{"id":6452,"date":"2022-11-04T22:08:11","date_gmt":"2022-11-04T22:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/?p=6452"},"modified":"2022-11-04T22:12:02","modified_gmt":"2022-11-04T22:12:02","slug":"team-usa-trio-chase-walter-hayes-trophy-glory-at-silverstone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/?p=6452","title":{"rendered":"Team USA Trio Chase Walter Hayes Trophy Glory at Silverstone"},"content":{"rendered":"
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L. to r.: Schrage, Budzinski and Ferguson feel they are well prepared (JEP photos).<\/p><\/div>\n

SILVERSTONE, England<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 A hectic six weeks for this year\u2019s three Team USA Scholarship winners, Elliott Budzinski, William Ferguson and Thomas Schrage, will conclude this weekend as they contest the prestigious annual Walter Hayes Trophy Formula Ford event at Silverstone.<\/p>\n

The program has a proud history at the traditional end-of-season extravaganza held in memory of one of the founding fathers of Formula Ford, which has been providing affordable opportunities for drivers since its introduction in 1967. Max Esterson last year became the fourth Team USA Scholarship driver to claim victory, following in the footsteps of current NTT INDYCAR SERIES driver Conor Daly in 2008 and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship standouts Connor De Phillippi in 2009 and Tristan Nunez in 2012.<\/p>\n

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Esterson took top honors in 2021.<\/p><\/div>\n

Esterson, from New York, N.Y., will return to the self-styled Home of British Motor Racing and of the Formula 1 British Grand Prix as the defending champion. Esterson also scored an emphatic victory two weeks ago in the 51st Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch, becoming only the second American to win after Josef Newgarden took top Kent honors in 2008.<\/p>\n

Esterson will once again join the Team USA Scholarship trio at Andy Low\u2019s locally based Ammonite Motorsport team, which will also field a fifth Ray chassis for fellow American Shaun Rashid.<\/p>\n

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A visit to Haas F1 kicked off a busy schedule last week.<\/p><\/div>\n

Budzinski, Ferguson and Schrage have been busy since their Brands Hatch foray with behind-the-scenes visits to the Haas F1 Team, Ilmor Engineering, the McLaren Technical Centre and Multimatic Motorsports.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was wonderful getting to look behind the scenes into how the motorsports world works,\u201d said Budzinski. \u201cOftentimes as a driver you forget or under appreciate all the work that goes into running a team or race shop. Our tours were a wonderful way of reminding us how talented and dedicated all the engineers, mechanics and everyone else involved are.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trio also have just completed three days of testing in preparation for the Walter Hayes Trophy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to say I\u2019m quite happy with how we\u2019re looking in all conditions,\u201d continued Budzinski. \u201cThe car is good and I\u2019m feeling very comfortable on the circuit. Obviously the racing is going to be heavily draft dependent but that\u2019s very similar to what we\u2019re used to in the States. All in all I\u2019m very excited to get the racing going tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Ready for the action to begin at Silverstone.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThe last three days has consisted of multiple changes in driving and car setup, with ample amount of time in every track condition,\u201d added Schrage. \u201cHeading into this weekend I will be racing in Heat 4, so I will be taking full advantage of the races before me. I like the pace we have shown throughout testing and believe we have top-three potential if not more.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been such an amazing experience driving around Silverstone,\u201d said Ferguson. \u201cThere is just so much history surrounding the track, as well as the Walter Hayes Trophy itself. I\u2019ve seen this place on the TV and video games thousands of times, but to actually be here is incredible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have just finished up our third day of testing, and once again we have gotten to experience every kind of condition, which is great for the team, because we know what we\u2019ll need for tomorrow when it rains. After a canceled final at the Festival, I\u2019m very excited to get after it this weekend. Everyone under the Ammonite tent has strong pace, we just have to put everything together! Thank you Team USA and all of our supporters for making these last six weeks possible. I\u2019ve had such a fun time and learned a lot about the world of motorsports, and a little about myself as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Ammonite team has prepared three identical cars.<\/p><\/div>\n

A huge entry of almost 120 competitors has been split into four Heat races. Budzinski has been drawn in Heat One, with a 12-minute qualifying session tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m. (5:00 a.m. ET) and an eight-lap race scheduled for 11:23 a.m (7:23 a.m. ET). Ferguson will be next up in Heat Two, due to see the green flag immediately after the lunch break at 12:38 p.m. (8:38 a.m. ET), while Schrage will compete in Heat Four, set to start at approximately 1:38 p.m. (9:38 a.m. ET). The top 13 finishers from each Heat race will move directly forward into a pair of Semi Final races on Sunday, starting at 11:25 a.m (6:25 a.m. ET*). A total of 36 starters will contest the Grand Final on Sunday at 3.15 p.m (10:15 a.m. ET*).<\/p>\n

(* Please note times are approximate. Also the clocks have already changed in the UK, and they change in the U.S. on Saturday night. The current four-hour time difference from the East Coast to the UK will revert to five hours on Sunday morning.)<\/p>\n

Live timing for the entirety of the race meeting can be found at https:\/\/www.tsl-timing.com\/event\/224456<\/a>. There will also be a live stream of Sunday\u2019s races (only) at https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=JRoKbZU1cxE<\/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 AERO \u2122 Sustainable Paint Technology, Doug Mockett & Company, the Road Racing Drivers Club and SAFEisFAST.com, Cooper Tire & Rubber Company, Chip Ganassi Racing, The Stellrecht Company, Chris Locke, CoForce, Polecat Training Academy, Pratt Miller, Dyson Racing, PitFit Training, RaceCraft1, Sparco USA, Speedstar Management and Styled Aesthetic. Previous scholarship winners include Jimmy Vasser, Bryan Herta, Jerry Nadeau, Buddy Rice, Andy Lally, Phil Giebler, A.J. Allmendinger, J.R. Hildebrand, Dane Cameron, Josef Newgarden, Conor Daly, Connor De Phillippi, Spencer Pigot, Trent Hindman, Tristan Nunez, Oliver Askew and Kyle Kirkwood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SILVERSTONE, England\u00a0\u2013 A hectic six weeks for this year\u2019s three Team USA Scholarship winners, Elliott Budzinski, William Ferguson and Thomas Schrage, will conclude this weekend as they contest the prestigious annual Walter Hayes Trophy Formula…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6453,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,6],"tags":[117,191,161,159,53,179,185,114,113,144,104,112,49,158,66,190,83,116,187],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6452"}],"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=6452"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6461,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6452\/revisions\/6461"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}