Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif. \u00e2\u20ac\u201c The selection process for this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Team USA Scholarship program is well under way. More than a dozen young American drivers have been nominated, hailing from a multitude of racing backgrounds, and this weekend will meet with an illustrious panel of auto racing experts during the IZOD IndyCar Series\/American Le Mans Series Presented by Tequila Patron double-header at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.<\/p>\n
The candidates will vie for opportunities to contest two prestigious events in England \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch and the Walter Hayes Trophy at Silverstone \u00e2\u20ac\u201c in October and November. All will be looking to follow in the footsteps of an accomplished list of former winners that includes Jimmy Vasser, who won the first Team USA Scholarship in 1990, Bryan Herta, Buddy Rice, A.J. Allmendinger, Joey Hand, Andy Lally, Bryan Sellers, Charlie Kimball, J.R. Hildebrand, Conor Daly and Josef Newgarden<\/p>\n
This year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s contenders are:
\nNeil Alberico, 18, Los Gatos, Calif. \u00e2\u20ac\u201c MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain
\nScott Anderson, 22, Fort Collins, Colo. \u00e2\u20ac\u201c BFGoodrich\/Skip Barber National Presented by Mazda series leader
\nSam Beasley, 17, Cleveland, Ohio \u00e2\u20ac\u201c F1600 Championship Series\/SCCA Formula E
\nKyle Connery, 20, Vero Beach, Fla. \u00e2\u20ac\u201c F2000 Championship Series (four wins and top rookie)
\nWyatt Gooden, 22, Gates Mills, Ohio \u00e2\u20ac\u201c F1600 Championship Series (double victory at Mid-Ohio)
\nTrent Hindman, 15, Wayside, N.J. \u00e2\u20ac\u201c BFGoodrich\/Skip Barber National Presented by Mazda\/Ontario Formula Ford 1600
\nMichael Johnson, 18, Flint, Mich. \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Skip Barber Summer Series points leader
\nBrandon Newey, 18, Indianapolis, Ind. \u00e2\u20ac\u201c BFGoodrich\/Skip Barber National Presented by Mazda (2 wins)
\nAustin Newmark, 16, Mesa, Ariz. \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Bondurant Championship Race Series champion (12 wins)
\nSebastian Ordonez, 16, Deerfield Beach, Fla. \u00e2\u20ac\u201c BFGoodrich\/Skip Barber National Presented by Mazda
\nSpencer Pigot, 17, Windermere, Fla. \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Cooper Tires USF2000 National Championship Powered by Mazda (1 win)
\nColin Thompson, 17, Perkasie, Pa. \u00e2\u20ac\u201c F1600 Championship Series
\nDennis Trebing, 19, Cape Coral, Fla. \u00e2\u20ac\u201c European Volkswagen Scirocco R-Cup
\nZach Veach, 16, Stockdale, Ohio \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Cooper Tires USF2000 National Championship Powered by Mazda (1 win)<\/p>\n
The adjudicating panel is scheduled to include past scholarship winners Vasser, Hand, Sellers and Hildebrand, plus ALMS drivers Jon Bennett, Darren Law, Patrick Long and Chris McMurry, IZOD IndyCar Series President Randy Bernard, American Le Mans Series President Scott Atherton and Mazda Motorsports Director John Doonan.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There is a tremendous depth of talent at the grassroots of American auto racing these days and I am delighted to be able to offer these gifted youngsters an opportunity to develop their skills,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Team USA Scholarship founder Jeremy Shaw. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I am so grateful to all the industry insiders who make this program possible and especially to those who are giving up their time this weekend to meet with the latest crop of candidates.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
The Team USA Scholarship has been helping young American drivers since 1990 and is supported by Doug Mockett & Company, Road Racing Drivers Club, Cooper Tire & Rubber Company, Walldinger Racing, Robo-Pong, INDYCAR\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Mazda Road to Indy, Mazda, Bondurant School of High Performance Driving, Honda Performance Development, NameSilo, Silicon Salvage, McMurry Inc., Robertson Racing, PitFit Training, Sparco USA, eFormulaCarNews.com, Speedstar Management, Styled Aesthetic and Manifest Group as well as numerous past Scholarship winners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif. \u00e2\u20ac\u201c The selection process for this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Team USA Scholarship program is well under way. More than a dozen young American drivers have been nominated, hailing from a multitude of racing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":54,"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\/321"}],"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=321"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":322,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321\/revisions\/322"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/54"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}