Continuing on with
this languishing Awards ceremony, this year's candidates were chosen from the
previous No Fenders story;
As the Driver Candidates included:
Tristan Nunez; USA, Mathew Brabham; USA, Chris Yano; USA, Zach Veach;
USA, Robin Frijns;
Netherlands, Esteban Guerrieri ; Argentina, Antonio Felix da
Costa; Portugal, Carlos Munoz; Columbia and Conor Daly; USA.
As this award is done very
NON-Scientifically, first of all, I think A-L-L of the Drivers should be
awarded the prize, yet I'm supposed to narrow I-T down to one competitor,
right?
that being said, my initial short-list
consisted of five drivers, albeit with one already having won the 2012 award,
i.e.; Tristan Nunez, I decided to drop him
from consideration. Although I suppose in future years it should be possible to
have repeat winners, right?
That leaves me with just the following four
Open Wheel Racing standouts to choose from, in
NO particular order: Zach Veach, Esteban Guerrieri,
Carlos Munoz and Conor Daly.
As how could Yuhs not like the affable Zachery
Veach, who was growing before our eyes,
having just graduated to Indy Lights, the Mazda Road To Indy's final ladder
step for perennial IndyCar powerhouse team Andretti Autosport.
Esteban Guerrieri was
a personal favourite 'O mine, especially for his NON-PC Machine Gun victory
dance celebrations, as sadly this Sam Schmidt driver's vanished from the
IndyCar scene.
And while not originally Hip upon Carlos
Munoz, his 'Mega rookie IndyCar drive grabbed my Attenzione, having since
garnered the nickname Silk, for his Oh, So Smooth driving style and soft spoken
manner. As the twenty-something Columbian rolled off from an astounding P2 in
his debutant Indy 500 and B-I-G CARZ' outing, leading 12-laps en route to an excellante runner-up finish behind 'TK
Follow-your-Schnoz Kanaan, easily netting him (ROY) Rookie Of the Year honours
at Mother Speedway...
thus, Y'all are probably way ahead here, eh?
As that leaves just Conor Daly, who indeed is my 2013 nifSTAR trophy winner. As
how can Yuhs not like Conor's
rags-to-riches drive up the proverbial ladder, albeit Conor would be the first to quickly tell Yuhs
he AIN'T rich!
As the lad from Noblesville, Indiana, who's
dream is thee pinnacle 'O motorsport, nee Formula 1 has driven the wheels off a
variety of single seater machinery in his quest to be America's next F1 talent.
While alas, with
NO disrespect to Conor; Marussia and (more
importantly) Formula 1 manage to let the golden opportunity of Yank' Alexander
Rossi not driving at last year's USGP in Austin, Texas slip by, which means Formula
One's got nobody to blame but themselves from letting that marketing bonanza go
untapped! Which seemingly underscores how little F1 treasures truly cracking
the US marketplace wide open, and thus, how can a somewhat "Regular
Joe" from Noblesville ever hope to compete?
But back to thy young Conor, who's a Go Kart
champion, Skip Barber and Star Mazda champion and has chased his passion of
Formula 1 ascendancy with multiple seasons spent racing in the sport's feeder
series GP3 and GP2. As Daly's won in GP3 along with scoring points in GP2,
having just contested the series season finale on Yas Island for Venezuela GP Lazarus, aka Team Lazarus.
In 2012, Conor got his dream of driving a
Formula 1 chassis when he was drafted into service by Force India for a
Straight-line 'Aero test before tackling the Indian MRF
series, which I believe he won? As I know he
at least won a round of it at the then BYDD International Circuit, site of the
2011-13 Indian Grand Prix's.
And whilst Conor was ultimately outshone by his fellow rookie
classmate Carlos Munoz at Mother Speedway, I'd say that the younger Daly had a
more difficult time adapting to the DW12 at race speeds around the Brickyard,
being the only rookie to crash in the build-up to qualifying I believe...
Conor's other Indy 500 rookie classmates
included IndyCar's lone regular season rookie Tristan Turbo' Vautier, then the
reigning Indy Lights champion finishing 16th.
As I've still got a Pair of his (somewhat)
limited edition Coastal.com "CHEAP SUNGLASSES!" Adorning the
kitchen's microwave; Hey! Y'all know that song 'bout the future's so bright
I've gotz thus wear shades; YIKES!
While the final member of the year's rookie
quartet was A.J. Allmendinger, making an impressive Open Wheel return for 'El
Capitano, nee Roger Penske who was helping him rebuild his racing career, with
the 'Dinger finishing an impressive seventh after leading several laps.
As this was my sentimental favourite, albeit
thee 'Dinger's gone back to "Taxi-cab" racing instead, having won his
first Sprint Cup race at Watkins Glen last year, en route to making 'Duh Chase before I spotted him clouting' the Homestead wall twice during the
season finale in his pursuit of finishing tenth overall in the 2014 Sprint Cup
standings.
Conor, who seemingly had the least "Seat
Time" in a Dallara DW12, drove for the storied Indy Car Series owner A.J.
Foyt in his second Indy 500 entry, the
No. 41 ABC Supply car, for which the
Hoosier put into the show in P31, and
finished a very respectable P22, albeit 2-laps down before returning to Europe
to contest another season of GP2, this time
for the aforementioned Team Lazarus.
Hence, as Conor's already alluded to, do to
his not having the requisite $12-15m (Euro) retainer to buy a seat in F1; if one even becomes available this
year? Then it'd be great to see Honda help the gutsy American driver give the
Chevy runners somebody to worry 'bout in
Indy Cars in 2015! Can Y'all say Schmidt Peterson Motorsport's second seat?
Like C'mon guys, hire Conor already!
NIFSTAR
WINNERS
2013: Conor Daly
2012: Tristan Nunez
2007: Marcus Wilkinson