A1 TEAM USA owner Rick Weidinger wrote this diary on the opening day of the 2007-08 A1GP season.
Silverstone, England
Has it really been three months since the Indianapolis 500? The days have been flying by this summer and suddenly, the third A1GP season is upon us. I’m at Silverstone, England, for the first testing for 2007-08 for A1 TEAM USA and 21 other teams/nations. We’ll be here two days with Buddy Rice and Jonathan Summerton in the “We The People” car. Watching the new season unfold is always exciting. It carries a sense of anticipation and optimism that a great season of racing is ahead.
Buddy drove the A1 TEAM USA/A1 GP car we co-owned in the Indy 500 this year and I invited him to test with us. He was in the car today, but we’ll write more about it in a couple of days. I spent the summer fine-tuning our team. We have over 80 percent of our crew members returning and have increased our American involvement by hiring Geoff Bushor as our data engineer and Ric Landis as a mechanic. I’ve promoted Leon Gutfreund to race engineer. He’s been with me since my days in the IndyCar Series and was our data acquisition engineer for the last two years of A1GP. He’ll do an excellent job for us this season. We think we’ve made our team much better this year and everyone is tasked with specific responsibilities to maximize our racing performance.
We’ve also been busy on the commercial side of our team. We began a relationship with Burger King last season and we’re working on continuing it. Myself, Roger and Rusty flew to Miami recently to meet with their management and they’ve asked us to come back with a proposal that includes three international cities. We’re making constructive progress with a company we’d really like to partner with and prove that A1 TEAM USA can be a very effective way to promote and sell their product. We are confident we can create value to the BK stakeholders and franchisees.
A1GP made a major announcement on the opening day of the test. We’re going to use a biofuel, 30 percent ethanol mix, this season as our way to contribute to reducing carbon emissions and increasing environmental awareness to a global audience. The biofuel will reduce our emissions by 21 percent, but won’t harm our horsepower. It’s a good thing, a step in the right direction and I’m pleased that A1GP has taken a leadership role in the promotion of biofuels.
That’s about it for today. Jonathan Summerton gets in the “We The People” car tomorrow. It will be another exciting and interesting day.
I hope to communicate with you all on a regular and consistent basis during this our third season of A1 GP. Make sure to send questions and comments.
All the best.