Jun 25, 2007 (photo: ChampCarAtlantic.com)
\nCleveland, Ohio \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Team USA Scholarship alumni continued to display their skills this weekend by earning podium appearances in a variety of races and championships.<\/p>\n
Jimmy Vasser, who was awarded the first Team USA Scholarship in 1990, claimed a third-place finish as a team owner in Sunday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s thrilling Grand Prix of Cleveland Presented by LaSalle Bank when Swiss rookie Neel Jani netted a career-best result aboard the #21 PKV Racing\/Red Bull DP01.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the day, 2005 Team USA Scholarship winner J.R. Hildebrand finished a very close second to series points leader Raphael Matos in the Cooper Tires Presents the Champ Car Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda race on the same Burke Lakefront Airport temporary circuit. The result ensured Hildebrand\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first podium appearance at the wheel of Paul Newman and Eddie Wachs\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 #36 Newman-Wachs Racing Swift 016.a and moved the 19-year-old Sausalito, Calif., native to sixth in the championship point standings after six races.<\/p>\n
Also at Cleveland, 2006 Team USA Scholarship winner Dane Cameron claimed another second-place finish in the Star Mazda Championship Presented by Goodyear race. Cameron had qualified on the pole in the JDC Motorsports team\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s #19 Finlay Motorsports car and led most of the 29-lap race before being jumped on a late restart by fellow American Jonathan Goring.<\/p>\n
Cameron extended his championship lead to 26 points over Goring after six of 12 races.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, 60 miles or so to the southwest, 1999 Team USA Scholarship winner Andy Lally continued his recent run off success by taking his third Rolex GT series victory in the last four races, sharing the #66 TRG CRG\/Maxter Porsche 911 GT3 with veteran driver R.J. Valentine.<\/p>\n
1997 Team USA Scholarship winner Paul Edwards set the fastest lap of the Rolex GT series race en route to a third-place finish with Kelly Collins in the #07 Banner Racing\/Banner Engineering Pontiac GXP.R.<\/p>\n
Edwards and Collins are now in a three-way tie for the series points lead with German Porsche pilot Dirk Werner. Lally has closed to within seven points of the championship lead.<\/p>\n
Team USA Scholarship drivers also enjoyed strong runs in the Iowa Corn 250 Indy Racing League event at the new Iowa Speedway on Sunday. Buddy Rice, who claimed a scholarship in 1997, finished a season-best fourth for the Dreyer & Reinbold team, while 1999 alumnus Jeff Simmons qualified his Rahal Letterman Racing\/Team Ethanol car a career-best sixth and was running among the lead pack until he was eliminated in a crash when Tony Kanaan spun directly in front of him. <\/p>\n
Photo by Anthony Kent, USA LAT Photographic, copyright Champ Car World <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jun 25, 2007 (photo: ChampCarAtlantic.com) Cleveland, Ohio \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Team USA Scholarship alumni continued to display their skills this weekend by earning podium appearances in a variety of races and championships. Jimmy Vasser, who was awarded…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1358,"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\/1357"}],"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=1357"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1359,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1357\/revisions\/1359"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}