Nov 13, 2005
\nWest Kingsdown, Kent, England \u00e2\u20ac\u201c\u00e2\u20ac\u201c One third-place finish and a pair of fourths today at Brands Hatch \u00e2\u20ac\u201c highlighted by a handful of sensational around-the-outside passes at the daunting Paddock Hill Bend \u00e2\u20ac\u201c was enough to secure a tie for third place in the final Formula Palmer Audi Autumn Trophy standings for 2005 Team USA Scholarship winner J.R. Hildebrand.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Overall, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m quite satisfied with how everything has gone,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said the 17-year-old from Sausalito, Calif. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been able to race on two great tracks \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Snetterton and Brands Hatch \u00e2\u20ac\u201c while racing against rather stiff competition. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had a great experience and learned a tremendous amount.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Hildebrand started each of today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s three races from the third row of the grid and lost no time in working his way toward the front. He actually lost a position off the starting line in Race One to Stuart Prior, but reclaimed the place in spectacular style by diving around the outside at Paddock Hill Bend \u00e2\u20ac\u201c an off-camber, dipping right-hand turn taken in fourth gear at around 95mph. Hildebrand repeated the move on South African Chris Hyman before putting the pressure on Greek driver Andy Demetriou, who staunchly defended his third place until the checkered flag.<\/p>\n
Race Two saw Hildebrand start from sixth after crashing yesterday in qualifying, but once again he stunned onlookers by repeating his outside-line passes on Hyman and Prior \u00e2\u20ac\u201c on consecutive laps \u00e2\u20ac\u201c at Paddock Hill Bend.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153That was seriously impressive,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said a spectating Jonathan Palmer, who won championships in both Formula 3 and Formula 2 in the 1980s before racing competitively in Formula 1 for the Williams team. (Palmer went on to establish a similarly successful business career which includes founding Formula Palmer Audi in 1998.) \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Did no one tell him he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not supposed to be able to make that move look so easy?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Hildebrand again closed quickly on Demetriou, whereupon the pair exchanged positions twice before the Greek
\ntangled with a slower car at the Druid\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hairpin, allowing Hildebrand through into third place behind pacesetters Josh Weber, from England, and Iceland\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Viktor Jensen.<\/p>\n
Race Three was rather more straightforward. After starting fifth, he made a couple of early passes but by then his over-worked tires were past their best and he was unable to hold off a charging Demetriou, who pulled off a gutsy inside-line move at Paddock.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I was really struggling with the car by then,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d related Hildebrand. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We only had one set for the weekend and I suppose I overused them while I was learning the race track yesterday morning.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Of course, I would\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve liked to bring home another podium, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m very pleased with finishing third in the championship. I came to the series not knowing what to expect from cars, tracks and competition that I had never seen, and have come away with a wealth of knowledge for the future. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t thank all of those who have helped make this possible enough; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been an amazing experience.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
The Team USA Scholarship, now in its 16th year, has received support this year from Mockett.com, a Torrance, Calif.-based producer and supplier of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Fine Architectural Hardware For Your Fine Furniture,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Sparco USA, RACER magazine, Mi-Jack Conquest Racing, Dale Coyne Racing, Jim Russell Racing Schools and former Scholarship winners Jimmy Vasser (1990), Bryan Herta (1991), Tony Ave (1992), Memo Gidley (1995), Buddy Rice (1997), Paul Edwards (1998\/\u00e2\u20ac\u212299), Andy Lally (1999), Joey Hand (2000), A.J Allmendinger and Bryan Sellers (2001).<\/p>\n
Today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s results from Brands Hatch:<\/p>\n
Race One: 1. Josh Weber (GB), 20m50.236s (88.32mph), 2. Viktor Jensen (ISL); 3. Andy Demetriou (GR); 4. J.R. Hildebrand (USA); 5. Chris Hyman (ZA); 6. Stuart Prior (GB); etc. Fastest lap: Weber, 44.690s, 98.77mph.<\/p>\n
Race Two: 1. Weber, 21m32.840s (85.41mph); 2. Jensen; 3. Hildebrand; 4. Hyman; 5. Paul Warren (GB); 6. Mark Powell (GB); etc. Fastest lap: Jensen, 44.819s, 98.49mph.<\/p>\n
Race Three: 1. Jensen, 20m30.463s (89.74mph); 2. Weber; 3. Demetriou; 4. Hildebrand; 5. Joshua Southall (GB); 6. Hyman; etc. Fastest lap: Weber, 44.987s, 98.12mph.<\/p>\n
Final championship positions: 1. Weber, 116 points; 2. Demetriou, 96; 3. Hildebrand & Jensen, 90; 5. Hyman, 86; 6. Tom Haines, 66; etc.<\/p>\n
Photo courtesy of James Bearne Photography <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nov 13, 2005 West Kingsdown, Kent, England \u00e2\u20ac\u201c\u00e2\u20ac\u201c One third-place finish and a pair of fourths today at Brands Hatch \u00e2\u20ac\u201c highlighted by a handful of sensational around-the-outside passes at the daunting Paddock Hill Bend…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1432,"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\/1431"}],"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=1431"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1437,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1431\/revisions\/1437"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}