{"id":6214,"date":"2022-06-03T15:31:55","date_gmt":"2022-06-03T15:31:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/?p=6214"},"modified":"2022-06-03T15:31:55","modified_gmt":"2022-06-03T15:31:55","slug":"bryce-aron-we-won","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/?p=6214","title":{"rendered":"Bryce Aron: We Won!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Aron’s first GB3 race win, from the pole (Jakob Ebrey photos).<\/p><\/div>\n

TOWCESTER, England<\/strong> — Hello everybody! It\u2019s Bryce, reporting from a damp day here in England with some exciting news: We won! I couldn\u2019t be happier to bring home my first win in the GB3 Championship.<\/p>\n

The weekend started off positive in the first test session on Thursday but unfortunately we suffered from a mechanical failure during the 20-minute qualifying session which severely impacted our pace, slowing us by nearly a second per lap. This meant race one and race two were a battle of recovery, trying to move up the grid in order to maximize our points.<\/p>\n

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Leaving the pregrid and ready for action.<\/p><\/div>\n

Race one was chaotic to say the least. The first lap featured a few major scraps between competitors which left me driving through a lot of dust. In fact it was quite hard to see! I kept my right foot pinned on the throttle and came out the other side finding myself coming from 21st to 12th. Our good start, plus a few scraps between competitors gave us a nice recovery. After the initial few laps I found myself on the verge of the top 10 but at a high-speed track like Donington Park it is extremely hard to pass. I still gave it a few goes, trying to dive by my fellow competitors going into the tight Turn 11 Melbourne Hairpin. In the end I had to settle for 12th which was a good recovery all things considered.<\/p>\n

The second race on Sunday morning saw me fight through the pack once again. A good start coupled with some heads-up driving allowed me to move forward but once again I found myself stuck. The nature of these high-aero cars makes it extremely difficult to pass but I was trying very hard. In fact, a bit too hard. After being within a half-second of the car in front of me the entire race, my front tires began to degrade heavily from following so closely. This created a lack of front grip, and on the last lap of the race I made a mistake while I was pushing to make one final pass. I understeered a bit wide on the exit of the high speed Turn Eight which caused me to fall back and lose a few positions. Although I made an error I can at least take comfort in the fact that I tried my absolute hardest and didn\u2019t leave anything on the table during race two.<\/p>\n

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A good start saw Aron clear of the pack on the opening lap.<\/p><\/div>\n

With race one and two out of the way it was time for our final go of the weekend. This time we started on pole due to the reverse-grid rule, and it was our opportunity to shine despite the misfortune in qualifying. If I\u2019m honest I was a bit nervous and it didn\u2019t help that I had a six-and-a-half-hour gap between race two and three on Sunday. I had to find some new ways to occupy my time. Initially I sifted through old onboards and data with my engineer Paul before strolling through the paddock. Ugh! Even with that complete I still had three hours until lights out, so I set about walking around the pits with my family (luckily they were able to make it over from Chicago) and we watched the British GT race.<\/p>\n

Eventually, it was go time. I was ready and as soon as I got into the car I became much less nervous. In fact my confidence grew. I had a job to do, I knew what to do, and I believed I could execute it. As I lined up on pole I looked back in my mirrors watching row by row of cars fill in behind me. Eyes forward. After about a minute, the longest minute in my entire life, the five-second board came out from the marshals’ tower. Twenty-two engines raised in RPM, lights on\u2026\u2026.Lights off.<\/p>\n

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Receiving the winner’s trophy from ex-Formula 1 driver Jonathan Palmer.<\/p><\/div>\n

We were away. The start was good. We were away free into Turn One. Now it was time to get my head down and hit my marks. In a way I was only driving at 98 percent but I noticed after lap two we began to increase our gap to second place. It was a bit relieving but I needed to make sure I didn\u2019t make a mistake. Lap after lap clicked by. It wasn\u2019t until I got to the end of the final lap my focus shifted as I realized I was going to win. I came out of the final corner and saw the checkered flag. We won! Yes! As I flew by the pitwall I saw all the Hitech GP boys cheering me on. It was a great feeling. Victory at last.<\/p>\n

I hope you enjoyed my weekend recap and as always thank you for reading. Until next time,
\nBryce<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TOWCESTER, England — Hello everybody! It\u2019s Bryce, reporting from a damp day here in England with some exciting news: We won! I couldn\u2019t be happier to bring home my first win in the GB3 Championship.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6215,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[44,7,5],"tags":[47,182,157,181,183,66],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6214"}],"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=6214"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6220,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6214\/revisions\/6220"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}