Sam Burman Third in NGRRC championship

Sam Burman has taken a fine third place in both the Refined Recruitment 125GP Championship, and the Dara Brady Open 400 Championship, concluding this year’s NG Road Racing Club season. In the final round held at Thruxton, last Saturday, Burman, despite a fall in the first outing, bagged two fifth place finishes later in the day.

With Championship points determining the front row for race one, Burman made a great start, leading the chasing pack into Allard for the first time of asking. However, the lead was to be short lived as the rain started coming lightly but enought to wet the track leaving sam’s slick tyres struggling for grib as she over enthusiasticly powered round the fast right - hander at seagrave causing her to crash out of the race.

The biggest disappointment was the fact that due to her earlier mishap, Burman would start the all important points race from the back of the 35 strong grid. However, with her race face well and truly on, she was in determined mood, and picked off her rivals in style to take the chequered flag in an impressive fifth place of the 125 competitors, thus consolidating her third place in the Championship.

Happy to have rounded off the 125 series with a decent show, Burman was keen to improve on her success in the Open 400 final encounter. Riding another impressive race she took fifth position overall and was the first 125 machine home, a result that meant she had taken another well deserved third place, this time in the Open 400 Championship.

Sam Burman:

“ I suffered with the windy conditions this weekend to be honest. The rain and an eager rider caught us out in the first race which left me having to start from the back for the point’s race; I had a not too bad ride to get to 5th. I was really pleased to take 3rd in the Open 400 Championship to go with a 3rd in the 125 Championship, and I would like to thank the clubs officals and marshalls for a great year.”

Burman will be back in action for the finale of the Thundersport GB series, taking place over the weekend of 18-19 October,

during which, racing will take place at both Donington Park (Saturday) and Mallory Park (Sunday).

Caitlin Shaw to participate in NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity

A few weeks ago, Caitlin Shaw got a most-welcome, but unexpected phone call. The call was from NASCAR officials, inviting her to join the Drive for Diversity Combine.  For the aspiring race car driver, it was music to her ears.

“I’m pretty excited about it,” said Shaw, an 19-year-old who graduated from La Cueva in the spring and is attending Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina, studying motor sports management. “This is a great opportunity to me.”

The Drive for Diversity Combine will bring 24 young drivers from across the country to the South Boston Speedway in Virginia on Monday and Tuesday, competing for one of the 15 spots in NASCAR’s Developmental Series. The winning drivers will land berths in either the Camping World Series or the Whelan All-American Series.

The drivers will be showcasing their skills in front of NASCAR executives and team owners in two days of competition. The participants also will undergo media training and evaluation.

Shaw and the others will be behind the wheel of closed-wheel, late-model stock cars, pushing 3,000 pounds of power around the track. This will be quite a change for Shaw, who’s used to open-wheel, midget racers that weigh 900 pounds with horsepower of about 400.

“There’s a big difference in the type of racing,” she said. “There’s a lot more power.”

Drafting, braking and powering through the turns are the biggest difference, Shaw said.

“When you’re coming through a turn, in a midget, you hit the gas at the apex of the turn to keep your momentum,” she said. “With the stock cars, you roll through the turns.”

Another big change is the midget drivers sit in the middle of the vehicle while in stock cars, drivers sit in the traditional left-hand side of the car.

Shaw has had some experience testing the stock cars, as well the trucks from the Craftsman Truck Series, so she’s not entirely unfamiliar with how they handle.

And she’s confident once the executives get a good look at her ability, she’ll open some eyes.
“This fits right in with my goals for my driving career,” Shaw said. “Within five years, I plan to get into the NASCAR Sprint Cup series.”

Shaw has been gearing toward a driving career since she was nine, racing quarter-midgets. She moved up to mini sprints at 14, winning a number of local championships at the Sandia Motorsports Park. As a 16-year-old, she moved up to the USAC Ford Focus Midget Racing Series, then onto the USAC National Series as a K&N Development Driver.

This has already been a busy year for Shaw. In addition to beginning college, she’s also attended driver’s school with Brad Noffsinger at Lowe’s Motor Speedway; was a Mazda Miata road course instructor at the Sandia track; attended the Lyn St. James Driver Development Program and tested trucks at the Pocono Raceway in northeastern Pennsylvania.

Now she’s studying in a renowned program for developing students in all aspects of the racing world.

She’ll have to miss two days of classes next week to be in the program, but Shaw isn’t too concerned.

“The professors are all pretty willing to work with you,” she said. “Particularly since I’m pursuing my professional career.”

Milka Duno inspires students

BENTONVILLE - One look at Milka Duno and one wouldn’t be surprised to learn she is a model. One might be a little surprised however, at her primary career - race-car driver.

Duno is also an inspirational speaker who wrote her autobiography in a book geared toward elementary-school children. She shared her book and her story Wednesday morning at Central Park Elementary School at Morning Star. Duno, from Venezuela, spoke about the importance of education.

“Education is the number one thing you can do,” she said. “You can race cars for a little while, but your education is forever.”

Duno spoke about how she “competes to win”when she races, but that virtue started when she was in school. She tried to be the top student at her school, she said.

“I feel a responsibility to tell (students ) to prepare for the future,” she said.

The students were impressed with meeting the celebrity.

“It’s cool that she’s a (racecar driver ),” said Connor Krapf. “She can win trophies.”

Classmate Emma Wood was impressed with Duno’s other career.

“She’s also a model, and she gets to go to a lot of shows,” the second-grader said.

Both the students said they agree with Duno’s message regarding the importance of education. They agreed that staying in school is a good idea.

“It’s so you can learn more so when you grow up you can get the job you want,” Krapf said.

Duno was at the school as part of Central Park’s first Hispanic Heritage Month celebration. The school’s International Committee works to celebrate various cultures that are found within the school, assistant principal Inger Kent said. The school has 22 cultures represented within its walls, she said.

“Our children are from all over,” she said.

The lessons learned during Duno’s presentation will not stop there. Many teachers planned to discuss the presentation in their classrooms. For example, teacher Elizabeth Hampton said she was going to talk to the students about several aspects, including how Duno chose a profession that is not traditional for women. The class will also discuss more about Duno’s Hispanic heritage, as well as hard work that leads to success, Hampton said.

“We’ll talk about putting your mind to doing whatever it is you want to do, then doing it,” she said.

Women and minorities chase NASCAR dreams

SOUTH BOSTON, Va. - The long blonde hair hanging over the back of a racing suit covered with sponsor logos makes it apparent that Kristin Bumbera is not your average racer.

Her record confirms it; the 21-year-old Late Models whiz from Sealy, Texas, not only looks like a sponsor’s dream, but she drives like one, too, having claimed two victories and 11 top-five finishes in 2008 in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series at Roseville, Calif.

Bumbera is one of 25 drivers vying this week in individual testing and evaluation sessions at South Boston Speedway for one of 14 spots in NASCAR’s sixth Drive for Diversity class.

The candidates include 16 women and nine men, ranging in age from 17 to 29 and all hoping to earn a fully funded ride for 2009. The diversity program will support 10 teams in the Whelen Series, and four more in the Camping World Series, the next step up for drivers.

Bumbera, bidding for her second year in the program, also knows that no female driver has ever made a mark in NASCAR beyond some status as a pioneer, and as she looks around at the ever-expanding numbers of women getting behind the wheel, she knows that will change.

“It’s definitely coming,” she said.

In its sixth year, the Drive for Diversity program has yet to produce a household name, and only this year can claim a champion. Paul Harraka, in his second D4D season, won 11 races at All-American Speedway in Roseville, Calif., and took the championship on the final day.

Harraka, a freshman at Duke with a double major in mechanical engineering and public policy, is back seeking a third season, and said he’s getting from the program what he needs.

It “has definitely meant a lot to my career,” Harraka said, noting that it lifted him from a Legends car racer into late models, a significant jump in class, and helped him get a full-time ride with Bill McAnally Racing. “That’s what the program does, it opens doors.”

Harraka, 19, auditioned again Monday in case one of the team owners or scouts who watched the first 13 candidates take laps liked what he saw. Each driver makes 30 laps, then gets a coaching session, followed by a 10-lap run that shows, among other things, coachability.

They finish with a two-lap mock qualifying run.

The other 12 driver candidates spent part of Monday in seminars that teach them about dealing with sponsors and the media, and the two groups trade places on the second day.

Max Siegel, president of global operations for Dale Earnhardt Inc., was among the team reps on hand Monday, and said he’s looking for “tomorrow’s future stars,” drivers who have already invested in their careers and who demonstrate they can run consistent, smooth laps.

The way young drivers present and comport themselves also is a big consideration for employers, Siegel said, but in the end, “you’re only as good as you are on the track.”

DEI already employs Jesus Hernandez, who spent four years in the program.

Bobby Hamilton Jr., who owns teams in the developmental series, also sent a scout to the combine on Monday, as did several owners of teams in the various developmental series.

“There’s a lot of pressure” on the drivers, McAnally said. “They know they’ve got booths full of people up here watching every lap, watching every word they’re saying.”

For Kortney Kosiski, 18, that prospect made it all the more nerve-racking. A third generation racer who runs dirt late models in Nebraska, she had never raced on asphalt.

“I’m very nervous,” she said. “This is the chance of a lifetime.”

After four years racing Soap Box Derby cars, Kosinski moved up to Hornets in 2005, won her first dirt late model race in 2007 and had one victory and seven top-fives finishes this season.

“Ever since I was little, I’ve always wanted to go race those cars,” she said of the ones used in NASCAR’s premier series. She said her family’s interest in auto racing of all kinds has continued to grow ever since her grandfather, Bob Kosiski, raced in the 1960 Daytona 500.

Given the chance to move up, she said, “then I’m living the dream.”

For many, the first step is just showing they belong.

Trista Stevenson learned that at the Music City Motorplex in Pocahontas, Ill., where she raced in the Whelen Series this year after not making it through the combine last year.

Guys she races against, she said, often flash “why are you here?” looks her way.

“They don’t think that girls can do it. Why? I don’t know,” she said. “We’re just like a guy except in a girl body. They’ll rough you up and try to take you out. If you let them take you out, they’re going to do it every week. You’ve just got to pound them back and show them that I’m not going to give up just because you’re a guy and I’m a 17 year-old girl.”

Or, in the case of Michael Cherry, a 19-year-old black driver trying to make his way.

Cherry is grateful for the program that gave him a steady ride last year, even if he had to commute from his home near Tampa, Fla., to Motor Mile Speedwway in southwest Virginia.

“It gives us hope that we do have a chance to make it somewhere and show what we’ve got,” Cherry said of the program. “If it wasn’t for this program, I wouldn’t be where I am now.”

Going forward, NASCAR hopes, Cherry and others will keep improving that position, too.

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NASCAR and UTI Foundation Establish Brienne Davis Scholarship Fund

The NASCAR Foundation Auction Funds First Year of Program

PHOENIX, Ariz. (July 8, 2008) – Recognizing there are many women interested in pursuing careers in the automotive industry, NASCAR and the UTI Foundation established the Brienne Davis Scholarship Fund for women seeking an automotive technical education. Davis, a Universal Technical Institute (UTI) graduate and NASCAR Sprint Cup official, died tragically earlier this year at age 28, and is honored by this scholarship created to encourage women to seek a career in the automotive industry. [Read more]

MCBRIDE BLOCKS OUT STARTING LINE GAMES

The boys weren’t paying nice with Angie McBride on Sunday.

McBride has been a strong player of late, most recently scoring a semi-final finish at the NHRA Fallnationals in Dallas, Texas.

Those kinds of performances will make the competition take notice.

In her first round match against Steve Johnson, the two-time 2008 winner rolled in and lit both bulbs. He sat and even stared over McBride. She never wavered in her routine. Neither did she stage.

Once he backed out of the second bulb, shortly thereafter McBride rolled in and lit her top bulb. Johnson fouled.

McBride let it be known from the start that she knew what Johnson was doing and wasn’t going to fall for it.

“Today, we are going to run my race,” McBride added.

She met up with Andrew Hines in the quarters and the two engaged in a lengthy staging battle. Hines eventually broke the :58 second battle of determination and staged first. He also red-lighted.

This marked the second time in as many races that she’s beaten Hines in the early rounds.

Her tactics of beating the competition at their game led Hines to utter the telltale phrase at the end of the track as he quipped, “You don’t give a damn about anybody.”

She responded, “I just do what I am told.”

McBride made her way into the semi-finals for the second consecutive week, but her raceday however would soon come to an end as Craig Treble, eventual race winner beat her in round three.

“The last few weeks have been amazing,” said McBride.  “I knew I had to just focus on the job at hand and whatever happens would just happen.  I was going to give it all I could and hopefully things would turn out in my favor, and they did.  We have taken out some big hitters the last few weeks and it is the greatest feeling ever.  To sit with Andrew in a staging battle that long and come out on top is just the greatest feeling ever.  I am so excited and I can’t wait for Vegas.”

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Formula Palmer Audi test for Charlotte Haegermark

The test took place at Bedford Autodrome about an hour drive north of London. The first hour was spent for seat fitting followed by two hours of track testing.

The actual driving technique resembles of driving a shifter kart but there were also some differences which made the driving difficult in many ways. The biggest difference was the gearbox which had and H-pattern shifting system rather than the sequential shifting that I´m used to in karting and also the amount of brake pedal force you had to apply, says Charlotte.

[Read more]

Gabi DiCarlo’s Impressive Road Race Return

Gabi DiCarlo and her Great Clips Race Team continue to impress the competition. Gabi returned to road course racing this past weekend at the brand new facility known as New Jersey Motorsports Park, where she quickly adapted to the challenging track.

During the ten minute qualifying session DiCarlo piloted the Great Clips Toyota Camry around the sweeping right and left hand turns to position herself in a very respectful 16th place starting spot. [Read more]

Halliday enjoys ALMS return despite Petit Le Mans retirement

Liz Halliday’s return to her native USA didn’t end as she would have hoped after an accident for co-driver Dean Stirling forced an early retirement at the Petit Le Mans race. However, despite that frustration, the California-born dual sportswoman enjoyed her outing with Creation AIM. [Read more]

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