Harkening back to thee Dazes 'O Randy
"The CandyMann" Bernard, remember him? And the duel trophies for Road
Warriors and Oval Specialists; Y'all know those coveted A.J. Foyt and Mario
Andretti trophies, right; Chirp-Chirp; Bueller?
Hence, I thought it high time to create a separate
trophy for our Across-thee-Pond boyz', since I primarily tend to choose winners
for the nifSTAR trophy from the Mazda Road To Indy (MRTI) ranks instead, and
just cannot simply choose just one single driver anymore. Especially as each
year I tend to find more deserving candidates; as HE Double Hockey Sticks! Just
look at the mushrooming list 'O 28 choices below!
Hence the two trophies selections will be
based upon last year's Shooting Starz selections, previously scribbled labouresly
in;
Now if we just had the requisite trophy's, prize
funds and readers who gave a DAMN; Hya!
But I digress...
2014 Contestants...
Although it DON'T feel like a fair fight! With the
Europeans vastly outnumbering the 'Yanks, with the GP2 runners denoting their
F1 Teams testing status & Others
racing series both in parenthesis. While TUSC = Tudor United SportsCar
Championship; Here goes nothin'
INDY LIGHTS
Mathew Brabham, Gabby Chaves, Jack Harvey, Luiz Razia and Zach Veach.
GP2
Conor Daly, Mitch Evans, Felipe Nasr, (Williams
Martini Racing) Jolyon Palmer, (2014 Champion) Davide Rigon, (Scuderia Ferrari) Marco Sorensen, (Lotus) Stoffel
Vandoorne, ((McLaren Mercedes)
FR 3.5
Pierre Gasly, Roberto Merhi and Carlos
Sainz Jr., (2014 Champion)
GP3
Jimmy "NOT MARCUS" Eriksson, Marvin
Kirchhofer, Alex Lynn, (2014 Champion) Richie
Stanaway and Dean Stoneman.
OTHERS
Shelby Blackstock, (Pro Mazda) Garrett
Grist, (USF2000) Scott Hargrove, (USF2000) Spencer Pickett,
(Pro Mazda) Shawn Rayhall, (TUSC) Jordan & Ricky Taylor (TUSC) and Max
Verstappen. (F3)
And the Winners are...
nifSTAR
Pretty small short-list here, and NOT even done
fairly, since I know one race weekend doesn't make a driver, but!
winner
Jack Harvey, Age: 21
Born: April 15, 1993
Birthplace: Bassingham, England
2014 Results: Indy Lights Runner-up
There's something 'bout this Englishman that
impresses me, even if I've only seen him race ever once
"live-in-the-flesh," aka Sonoma. And NO! It's NOT the fact that he
sounds an awful lot like another British legend, nee Bloody 'Nige; YIKES! As
I'm ARSE-suming that the 21yr old Englishman wouldn't mind emulating Nigel
Mansell's success, eh? Just as long as he doesn't grow the Mansell stash; Hya!
Harvey, like most drivers, began Go Karting
at age nine, and first tasted success at age 13, en route to racking up
multiple prestigious European Karting championships and awards between 2006-08
before making his single seater debut in Formula BMW Europe in '09 for Fortec
Motorsports, for whom many flourishing drivers have raced for. Harvey also
became a member of the Racing Steps foundation and BRDC Rising Star program.
In 2011, Harvey graduated to British Formula
3 with another noted team, Carlin; Hmm? Could he reunite in '15 with its newly
created Indy Lights team? But I'm jumping the gun here, eh? as Jack remained
with Carlin in 2012 and on the back of a resounding seven wins and twelve
podiums became that year's British F3 champion, which also netted him an
invitation to the Formula Renault 3.5 Rookie test.
continuing his association with Racing Steps,
which has supported him throughout his single seater career, Jack moved next to
GP3 in 2013, signing with Lotus GP and subsequently moved across the pond in
'14 to perennial Indy Lights powerhouse Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, where the
rest is history... As I know he won at
least four times last season, with double race sweeps at both Mid Ohio and
Sonoma.
And whilst I have NO idea on his current
season's plans, although I'd ARSE-sume he'll return to Indy Lights, and who
wouldn't wish to drive for multi-Lights champions Schmidt? I only speculated on
the Carlin angle since they're planning on establishing a B-I-G
CARZ',
nee IndyCar team in the future, which is naturally where Harvey, and all Lights
drivers aspire to end up at...
Honorable Mention
All five Indy Lights "Heavy
Hitters," especially Gabby Chaves and Mathew Brabham...
NIFSTAR
WINNERS
2014: Jack Harvey
2013: Conor Daly
2012: Tristan Nunez
2007: Marcus Wilkinson
EuroNifStar
This by far was my most difficult selection, as my
short list included, in NO particular order: Roberto Merhi, Dean Stoneman, Mitch
Evans, Stoffel Vandoorne and Marvin Kirchhofer;
CRIKEYS!
Winner
Dean Stoneman, Age 24
Born: July 24, 1990
Birthplace: Croydon, Great Britain
2014 Results: GP3 Runner-up
Dean Colin Stoneman began his racing career
via the tried 'N true method of Karting, making the transition to single
seaters in '06 before making the move fulltime in 2007, where he was the
Formula Renault BARC runner-up before moving up the ladder to Formula Renault
2.0 UK.
In '08, Stoneman captured the first of his
two championships to date, the FR 2.0 UK Graduate Cup, while finishing fourth
overall twice in the main FR 2.0 UK championship.
For 'Twenty-ten, Stoneman cruised comfortably
to the FIA Formula 2 title with six victories, finishing 42-points ahead of
series runner-up, somebody named Jolyon Palmer, the reigning GP2 champion.
For '11 Dean was intent on joining another
Super Star in the making, whom I've coyly denoted as Daniel 'Ricky Ricciardo,
with the pair set to race for the Czech Republic's ISR Racing Formula Renault 3.5 team before
Dean was diagnosed with testicular cancer...
Fortunately Stoneman recovered fully and
returned to racing in the Porsche Carerra Cup GB in 2013, winning his first two
races back before reacclimatizing himself with single seaters with a few GP3
drives end of season for Finland's Koiranen GP.
For the 2014 GP3 season, Stoneman drove for
Manor Marussia Racing, obviously with grandeur of moving up the ladder further,
having tested for Team Willy, aka Williams F1 as prize for his F2 championship
previously. Yet as we all know, sadly Marussia's gone out of business, and this
left the Englishman scrambling to find a team to finish the season with, as
fortunately Koiranen
GP stepped-up to the plate, welcoming Dean back to their
fold and Stoneman summarily finished
runner-up on the back of a very impressive five win season...
Honorable Mention
Like I said, picking the inaugural No Fenders
EuroNifStar trophy winner was a truly difficult choice, with my original
selection being Mitch Evans, the racing driver, not Unlimited Hydroplane racer;
Hooah! While I'm also drawn to Roberto
Merhi, who's done great things with Zeta Corse - while I'd say
McLaren F1 "Simulator Jockey" Stoffel Vandoorne definitely
shouldn't be looked over, nor Marvin
Kirchhofer who
finished a very respectable third in GP3...
EuroNIFStar
Winners
2014: Dean Stoneman