Nov 12, 1999
\nAttleborough, England — The 1999 Formula Palmer Audi Winter Series begins with a pair of 15-lap races on Sunday at Snetterton, England, and three young American drivers are among the leading contenders for victory.
\nPaul Edwards, 21, from Santa Maria, Calif., set the fastest times in each session today as the 22 protagonists took part in a final day of testing on the former airfield circuit some 100 miles northeast of London.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I feel good because I actually engineered my own car today,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Edwards, who has raced in Europe the past four years and finished a strong third in this season\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s EFDA Formula 2000 Euroseries against some extremely tough competition. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I learned so much from my race engineer in the EFDA series, Sean Thompson, and I was able to put that knowledge to good use. The car is still understeering a little, but we improved it throughout the day and we were quickest in every session.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m really looking forward to the races on Sunday,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d continued Edwards, who posted a fastest time of 1m04.41s. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always nice to \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcwin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 testing, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the races that count.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Team USA Scholarship teammates Jeff Simmons and Andy Lally also impressed today, despite having never seen the circuit before. Simmons, 23, from Granby, Conn., was sixth fastest at 1m05.85s and Lally, 24, from Northport, N.Y., was eighth at 1m06.30s.<\/p>\n
Both drivers were obliged to miss the crucial final portion of the last session in order to complete paperwork for the appropriate licenses that will enable them to participate in the first \u00e2\u20ac\u0153overseas\u00e2\u20ac\u009d races of their careers. Nevertheless, they were pleased with progress.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I was looking forward to trying a couple of different setup changes, but I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get the chance to do that,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Simmons. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153My car had a little too much understeer entering the quick corners and then some oversteer in mid-corner, and in the slow corners I had a pretty good understeer; but I think I have a pretty idea of what to do when we get into qualifying.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Added Lally: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been a bit of a struggle, especially getting used to the horsepower, but these cars are really fun to drive. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m having a blast and learning a lot. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m so grateful for the opportunity.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The other thing is, the cars look sensational in the red, white and blue color scheme,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Lally. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I tell you, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the most beautiful thing I have ever set my eyes on. It makes you so proud just to look at the cars.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
The bold design of the three identical Formula Palmer Audi challengers (which comprise \u00e2\u20ac\u0153spec\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Van Diemen chassis and turbocharged Audi motors producing around 240 horsepower) was finalized by accomplished graphic artist\/marketing guru David Aronson. The cars feature a patriotic red, white and blue color scheme with sponsorship from Valvoline, CART, Tasman Motorsports, Audi, PacWest Racing, Mercedes-Benz USA, Road Racing Drivers Club, Klein Tools, Skip Barber Racing School, No Fear and Mitel Semiconductor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nov 12, 1999 Attleborough, England — The 1999 Formula Palmer Audi Winter Series begins with a pair of 15-lap races on Sunday at Snetterton, England, and three young American drivers are among the leading contenders…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1579,"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\/1578"}],"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=1578"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1580,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1578\/revisions\/1580"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}