Nov 3, 1996 (Melanie Cannon, Cotter Communications)
\nDonington, England \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Valvoline Team USA challenged back from adversity to capture the silver medal in Nations Cup VII at Donington Park circuit today.
\nThe second-place finish is the highest ever for an American team in the Nations Cup.<\/p>\n
Jerry Nadeau, a Danbury, Conn., native proved his driving talent as he passed 12 cars during the 20-lap race to finish in eighth place, which, combined with teammate Tony Renna\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s strong fourth-place finish, moved the U.S. team from fifth place to second overall.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve always been known to come from the back of the field,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Nadeau, who started 20th after bad luck in the first of two races that make up the Nations Cup. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We had a flat tire after an accident on the first lap of the first race, so I had to work hard to prove how strong this American team is.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Renna, from Deland, Fla., started and finished fourth in his John Village Automotive-prepped Formula Opel.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Jerry drove an awesome race,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Renna. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153His job was to pass as many cars as possible. My job was to be consistent, and everything got better and better as the race went on.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
The U.S. team was classified behind the two-car team of Germany. Other teams competing included Brazil, Great Britain, Portugal and Russia.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This was an incredibly exciting race,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Dan Partel, managing director of the European Formula Drivers Association (EFDA), the coordinators of the Nations Cup. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There were many lead changes, come-from-behind finishes and everything else you can imagine.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This just proves that you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ever count out the Americans,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Nadeau. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153When you have two drivers who are willing to work hard, you can accomplish anything. This is a great tribute to our team and the support we have from the U.S.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
The Team USA Scholarship is made possible by support from Valvoline, IndyCar, Tasman Motorsports Group, Klein Tools, LCI International, Miller Genuine Draft, Bridgestone-Firestone, PacWest Racing Group, Motorola, Flamecrusher, Car & Driver, RACER and TrueChoice.<\/p>\n
Photo: EFDA chief Dan Partel (right) looks on proudly as fellow Americans Renna and Nadeau wear their silver medals <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nov 3, 1996 (Melanie Cannon, Cotter Communications) Donington, England \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Valvoline Team USA challenged back from adversity to capture the silver medal in Nations Cup VII at Donington Park circuit today. The second-place finish is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1631,"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\/1630"}],"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=1630"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1632,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1630\/revisions\/1632"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}