barrett negotiates the Snetterton Esses (Photo: Jeremy Shaw) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nov 3, 2007 Snetterton, England \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Three intensely competitive qualifying sessions today at Snetterton saw Team USA Scholarship pair Patrick Barrett and Joel Miller regularly within a few tenths of the front-runners in cool, dry…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1312,"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\/1311"}],"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=1311"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1313,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311\/revisions\/1313"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}