{"id":4737,"date":"2018-11-20T20:10:51","date_gmt":"2018-11-20T20:10:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/?p=4737"},"modified":"2018-11-20T20:10:51","modified_gmt":"2018-11-20T20:10:51","slug":"colin-mullan-ready-for-the-next-step","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/?p=4737","title":{"rendered":"Colin Mullan: Ready for the Next Step"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

The Thermal Club is much more than just a race track!<\/p><\/div>\n

THERMAL, Calif.<\/strong> \u2013 After returning home from the UK, I was keen to start to figure out my plan for the 2019 season. It wasn\u2019t long before I was back behind the wheel, this time shaking down the L.A. Honda World Racing Civic TCR at The Thermal Club in Southern California.<\/p>\n

When we arrived at the club, it was clear that this wasn\u2019t just a normal track, it\u2019s a motorsport oasis. The track is lined with private villas, each one with balconies overhanging parts of the track. Everything from GT4 cars, Radicals and Ariel Nomads were in the Motorsports Village. One of the owners of L.A. Honda World is a member of the club, so we were able to have access to a normal track day.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Not much runoff but the Honda was a ton of fun<\/p><\/div>\n

We ran the North Palm and Desert configuration, which is a technical, 2.7-mile-long circuit. Doing some recon laps showed that there isn\u2019t any true runoff area, so I would have to be careful on track. Any small mistake could be costly.<\/p>\n

I took the first session easy on a set of old Yokohama tires that came on the car just to get used to everything. I quickly found that the rear tires needed a bit longer to get up to temperature than I\u2019m used to. After getting the basics down, we threw on a new set of Michelin tires to see how the car would react. I went about 3-4 seconds faster compared to the other set.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The business area of the sophisticated Civic TCR.<\/p><\/div>\n

I can best describe the Civic as a combination of the MINI I drove this year with a modern formula car. It has the same paddle-shift transmission that\u2019s found in an Indy car, full Motec data and plenty of aero grip. The suspension is very stiff, so it doesn\u2019t feel like a street car.<\/p>\n

Over the course of the test day, we got lots of data about the car and learned more about what to expect for future times on the track. I had a really great time at Thermal and hope to be back behind the wheel of a TCR in the near future!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The MRTI Shootout will be another huge opportunity.<\/p><\/div>\n

My next adventure will be the Mazda Road to Indy USF2000 $200K Scholarship Shootout in just a few weeks\u2019 time. I\u2019m really looking forward to having the opportunity to progress my open-wheel career further in the United States. To be honest I didn\u2019t think I would be able to race formula cars at a national level but the Team USA Scholarship and MRTI Shootout have provided me with an opportunity that I didn\u2019t have before! Being able to compete with over 20 drivers across the globe is going to be really special. There\u2019s a lot at stake, too, with the winner gaining a $200,000 scholarship prize to move onto the first step on the Mazda Road to Indy, the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship, for 2019.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s still a lot of uncertainty for what I\u2019ll be doing next year. But whether it\u2019s to stay in sports car racing or go to open-wheel, I\u2019m very excited about what the future holds!<\/p>\n

Colin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THERMAL, Calif. \u2013 After returning home from the UK, I was keen to start to figure out my plan for the 2019 season. It wasn\u2019t long before I was back behind the wheel, this time…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4748,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39,7,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4737"}],"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=4737"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4752,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4737\/revisions\/4752"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}