Grand Prix Shootout

[Ausdriver]

Hi everyone,
My name is Ash Bettridge, a current Australian Formula Three driver from Perth, Western Australia.
The voting for the competition 'Grand Prix Shootout' started at 1st of September 2009. It is between 80 drivers in the world.
This contest gives a driver the chance to move a step further in his/her racing career, because the winner gets a full season in Formula BMW Europe for free (worth approximately EUR 225.000/ season!).
So if you can spare a few seconds – please give me a little help on the way. Every vote is important.
Please vote for me here: http://www.driverdb.com/drivers/23494/
Fill in your e-mail address and vote. Then you’ll get an e-mail with a link. Just click on it to validate your vote.
Ps. I would appreciate if you would want to spread this information to your friends.
Thank you for your vote!
Regards
Ash

[MagnetON]

Hi Ash,

good luck with that!

[R4z3rw33n]

Always good to see another Australian attempting to tackle the European scene instead of just messing around down under.

Done/done.
All the best.

[Ausdriver]

Thank you for your support!

Ash

[speedkills]

I notice that James Kovacic, Nick Percat, Daniel Ericson and many other Aussies are also vying for a trip via the www.driverdb.com website. So it appears there are many more aussies in need of support. James Kovacic website www.jameskovacic.com even has a free merchandise pack to anyone that registers and votes and confirms by registering on the driver data base as a fan! That is good value for merely registering a free vote.

Good luck to all the Aussies.

I do feel perhaps that the whole SHootout thing will be difficult especially as the prize is to get a free drive in the FBMW European season for 2010. I have notice many driver registered over 21 years of age. This is the maximum age for FBMW as it is a junior formula. Furthermore if you are 21 and hoping to make it this way - your wasting your time as these days if you havent made it at least to F2 or GP2 by 21 - your career is over as far as getting to F1.

I think the concept is great - but I believe it will be a matter of who you know and not how good you are!

[sunseeker]

Well as you may or may not know, Nick Percat has just wrapped up the 2009 championship in Australian Formula Ford, but what for the future?.... Well one chance he has, is to compete in the Grand Prix Shootout, which would pay for him to race in Europe... If he is fast enough who knows where he can go?!


Simply, all you have to do is log onto his Driver Database profile, and type in your email address and click vote! yes its that simple!! Then simply click on the link that will be emailed to you and you've have helped give one of Australia's most talented young drivers a chance...

so what are you waiting for?

http://www.driverdb.com/drivers/10915/

for more information on what it is all about see http://www.grandprixshootout.com

each internet connection can vote up to 10 times (10 email addresses for the one IP) so everyone in your house or work can vote too! ( or if you have more than one email addy )

PS If you have the time, please send this link onto as many people as you can as every little vote counts !!!

http://www.nickpercat.com

results speak for themselves most wins in 40yr history of Formula Ford....

20 races this year for 19 podiums and 12 wins!

see http://www.formulaford.com.au for details

suffice to say there are a few drivers that are searching for votes here..... but I will let you decide on who you think is a worthy representitive for 10/10ths....

we will run a sticker on the car if we win!!!!!

[MOTORMAN]

I also wish the best of luck to everyone in the comp.

It is great to see Kovacic offer free merchandise packs however he may want to be careful as I noticed this is a popular competiton with some people already getting over 1000 votes. He may end up paying more than the entry fee. To enter in the competition you can also just pay the £6,950 to enter!

Good luck to everyone!

Hey I just noticed that you are James Kovacic's father.

Wish him all the best for me!

[positivethinker]

Good luck Ash.... we all voted here at Beyond Shelter ...

[ivanalesi]

Quite a lot of them are/will be over 21 y.o. in 2010, so what are they going to do with FBMW? The rules don't cover this...
Even if you're 20 in FBMW, it's again late considering the age of the competition, in FR2.0 it's more often to see drivers over 20.

[Morris Dancer]

I voted for Daniel Erickson because he's already waving the Aussie flag overseas by driving an Australian Spectrum in the British Formula Ford Championship (and punching above his weight for a low-budget rookie, just quietly).

However I can't help but be cynical about this 'competition'.

Who is the mysterious 'Andreas' who is organising it?

Is this the first time that it has been run, and if so what guaranteee - apart from associations with some high-profile people like Rob Wilson and Peter Windsor who've lent their support - is there that the 'final' will actually happen?

There doesn't appear to be an independent auditor of the results, so who's to say that the whole thing isn't rigged?

The only indisputable part is the free place in the 'final' that will go to the Formula Ford Festival winner.

Don't get me wrong - I really hope it's all kosher and the winner goes all the way to F1, but I've seen too many scams, er .. schemes, like this one fall over when the instigator takes off into the sunset with everyone's cash.

[N.A-D.R]

I voted James Kovacic. Only 16 and winning in America FBMW and was unlucky not to win the rookie championship. I'd like to see him race in Europe, im sure he would do very well.

[sunseeker]

The question has been raised on age V's FBMW etc...

I think if you read carefully the prize of FBMW is changeable to the driver's situation, i.e. if he is above this catagory you can use the budget for something else similar... renault etc...

Also DriverDB has been around for quiet sometime!! and Andreas is not some fly by night snake oil seller...

It will be a real shame if the top 3 selected are just "token" drivers... i.e. with no real hope of taking it all the way to the final!!!

If you are reading this and are still to vote... check this out :-

http://www.driverdb.com/future-racing-stars/

The future stars
Drivers aged 21 or younger ordered by number of race wins and race win percentage. Only seasons where both number of races and number of wins are available in the database are included.

Age Races Win % Wins
1. Caine Lobb 20 102 36.27% 37
2. Nigel Moore 17 55 60.00% 33
3. Nick Percat 21 92 34.78% 32
4. Earl Bamber 19 133 24.06% 32
5. Carl Skerlong 20 64 48.44% 31
6. Alexander Rossi 17 88 35.23% 31
7. Harald Schlegelmilch 21 158 18.99% 30
8. Gabriel Chaves 16 72 37.50% 27
9. Jayde Kruger 21 91 28.57% 26
10. J.R. Hildebrand 21 99 26.26% 26
11. Graham Carroll 19 54 46.30% 25
12. Patrick Barrett 20 55 43.64% 24
13. Mariano Werner 20 100 24.00% 24
14. Valtteri Bottas 20 66 34.85% 23
15. Richie Stanaway 17 77 29.87% 23
16. Will Bratt 21 140 16.43% 23
17. Callum MacLeod 21 59 37.29% 22
18. Daniel Ricciardo 20 94 22.34% 21
19. Brendon Hartley 19 160 13.13% 21
20. Felix Rosenqvist 17 55 36.36% 20
21. Josef Newgarden 18 75 26.67% 20
22. Jesse Krohn 19 96 20.83% 20

It would be nice to think that the winningest driver in Australian Formula Ford history is worthy of a shot....

[N.A-D.R]

It's only formula ford, he needs to get out and do formula bmw or f3 in Europe, or go to America and do star mazda or indy lights or whatever. Hes wasting his time doing 3-4 years in formula ford. Form ford is good when u finish karting and go straight into open wheelers when your 16-18, not when your 21. Hes done too many years in formula ford in my opinion.

[sunseeker]

Originally Posted by N.A-D.R

It's only formula ford, he needs to get out and do formula bmw or f3 in Europe, or go to America and do star mazda or indy lights or whatever. Hes wasting his time doing 3-4 years in formula ford. Form ford is good when u finish karting and go straight into open wheelers when your 16-18, not when your 21. Hes done too many years in formula ford in my opinion.

Isn't that the idea of this competion?

Anyhow he never had the $$$ to go front up and do FBMW off the bat, so had to do what he could, which was state FF (family run in an old clunker and win) national FF in a family run car working in the race shop to pay part of the bills... to then finally getting a 30% sponsor to pay for the last bit to do it with sonic...

given the chance, im sure FBMW or something like euro F3 after karts would have been ideal... but not really possible without a stupidly rich dad!

Nick's dad just runs a small repair workshop with 3 mechanics!!

hard to fund a 1 mill plus dip at the euro series...

put him in the car, and he is quick... just look at the natsoft results on his first EVER run in an F307 at oran park...

http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/re.../2008.ORAN.R14

and he isnt starting FF at 21 he actually finished FF at 20... the day before his 21st!

and for the record he was in state FF at 16 (the youngest you could be at the time)....

anyhow this is not about age, its about votes...

the shootout will not be based or judged on age, just ability and the driver's overall abilty to get to F1...

25yrs old in F1 is not too old by any strech!... in fact mark webber would say its the right age

[N.A-D.R]

What i mean't was he did too many years in FF, but it's not his fault. He should of been finished with it by 18 and gone to europe, but yeah he doesn't have money. Hes very quick, and could maybe do well in fbmw, i'd rather James Kovacic though.

[sunseeker]

I'd be very keen for a drive off between Ricciardo, Percat, Kovacic, Martin, Davison....

now that would be worth selling tickets for!!!

In say something neutral like an international formula master or F2.... (not that I endorse these but no one has driven it!)

your 100% right that he should have gone to europe at 18, but the finances only went as far as aussie cars!!! (sadly)...

winning from 38th at indy got him where he is today..... so its not all bad!

on a side note I think grant denyer is going to be doing a driver star show!!! (dancing with the stars meets minis?????)

oh and people :-

VOTE!

http://www.driverdb.com/drivers/10915/


gratuitous plug....

[N.A-D.R]

Ricciardo for sure.

[williamsf1]

Originally Posted by N.A-D.R

Ricciardo for sure.

ahhh....

They have raced before dare to guess the result?

[N.A-D.R]

Probably a few years ago, Daniel is alot better now.

[ivanalesi]

So, lots of talk and lots of promises. The USF1 dream is in ruins, what's left for the winners of this competition?
Messrs Windsor and Anderson will have a lot to explain.
5k for a test in street Abarth always seemed like a strange fee...

[Deemun]

Originally Posted by ivanalesi

So, lots of talk and lots of promises. The USF1 dream is in ruins, what's left for the winners of this competition?
Messrs Windsor and Anderson will have a lot to explain.
5k for a test in street Abarth always seemed like a strange fee...

Not only that but the two "winners" of the 2009 competition seem to be funding their own deals for 2010 so no money available either although reports suggest that they are both well funded anyway.

However I don't want to knock this sceme too much. I think it was a good idea and I know that David Fleming in particular has worked very hard to make it a success. Unfortunately like many others he's run into the current global economic crisis which I think will hit motorsport even harder in 2010.

I know of drivers that had deals sealed and confirmed and sponsors have pulled the rug from under them at the last minute because of circumstances. It's really tough at the moment!

[sunseeker]

this just in
Hi,

I'm just writing to tell you that we have already launched Grand Prix Shootout 2010. The competition is just the same as last year with a prize fund equivalent to a season in Formula BMW Europe plus extra driver training and support.

Our two winners from 2009, Tio Ellinas and Dani Domit will be racing this year in British Formula Ford or perhaps even Formula BMW Europe. We're still finalising the details and will know in the next week or so.

After speaking to drivers during last years competition we have decided to hold some cheaper "no frills" days to gauge people's response. Entry will be just £2,950 including VAT instead of £6,950 plus VAT (£8,166). We will, however, cut back on some of our lavish extras which some drivers felt (although nice) they could do without if the price was reduced! This involves three key things: reduced hospitality, a bit less seat time and you'll need to pay for the final if you make it which will be £2,950 including VAT.

You will have the exact same status as drivers paying the full entry fee so don't worry about that.

The first such days will be Tuesday 6th and Wednesday 7th of April at the Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground as usual. We don't know if we will hold any others so they may be the only ones. Because of that, we need to have payment one month in advance which means by 8th March.

Please let us know if you are interested. You can e-mail us or call David Fleming on 0447896044956.

I hope to hear from you soon.

Regards,

David Fleming
motorsportetc@googlemail.com
http://www.grandprixshootout.com

[ivanalesi]

Seems like they don't have much to do w/ the USF1 situation, good to know this.

[Redracer77]

Scam or legitimate scheme?

It seems that the “2” winners of the scholarship in 2009 are having to fund UK Formula Ford drives themselves and as we speak neither is confirmed for Knockhill this weekend. So after all the hype that the winner will be racing in the prestigious Formula BMW Series supporting F1 they are not getting any funding at all. I would be interested in other people’s views on this and maybe some clarification from David Fleming if he reads Ten Tenths.

Grand Prix Shootout were advertising a 2010 Scheme a few months back but all gone quiet now and no real updates in the website.

Any views?

[Redracer77]

Looking at companies House and the company running the scheme is Motorsport Etc Limited and accounts were meant to be filled in Feb 2010 and are now 3 months overdue.