{"id":3240,"date":"2015-10-31T17:20:14","date_gmt":"2015-10-31T17:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/?p=3240"},"modified":"2015-10-31T17:20:14","modified_gmt":"2015-10-31T17:20:14","slug":"second-and-fastest-race-lap-for-stephens-in-walter-hayes-trophy-heat-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/?p=3240","title":{"rendered":"Second and Fastest Race Lap for Stephens in Walter Hayes Trophy Heat Race"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>SILVERSTONE, England<\/strong> \u2013 The first day of the 15th annual Walter Hayes Trophy weekend proved successful for this year\u2019s 25th anniversary Team USA Scholarship winners Dakota Dickerson and Michai Stephens. Both American youngsters qualified comfortably for tomorrow\u2019s Semi Final round of competition which will whittle the field of over 110 Formula Ford entries down to just 36 for the afternoon\u2019s 15-lap Grand Final.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Dickerson, 18, from San Diego, started fourth for his Heat race, the fourth of six this afternoon, despite completing only half of his 10-minute morning qualifying session. He lost a couple of positions on the opening lap before knuckling down to an intense battle with four other rivals for third place behind runaway leaders Kevin O\u2019Hara and three-time Walter Hayes Trophy winner Peter Dempsey. Dickerson was running fifth on the final lap when 2014 BRSCC FF1600 champion and last weekend\u2019s Formula Ford Festival podium finisher Stuart Gough locked up under braking for Brooklands, clipping the rear of Dickerson\u2019s Ray GR15 and ending up in the gravel trap. Dickerson was fortunate to emerge without serious damage as he crossed the line in fourth place.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday started off a bit bumpy with a wet qualifying session taking place in the early morning,\u201d related Dickerson. \u201cI had gone off after a few laps, pushing too hard into Luffield, and was stuck in the gravel. Luckily, my fastest lap had put me into a decent fourth-place starting position for the Heat race. The track had dried up and it would be my first-ever session in the dry on this circuit. I fell back to sixth on the start, learning as I went along, and managed a P4 at the end of the race. It is not ideal for tomorrow\u2019s Semi but I\u2019m determined to get a good result.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>An excellent start to Heat Five elevated Stephens, 23, from Evanston, Ill., from fourth place to third by Copse Corner, whereupon a bold move on the outside of former Scottish FF1600 champion Graham Carroll took him to second at Beckett\u2019s. Carroll redressed the balance at Brooklands next time around before tucking in behind defending WHT winner and last week\u2019s Formula Ford Festival Champion Wayne Boyd. The threesome rapidly pulled away from their pursuers and waged a race-long battle, which was only resolved on the last lap when a missed gear saw Carroll slip from first to third. Stephens crossed the line merely 0.082 seconds behind Boyd and posted not only the fastest lap of the race, 1m02.444s, but the second fastest lap of the weekend thus far.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a very special day,\u201d noted Stephens. \u201cIt was my father\u2019s 50th birthday \u2013 Happy Birthday, Dad! I shot into third at the start and managed to slide into second at Maggott\u2019s (Turn Two). The three of us had a great race, and sitting on the gearbox of first place as we crossed the line brought a sense of comfort and a warm feeling to my heart…. That was for everyone who has brought me this far! I’ll look to retain this frame of mind and see what tomorrow will bring.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s Semi Finals will begin at 1:10 p.m., with live timing at http:\/\/www.mstworld.com\/motorsport\/livetiming<\/a>.<\/p>\n

About Team USA Scholarship<\/strong>:
\nThe program has been providing opportunities for talented American race car drivers at an early stage in their careers since 1990. Supporters include Doug Mockett & Company, the Road Racing Drivers Club and SAFEisFAST.com<\/a>, Cooper Tire & Rubber Company, Team Penske, Mazda, Chip Ganassi Racing, Basecamp.com, Afterburner Autosport, Honda Performance Development, Robertson Racing, Masters HGP, Allen Berg Racing Schools, CXC Simulations, Auto Club Speedway, Ellis Clowes North America, PitFit Training, RaceCraft1, Sparco USA, RACER<\/em><\/a> Magazine, Speedstar Management, Styled Aesthetic and Manifest Group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SILVERSTONE, England \u2013 The first day of the 15th annual Walter Hayes Trophy weekend proved successful for this year\u2019s 25th anniversary Team USA Scholarship winners Dakota Dickerson and Michai Stephens. Both American youngsters qualified comfortably…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3242,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3240"}],"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=3240"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3245,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3240\/revisions\/3245"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}