Elkhart Lake, Wis. \u00e2\u20ac\u201c The Team USA Scholarship enters its third decade of providing opportunities for talented young American race car drivers with today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nominations for the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Class of 2010\u00e2\u20ac\u009d who will vie for a pair of scholarships to contest the traditional end-of-season Formula Ford events in England in October and November. Check out Bob Varsha on The SPEED Report (August 22).<\/p>\n
In 2008, Team USA driver Josef Newgarden became the first American ever to win the prestigious Formula Ford Festival (Kent division) at Brands Hatch, while Conor Daly became the youngest winner of the Walter Hayes Trophy at Silverstone. Last year Brett Smrz finished a sensational third at Brands Hatch, despite starting 27th, and Connor De Phillippi mirrored Daly\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s success from the previous year, besting over 100 other drivers to win the Walter Hayes Trophy.<\/p>\n
All of the 2010 candidates enjoyed success in the karting ranks before moving into cars within the past two years. The 2010 nominees are:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 Neil Alberico, 17, from Los Gatos, Calif. \u00e2\u20ac\u201c winner of the 2009-2010 Bondurant Championship Race Series
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 Ashley Freiberg, 18, from Homer Glen, Ill. \u00e2\u20ac\u201c earlier this year became the first female ever to win a Skip Barber Racing Series title, clinching the Southern Regional crown, and the first to win a round of the Skip Barber National
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 Patrick Gallagher, 17, from Thornville, Ohio \u00e2\u20ac\u201c standout in SCCA Formula 5 and Formula E competition
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 Miles Maroney, 16, from Topanga Canyon, Calif. \u00e2\u20ac\u201c currently second and top rookie in the Pacific F2000 Series
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 Arie Ouimet, 19, from Plymouth, Mass. \u00e2\u20ac\u201c currently second in the VW Jetta TDI Cup with two podium finishes
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 Spencer Pigot, 16, from Windermere, Fla. \u00e2\u20ac\u201c MAZDASPEED Development Driver, current leader of the BFGoodrich Skip Barber National Presented by Mazda Series with two wins, nine podium finishes and four poles from 10 races
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 Jonathan Scarallo, 18, from Hauppauge, N.Y. \u00e2\u20ac\u201c recently claimed his first win in the F2000 Championship Series
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 Felix Serralles, 17, from Haines City, Fla. \u00e2\u20ac\u201c MAZDASPEED Development Driver, currently third in the Skip Barber National Series point standings<\/p>\n
For the first time, the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving, based at Firebird Raceway in Chandler, Ariz., will host a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153shoot-out\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to determine which two young Americans will follow in the footsteps of an accomplished list of former Team USA Scholarship including Jimmy Vasser (the first winner in 1990), Bryan Herta, Buddy Rice, Memo Gidley, Paul Edwards, Andy Lally, Joey Hand, Bryan Sellers, A.J. Allmendinger and J.R. Hildebrand.<\/p>\n
Bondurant, who shared the GT class-winning Shelby Cobra with Dan Gurney at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1964 and contested nine Formula One World Championship races, including a best result of fourth in the 1966 Monaco Grand Prix, founded the school in California in 1968. It has been based in Arizona since 1989, and this year hosted a 12-race open-wheel championship for the first time, offering an array of prizes and opportunities for the inaugural champion.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153As the new kid on the block, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important to expose our race series to as many talented young drivers as possible,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said accomplished kart racer Alan Rudolph, Director of the Bondurant Championship Race Series. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re excited to support and host the Team USA Scholarship, both to showcase our championship and to give back to the sport that Bob and I love so much.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
The Team USA Scholarship is supported by Doug Mockett & Company, Road Racing Drivers Club, Cooper Tire & Rubber Company, Walldinger Racing, Robo-Pong, Highcroft Racing, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Road to Indy,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d American Honda, Silicon Salvage, McMurry Inc., Dyson Racing, Metalore, The Gorsline Company, Integrated Performance Technology, Robertson Racing, PitFit Training, Sparco USA, Cruden America, Buttonwillow Raceway Park, iRacing.com, OnCars.com, eFormulaCarNews.com, Speedstar Management, Manifest Group and several former scholarship winners.<\/p>\n
Check out Bob Varsha’s report on The SPEED Report which aired August 22.<\/p>\n
Photo: top row, l. to r.: Bryan Sellers, Duncan Dayton, Jonathan Scarallo, Felix Serralles, Patrick Gallagher, John Doonan, Connor De Phillippi; bottom row: Ashley Freiberg, Spencer Pigot, Arie Ouimet. Not pictured: Neil Alberico and Miles Maroney. Photo courtesy of Eric McCombs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Elkhart Lake, Wis. \u00e2\u20ac\u201c The Team USA Scholarship enters its third decade of providing opportunities for talented young American race car drivers with today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nominations for the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Class of 2010\u00e2\u20ac\u009d who will vie for a…<\/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\/376"}],"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=376"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":377,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376\/revisions\/377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}