The Sights and Sounds of A1GP

From the moment the A1GP cars went on to the track last weekend it was obvious the 'main show' had taken center stage. The most distinct feature of the cars being their 550 horse power v8 Zytek racing engines, which create a brilliant sound. It isn't the hollow noise that many American manufactured v8 engines produce, instead an effecient wail that eminates from the 3.4 litre powerplant. The 'rifle crack' backfire that follows a drivers downchange of the gears is startling if you are not prepared.

Inside the A1GP paddock at Brands Hatch the only way to describe the atmosphere is global. With 22 nations represented in the series known as the 'Olympics of Motorsport' there were drivers, crews, and team representatives from the farthest reaches of the world. While there are many traditional motorsport nations entering cars such as Great Britain, Germany, Italy, United States, and Brazil there are many other nations represented who have not been linked to a racing in the past such as Pakistan, Indonesia, Lebanon, and Malaysia. It is certainly interesting to see these nations expanding their international profile through motorsport.

This global atmosphere was further accentuated by the pagenatry that one expects in a F1 grid however with the multi-cultural atmosphere this is taken to another level with Brazilian samba dancers, Chinese dragon's, and Roman soldiers adding to the color.

Beyond the shiny pagentry, on the track, some very serious competition was taking place. The A1GP series travels around the world to ten different countries for race meetings where a sprint and final race take place for team to earn championship points. While the traditional motorsport calendar takes place in the summer months, A1GP races during the winter and was finishing their final round at Brands Hatch. A number of competitors from A1GP have gone on to race Formula 1 including Timo Glock of the Toyota F1 team as well as Nelson Pique Jr. who now drives for Renault F1. The race winner on this particular day turned out to be India's Narain Karthikeyan a former Williams F1 test driver.

During my time in the paddock I had a chance to meet with Tim Tuttle the public relations director for Team USA. Aside from his responsibilities with the United States team he is also a journalist for Sports Illustrated covering a number of different racing series from Le Mans to NASCAR and could possibly have more 'racing stories' than anyone I know.

During my time meeting with Mr. Tuttle he seemed intrigued by my story along with my past experience in karts where I raced against and beat one of their teams previous drivers. Whether or not he was impressed i'm not sure, but he did pull the owner of the team aside, introduced us, and we spoke for about thirty minutes.

The team owner is a gentleman by the name of Rick Weidinger who has a racing background with the Indy Racing League where he was involved with Kelly Racing. Furthermore he is an extremely succesful businesman from the technology sector. It was very interesting to speak with him and learn about his strategy and approach to racing and how that has been influenced by his business career. He pointed at continuity within the team, especially the crew, which he believed caused the improvement in performance and earned their first win at the Shanghai Circuit earlier this year.

At the end of our conversation Mr. Weidinger provided me with his contact details, so you can rest assure I will be staying in touch with him! I was very happy to learn about the approach he takes with his team. To drive for A1GP Team USA would be a dream.

I Hope you are doing well. I am staying very busy and will write again as soon as I have a free moment!

Cheers

Michael