Jan 28, 2002
\nPalmerston North, New Zealand — Team USA Scholarship winners A.J. Allmendinger and Bryan Sellers continued their excellent form Down Under by posting some impressive lap times during a test over the weekend at Manfeild Autocourse in the township of Feilding, near Palmerston North, on New Zealand\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s North Island.
\nThe one-day session gave the two young Americans an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the fast, flowing, technically demanding, 1.88-mile track in preparation for this weekend\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s final round of the Talley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s New Zealand International Formula Ford Championship. Sellers currently holds a commanding lead in the title chase after six of the eight races.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I had a good day,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Sellers, after posting a lap time of 1:12.8, which according to observers, was very close to the existing Formula Ford lap record. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see going much quicker there really; I think it was a pretty good lap.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a neat place,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d continued the 19-year-old from Centerville, Ohio, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153and different to anything I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever driven on before. There are a lot of looping corners — kind of like a bunch of ovals attached, all going in different directions. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s intimidating, and really gives you something to work at.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Allmendinger was not far behind, turning a lap at 1:13.2 in his similar red-white-and-blue Van Diemen, while local driver Brady Kennett, who won one of the races last weekend at Pukekohe, posted a 1:13.5.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Today went OK,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Allmendinger. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just not real comfortable in the car. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t trust it in the middle of the corners, so that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hurting me. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s frustrating, especially with how well Bryan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s doing. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s really doing a great job and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to get up there with him.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
The weekend off between races at Pukekohe and Manfeild also has allowed the two young Americans an opportunity to build upon the friendships they have made during their extended visit to New Zealand. Prior to the Manfeild test, they stayed in Auckland with the family of Nick Ross, who won the second event at Pukekohe, and then were due to stay with Brady Kennett prior to next weekend\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pair of races.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one of the things that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been so enjoyable about this trip,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Allmendinger. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We race hard on the track but we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve met some great people. All in all, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been a great experience.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jan 28, 2002 Palmerston North, New Zealand — Team USA Scholarship winners A.J. Allmendinger and Bryan Sellers continued their excellent form Down Under by posting some impressive lap times during a test over the weekend…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1533,"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\/1532"}],"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=1532"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1534,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532\/revisions\/1534"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}