Silverstone, England \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Team USA Scholarship drivers Spencer Pigot and Felix Serralles have been kept busy over the past couple of weeks with a variety of tours and visits, but will return to the cockpit again this weekend when they contest the prestigious Walter Hayes Trophy at Silverstone.<\/p>\n
Although testing for the past two days at the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Home of the British Grand Prix\u00e2\u20ac\u009d has been punctuated by inclement weather and numerous red flags, both American teenagers feel they are well prepared for the weekend, which begins with qualifying tomorrow morning (Saturday).<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We had some initial problems but once we got them sorted we were on pace right away,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Pigot, 17, from Windermere, Fla., who will be driving the same Andrew Jones-owned, Cliff Dempsey Racing-prepped #22 Team USA Scholarship Ray GRS08 which has been taken to victory in the two most recent editions of the Walter Hayes Trophy by Conor Daly and Connor De Phillippi \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m feeling really confident for the weekend and looking forward to getting a better result than at Brands Hatch. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had some good wet track time here at Silverstone. I think we have a good setup for difficult conditions and we know the car works well in the dry, so I think we should be in good shape.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Serralles\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 identical #21 Ray has been completely rebuilt following its accident at Brands Hatch, and as with Pigot\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s car, has been close to the ultimate pace during testing.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to be a pretty amazing weekend,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Serralles, 18, from Haines City, Fla. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There are 120 cars signed up so we know it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to be really competitive. Compared to Brands Hatch, Silverstone has a very smooth surface and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a high-speed drafting track. We haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t gotten as much testing as did at Brands Hatch but I feel pretty comfortable. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just a matter of track conditions. We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t yet know what the weather is going to be like. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been wet today but they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re saying it might be dry for the heat race tomorrow. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not too worried. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m pretty comfortable in both conditions.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Since their test in one of Cliff Dempsey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Duratec-engined Ray Formula Ford car at Brands Hatch a couple of weeks ago, Pigot and Serralles have had little time to relax. Their packed itinerary has included a tour of the Jaguar XK road car production line at the Castle Vale factory near Birmingham and the Lola Cars race car manufucturing center in Huntingdon, plus visits to iSport International (which runs cars in the GP2 Series), Fortec Motorsport (Renault World Series, Formula 3 and Formula Renault), Status Grand Prix (GP3), Cosworth Racing (where they saw a Formula One engine in build for the Williams Grand Prix team) and the McLaren Technical Center, home of the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula One team.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The past couple of weeks have been amazing,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Serralles. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been around a lot of different companies. There have been many highlights and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve learned a lot, but my favorite one so far has been touring McLaren and seeing some of my hero Ayrton Senna\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cars. That was amazing.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been on a lot of tours during the break and all of them were really interesting,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d added Pigot. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Getting to see how a production road car is made and how a Formula One team operates were really great experiences. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve learned so much about all areas of the sport.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Silverstone, England \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Team USA Scholarship drivers Spencer Pigot and Felix Serralles have been kept busy over the past couple of weeks with a variety of tours and visits, but will return to the cockpit…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"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\/358"}],"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=358"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":359,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358\/revisions\/359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}