{"id":6475,"date":"2022-11-06T21:15:26","date_gmt":"2022-11-06T21:15:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/?p=6475"},"modified":"2022-11-15T20:27:21","modified_gmt":"2022-11-15T20:27:21","slug":"americans-shine-in-22nd-annual-walter-hayes-trophy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/?p=6475","title":{"rendered":"Americans Shine in 22nd Annual Walter Hayes Trophy"},"content":{"rendered":"

SILVERSTONE, England<\/strong> \u2013 A characteristically dramatic Walter Hayes Trophy Grand Final this afternoon at Silverstone ended with Max Esterson hailed as the victor for a second successive year. Unfortunately for him, the race stewards later assessed a 4.5-second penalty which relegated him to fifth position and handed top honors \u2013 for a record-breaking fourth time \u2013 to Englishman Joey Foster (Don Hardman Racing Firman RFR20). The results, however, will remain provisional due to the stewards\u2019 decision having been appealed..<\/p>\n

After winning the prestigious event last year in Team USA Scholarship colors, Esterson, from New York, N.Y., and his Ammonite Motorsport Ray GR18 fought an intense 15-lap battle to fend off Foster and Michael Eastwell (KMR Spectrum), only to be later penalized for an incident with Eastwood\u2019s teammate, Tom Mills, on lap eight at Luffield corner. Mills recovered from a gravelly excursion to finish fifth on the road, although he gained one position due to Esterson\u2019s penalty.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Budzinski leads the snake through the Brooklands\/Luffield complex (JEP images).<\/p><\/div>\n

Elliott Budzinski, from Ann Arbor, Mich., drove an impressive race to finish ninth in the Grand Final, having started 17th in just his fifth-ever car race event. Thomas Schrage, from Bethel, Ohio, recovered to 17th after being involved in an early incident. The third Team USA Scholarship representative, William Ferguson, from Pacifica, Calif., was unfortunately involved in a skirmish while running a strong fifth in his earlier Semi Final which prevented him from progressing to the Grand Final.<\/p>\n

Overnight rain which continued into the morning led the organizing Historic Sports Car Club to shorten the two Semi Final races from 12 laps to 10 laps apiece, although track conditions were similar to Saturday when the first group lined up with Budzinski 10th on the starting grid. He made up places regularly in the opening stages, rising to fifth inside the first three laps before piling the pressure on veteran Formula Ford campaigner Chris Middlehurst and eventually making the pass on lap seven with a nice move at Becketts. Unfortunately, next time around, multi-time Historic Formula Ford champion Cameron Jackson left his braking a fraction too late at Brooklands and made contact with the rear of Budzinski\u2019s Ray GR22, causing both to spin and lose several positions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Semi was great right up to the very end,\u201d said Budzinski. \u201cI had a really good start and made my way to fourth by lap six, catching third. Still a lot of positives to take from the race. We\u2019ll be starting 15th in the Grand Final and have shown that we can make up a lot of places.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Ferguson was out of luck in his Semi Final.<\/p><\/div>\n

Semi Final Two saw Ferguson on the inside of row three of the grid with Schrage a little farther back in 12th. After an early red flag and complete restart due to a multi-car melee even before the first corner, Ferguson maintained fifth place until being tapped into a spin which dropped him to the back of the 36-field.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, shoot. Such an unfortunate way to end my time over here in the UK,\u201d said Ferguson, who finished 25th. \u201cAfter getting a good launch and being in fifth I was spun around on the exit of Becketts. I lost a lot of time and wasn\u2019t able to make it far enough up the field to be in the final. I\u2019ll still take everything I can from this weekend to learn and keep moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schrage lost a position on the opening lap and was further hindered by another Safety Car interruption but managed to work his way up to eighth at the finish after posting the third fastest race lap.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy Semi-Final didn\u2019t pan out to exactly what I needed for a top starting spot in the Grand Final,\u201d he related. \u201cUnfortunately, the gap created under the Safety Car didn\u2019t allow me to catch the front group, but an eighth-place finish is just enough to keep in the fight for what is looking another thriller in the Grand Final.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Intense action on the first lap of the Grand Final.<\/p><\/div>\n

A penalty levied on other driver resulted in Schrage lining up 14th for the Final with Budzinski three places farther back on the grid. Both immediately began to move forward in tandem, although Schrage\u2019s progress was halted on the third lap when a hit from behind at Brooklands resulted in his car leaping into the air.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was spectacular to watch,\u201d said a close-following Budzinski, who narrowly escaped the incident and continued in 12th.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought I was going over,\u201d added Schrage.<\/p>\n

While Schrage was able to continue, a huge pack of cars disputed what was to become seventh place for the majority of the race, with Budzinski finally emerging from the chaos to finish ninth.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Formula Ford at its best: no quarter asked or given.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWow, that was incredible,\u201d declared Budzinski. \u201cStarting 17th I wasn\u2019t sure what to expect. Given how quick we\u2019ve been through the week I knew it would be possible to move up, but that had to have been the most fun, scary, sketchy, gloves-off and respectful racing I\u2019ve ever done. To come away with ninth place is something I\u2019m proud of and am happy to end off this amazing journey. I cannot express thanks enough to Jeremy Shaw, all the Team USA supporters, and the entire Ammonite Motorsport crew. I\u2019m sad to be leaving but enormously grateful for this opportunity I\u2019ve been given. It\u2019s time to start thinking about the future now!\u201d<\/p>\n

After recovering from his wild ride in 27th, Schrage impressively made up 10 places in the closing laps.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy first ever weekend at Silverstone for the 2022 Walter Hayes Trophy is now complete,\u201d said Schrage. \u201cThe results weren\u2019t exactly what we would have liked but we had the pace to compete up front all weekend and never gave up. My Grand Final was off to a great start picking up four spots in the opening laps, but as I made a move on lap four, I was driven into by another car and fell a long way back. I continued to push in recovery mode until finishing in 17th overall.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to thank Jeremy Shaw, the Team USA Scholarship program and all their supporters. Without everyone, I would have never gained this life changing experience and development in my driving. Thanks to the Ammonite Motorsport crew and Andy Low for putting up with us these last few weeks, they made this trip a ton of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of today\u2019s races can be reviewed on the live stream 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 \u2013 A characteristically dramatic Walter Hayes Trophy Grand Final this afternoon at Silverstone ended with Max Esterson hailed as the victor for a second successive year. Unfortunately for him, the race stewards later…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6477,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,6],"tags":[191,53,185,114,113,104,66,190,116,187],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6475"}],"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=6475"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6483,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6475\/revisions\/6483"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teamusascholarship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}