Category: Team USA Scholarship

Hey everyone, the 2024 season is coming to a close and it has been an amazing year of racing, coaching, and new ventures. Little did I know when I won the Mazda MX-5 Cup Scholarship Shootout four years ago that I would have the opportunity to be wrapping up another season of racing in the Whelen Engineering Mazda MX-5 Cup Presented by Michelin.

I have been very impressed with Mazda’s efforts in growing the series on and off the track, and I honestly feel it was noticeably more competitive in each of my four seasons than the previous year. I had a very strong campaign, once again seeing victory lane and earning several pole positions. Similar to 2023, I was leading the championship in the second half of the season until external circumstances moved me out of the points lead. Even after car issues and an on-track incident no fault to my own in rounds 11 and 12 at VIR, I was still in championship contention going into the final race. Extraordinarily, there were five of us with realistic chances at the season finale. I couldn’t make up for the points I had lost and I came up just short in the championship, but it was a blast as always.

I took a bit of a leap of faith this year and put everything into this sport. Racing at the professional level with a great client base for my coaching endeavors gave me the right platform to put all of my focus into this and put a halt to other professional career aspirations. The highlight of my coaching this year has to be my race director / group coaching role in the Turn 2 Club’s MX-5 Cup Series. I have helped develop a growing group of individuals to drive and race with each other in a platform that I am passionate about. Their season just finished and I was amazed at how much their races began to look similar to the real thing. We even had a photo finish for the win!

This year I have been able to dive into another world of racing, competing in the last couple rounds of Porsche Sprint Challenge by Yokohama and Endurance Challenge North America at Road America and Sonoma in the 992 GT3 Cup car. This was thanks to an amazing opportunity from Charlie Hayes Racing and CHR drivers at Road America, and many surrounding supporters for Sonoma.

I have to say it went better than I could’ve expected. At Road America I battled for the win and got podiums in both Sprint Challenge races, and took pole and another podium with teammate Elliott Skeer in the Endurance race. After having learned the car for a weekend, I was able to cross the finish line first in both Sprint Challenge races and the Endurance race as a solo entrant at Sonoma. One of the sprint victories was later taken away due to a restart zone violation, but it couldn’t take away my excitement from such a strong weekend. To have so many supporters present made it even sweeter.

Next on the calendar is the final round of the inaugural Porsche Endurance Challenge North America America this coming weekend at Circuit of The Americas. The car I have competed in the previous two rounds with will not be fielded, but I have been given the opportunity to drive with the JTR team and will be trying to help them secure their championship.

The events of the past few months have opened some new doors in the Porsche racing community and I am excited to see what the future may hold. I have learned and developed more over the past few months than I thought was possible, and I can’t wait for more.

Thanks for reading,
Aaron

Well, it’s the time that always comes after an awesome trip – the time of reflection. I had a smooth trip back home to Hamilton, Ohio accompanied by my dad, Uncle Terry and my friend, Scott, whom I met a few years ago back in my karting days, who came out to support me. Being his first time out of the U.S., he had a great time and got a very solid experience of England and racing in the UK.

I’ve taken a few days to rest to get accustomed to my regular day-to-day life and I’m happy to be back home with my friends and family. Looking back, I have to say, that was the most amazing six weeks of my life and I already miss the excitement of our busy time in the UK, from our tours to Bath, London and Ireland to our experience at the Formula Ford Festival and the Walter Hayes Trophy, touring four different F1 team factories and getting a day in a GB3 car. I couldn’t imagine a better way to spend my six weeks.

I’d like to start by talking a bit about my week at the Walter Hayes Trophy. It was a very wet five days of track time. In qualifying, the stewards made a very questionable call only allowing us one green-flag lap due to the weather and I qualified fifth. In my heat, the rain picked up and we had little to no visibility. Every corner I had to guess where I needed to brake, then after downshifting, I had to lift my fogging visor and pull down my fogging glasses to be able to see at all. Coupled with that I had cars all around me racing for positions. It was one of the scariest experiences of my life but incredibly fun, nonetheless. Moving onto the Semi-Final, I started in ninth and quickly made up six positions on the first lap, but a gradual engine problem saw me lose all of those positions and eventually the engine died, and my weekend ended early.

I said before I was even picked for the scholarship this year, that there would be a vast amount of learning experiences, and that was a massive understatement. This was my first experience living away from home, especially being almost 4000 miles away, which added a bit of uncertainty, since most of the time you are within driving distance of your parents if you ever need help with anything and we weren’t even within a day’s trip. Luckily, I had Ayrton [Houk] as a roommate, and we had [Ammonite Motorsport team principal] Andy [Low] to help the both of us. It was good to learn some life skills like cooking and learn just overall independence and taking care of all your belongings and keeping everything in order.

I learned so much during the 16 days we spent at five different circuits. On track, the biggest change from my previous experience was the tire difference. The Avon tire requires a good amount of slip angle, meaning to get good corner exits, you must have the rear end sliding, which took a while to get comfortable with and break the old habit of fully correcting the slides. This also means your driving style must be incredibly precise, which helps not only with raw speed but also helps a lot with the consistency of your driving lap after lap.

Another challenge was rising up to the skill level at which my competitors were at. Everyone within the top 10-15 was always on the absolute limit lap after lap and hardly ever made mistakes. Coupled with the lack of slipstream compared to the US F1600 cars, that meant overtakes needed to be made within the first two laps and you needed to be on it from the get-go. Comparing the aggression, generally in the US, you find that the aggression isn’t calculated and a lot of the time, you end up with incidents that should never happen whereas in the UK, they are more aggressive, but a lot smarter and you’ll see the pass completion ratio is a lot higher in the UK.

A change that suited me was the standing starts, I have always had a struggle with timing rolling starts but the standing starts are the same for everyone. Getting used to the RPMs was easy when I would compare them to musical notes. Like I said in one of my previous quotes, the best starts I’ve had, have all been by making the engine hit a certain note rather than a number, then all it is from there is to nail the clutch release which I understood after a bit of practice.

On the off-track side of things, I got my first experience with interviews, I made a lot of very important connections, and my social media skills and promotion have improved a lot. All of these learning experiences have played a crucial role in my development as a driver. Now the real work begins. My plan for the 2024 season is to move up to the slicks and wings categories, with the GB4 series in the UK or the USF2000 series in the US. I am working on finding partners and supporters, interested in helping me move up the motorsports ladder to my goal of becoming a professional racing driver.

To close out this blog, I’d like to give my utmost thanks to the people who made these six weeks possible, Jeremy Shaw, Andy Low, all of our Team USA Supporters, Ammonite Motorsport, and my friends and family.

Until next time,
Jack

The Walter Hayes Trophy event at Silverstone has ended and I have just returned home to Indiana after some of the most thrilling weeks of my life.

My most recent race weekend did not go exactly as planned, yet I learned immensely from it. The Team USA Scholarship Ammonite Racing Ray Formula Ford had amazing pace and I was up to fourth in my semi-final before a competitor knocked me back to 16th. Because of this, my starting position for the final was set at 31st. I believe that position provided a new opportunity for me. Being so far back on the grid, I was able to learn how to drive conservatively yet aggressive to make up 17 positions and bring back the car safely.

Throughout the weekend I improved my knowledge on assertive yet safe driving and how to manage traffic while staying clear of other cars. I have uploaded a highlight reel to my YouTube channel that can be found at this link.

The entire experience of racing in the UK has greatly improved my racing skills as well as my personal skills. I had amazing opportunities including interviews and meetings with many professionals in the racing industry which strengthened my conversational skills and increased my self-confidence.

Over the past couple of months, I have been exposed to a whole new lifestyle. Living on my own in a different country took some getting used to. I had an amazing time learning how to be independent and adapting to a different type of racing.

Many aspects of racing carry over from my experience in the States; however, there was still much to adapt to. For starters, the tires took the longest to feel out. At our first race at Silverstone finishing off the BRSCC National Formula Ford season, I found myself struggling to understand the extended slip angle that the Avon tires allowed, and needed, to be quick. Secondly, the standing starts were a completely new concept to me. Those were not as difficult to grasp, though. Although the use of racing simulators, especially with some great practice at RaceCraft1 in Indianapolis, has greatly prepared me for starts, I would still find difficulties finessing the engine rpms and clutch release perfectly to get off the line with the utmost efficiency.

Lastly, were the field strengths at these events. The competition played a pivotal role in my development while I was abroad. Racing against so many talented drivers inspired me to continue pushing for those last couple of tenths every session. Because of these new experiences, I believe that I have developed immensely as a driver and as an ambassador.

Currently, my eyes are set on the 2024 season with a strong desire to jump into the USF Pro Championships in a USF2000 car. Along with that, I have been in contact with a team running a Porsche in the Grand Sport class with the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge. I am fully dedicated to making it into the USF Pro Championships next season and am currently looking for supporters that would be interested in a motorsports partnership to help me achieve my dream of becoming a professional racing driver.

On the first day of my journey over to the UK I remember thinking about how long we had ahead of us, “seven weeks will feel like forever away from home.” Now that time has come to an end and all I can think about was how quickly it went. In the time I was abroad I was blessed with amazing experiences. From touring four Formula 1 teams, driving in two of the largest and most historic Formula Ford races in the world, to testing a rocket ship of a GB3 car at Donington Park, representing my country with the Team USA Scholarship has been an opportunity of a lifetime and I want to thank Jeremy Shaw, Sparco for the incredible new gear, Styled Aesthetic for the sweet merchandise, and every other supporter behind the program for supporting me throughout this trip.

– Ayrton

The day after the Formula Ford Festival, my family (mom, dad, aunt, uncle), Ayrton and I all packed onto a flight to Ireland. After landing in Dublin, we found our seven-seater rental car and headed on our way across the country to the Cliffs of Moher. The drive started smoothly being on the motorways but once we got off onto smaller roads, it got a bit bumpy. Literally. Each road got smaller and smaller until we managed to get on a road that was wide enough for only one car with stone walls on each side and cars coming at us from the other direction. Super scary to say the least.

I feel that I should’ve been driving since my dad was never fully used to driving on the “other” side of the road. We had a few close calls where he would accidentally pull out in front of traffic not realizing right turns are the equivalent of left turns in America. Anyway, no harm no foul, and we safely made it to the Cliffs, which were absolutely stunning, and we were lucky enough to have great visibility with a beautiful sunset.

We then made a trip to our first Irish pub where we got the best fish and chips I’ve ever had, and my dad got what he wanted most: a real Irish pint of Guinness. From there we walked to our house to get a good night’s sleep after a very long day. Another early morning came, and we made the four-hour drive back to Dublin to catch our flight back to England, then to our hotel and rested up for the following day, which we spent sightseeing in London.

This past week we also got some awesome tours at the McLaren Technology Centre and at Mercedes F1. Starting off with McLaren, we got to see a few of their most famous cars. The history associated with each and every car was absolutely astounding. It was surreal to visit the MTC since I had seen all the McLaren “Tooned” Cartoons as a kid where Jensen Button and Lewis Hamilton voice acted themselves in the cartoon and it made for a very funny and cool series all based in the MTC.

Moving onto Mercedes F1, we started by having a look at Lewis Hamilton’s Abu Dhabi 2021 car which hasn’t been touched since it left the track. We then moved on to where they have some of their manufacturing with over 20 massive CNC machines that can produce just about anything on the car that isn’t carbon. These machines are also sometimes what make molds for carbon parts. The separate composite shop had five separate autoclaves.

We then moved into the testing room where they do stress testing on components from just single components to sub-assemblies, or even a fully assembled car. To conclude the tour, we walked around the engineer’s offices where they draw all the components on CAD software and test them with CFD software. Lastly, we saw the race bays where the cars are put together before each race weekend and they do most of the component test fitting there. We also saw one of the at-track performance engineers, Andrew Shovlin, aka “Shov,” do his “weekend debrief” YouTube video.

We took a day to go to the Queen’s Park Rangers vs Leicester football match in London. I’ve never seen such dedication to a sports team in my life. All the chanting and yelling and screaming was very intense but certainly made the spectator experience a lot better. It was during this trip that we got a very unexpected text from Andy Low. He told us we’d be testing a GB3 car the next day at Donington Park Circuit.

Upon arrival back in Brackley, we went to check on the boys while they were packing everything up. Before we got there, the motor for the trailer’s tail lift failed and the replacement spun the wrong way, so we looked to be out of luck. Fortunately, Andy was able to find someone to rent him a trailer at 9:30 p.m. the day before the test. The morning came and everything went smoothly with the new trailer, and we made it to a drying Donington Park.

After waiting for it to be fully dry, I got my first laps in a winged car, and it was the most mind-boggling sensation I’ve ever experienced. The experience of hitting the apex at the “Old Hairpin” at 120 mph with all the downforce making the car stick through the turn is unmatched by anything I have ever done before and I’m determined to make that a regular sensation in the upcoming season.

Daily life has been great during our stay in Brackley. Most days Ayrton does the cooking, and usually, we eat a steak and some rice, but we decided to end our stay at our Airbnb with a nice Beef Wellington. We decided that I should help and do most of the prep and Ayrton would do the searing of the beef and the baking of the pastry. Neither of us eats mushrooms so we had to switch out the mushroom for a thyme crepe. We ended up with a triangular slab of beef which made cooking it a bit difficult, but it turned out quite good, especially with a side of a nice chunk of garlic bread.

This weekend we’ll be on track for the last time of our trip at Silverstone for the Walter Hayes Trophy. Testing has gone well, with most of our running in wet or damp conditions, and we are excited to start out tomorrow tomorrow with qualifying and then our Heat races. We have been been drawn into Heat Three, for which qualifying is slated for 9:44am and the race at 1:08pm.

You can watch a live stream over the course of the weekend on YouTube with these links:

Saturday link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gL1CJB_TwgE
Sunday Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi47TXd-_Ho

There will also be live timing and scoring at https://www.tsl-timing.com/event/234456. Please note that the races can start early….

After looking at the forecast, it seems we’re going to have a wet Saturday and a dry Sunday so the racing should be entertaining, and I feel very confident that we can come away with some strong results in both conditions.

I would like to thank Jeremy Shaw, Andy Low, all the Team USA partners and supporters, and my family who have supported me and worked so hard to give me all the opportunities and experiences during this trip.
– Jack

Over the past few weeks, I have been given some amazing opportunities and participated in one of the most historic Formula Ford races in the world, the Formula Ford Festival.

It was my first time at Brands Hatch, and I immediately loved the track. We had three days of testing on the shorter Indy circuit, and a series of 45-minute test sessions resulted in countless laps to get accustomed to the track layout in a wide variety of weather conditions from heavy rain, damp, drying, and fully dry. I qualified fourth for my heat race and managed to finish third. I was looking to ride my momentum into Sunday; however, a hiccup in the semifinal set me 19th on the grid on Sunday afternoon. A hard-fought race resulted in a 14th-position finish in the final.

Overall, the experience was amazing, and the entire Ammonite crew provided top-notch equipment for me and my teammates. Throughout the week, I improved my race craft tremendously and learned about the importance of consistency, especially in wet conditions. It was also great to see my parents come over for the weekend as well since it had been almost six weeks since I had seen them last!

After the Festival, I was invited to join the Sullivan family for a quick trip to Ireland. We left the following day and flew into Dublin, then drove west to the Cliffs of Moher. I immediately noticed that many of the roads were much smaller than the roads that I have been accustomed to over in the United States. There were many points where a two-way road only had space for a single car and we found ourselves pulling over quite often to manage traffic. After a few hours we safely made our way out to the coast of Ireland and were met with a gorgeous landscape. I was awestruck by the beauty of the cliffs. The sun was setting and the sky was clear. It was an amazing sight to experience in person.

In the evening, we grabbed some fish and chips at a local pub and stayed in a quaint bed and breakfast before heading out the following morning for the airport.

Shortly after returning from Ireland, Jack and I were granted the opportunity to tour the McLaren Formula 1 shop. Driving in and getting to see the amazing facility, I was met with a sense of awe; getting to experience a place that I have grown up wishing to get the opportunity to see. We were welcomed very generously to see many of the influential cars throughout the history of McLaren. I was even able to see Ayrton Senna’s 1988 championship car the MP4/4! Along with multiple Formula 1 cars I observed production cars like the 750LT, the McLaren F1 and even a Speedtail. In addition, we were shown their vast trophy collection holding trophies from the beginning of McLaren Racing. It was an exciting day and a long-time dream of mine to visit the McLaren Technology Center.

The following day, Jack and I experienced an English Football League Championship match in London at the Queens Park Rangers stadium, Loftus Road. The Rangers were hosting Leicester City. The environment was lively, to put it mildly, and the fans were very passionate. I had a great time as it was the first football game that I have been able to see in person. Leicester City ended up beating QPR 2-1, but the game was tense down to the last minute!

Our hectic schedule saw us on the road again just one day later when we were able to gain the taste of a GB3 car with Ammonite Motorsport at Donington Park. It was stellar. Our day was set up with two sessions each, split with a lunch in between. The car felt like a raging bull! The acceleration was unmatched by any car I have been in before, and with the downforce I felt as if I was glued to the track. The track felt amazing to drive and flowed incredibly well.

The second session felt much smoother, as I was starting to feel more at home with the car and learn just how much grip it really had. Taking Old Hairpin at over 115 mph was quite the experience! Not just corner speeds, but the brakes were also incredibly powerful. I remember being thrown into my belts after stabbing the brake pedal. It was a dream come true to drive the GB3 car, and I want to thank Team USA and the Ammonite crew for making it a possibility.

My sights are currently set on the Walter Hayes Trophy coming up this week. Testing begins in just a couple of days’ time, and the weather is looking wet most of the week; however, I am excited for rain! We have been quick in the rain sessions at Brands Hatch, and I look forward to carrying that into Silverstone. With only one and a half weeks left, I have had an amazing experience in the UK so far, and I look forward to capping it off strongly this coming weekend.

– Ayrton