America's Next Rising Stars Conor Daly and Alexander Rossi Hope To
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AMERICA'S NEXT RISING STARS CONOR DALY AND ALEXANDER ROSSI HOPE TO ITH THE TOP DOWN, stereo cranked, and sta- speedometer winds past 120 mph, 130, 140. He brakes firmly and bility control off, the black BMW M6 glides through carves into a left-hander, As the car rotates down toward the apex, the neon caverns of Las Vegas. At the wheel, he plants the gas pedal and deftly catches the sliding rear end with W twenty-year-old Alexander Rossi is driving his fa- an effortless application of opposite lock. Up ahead, a roundabout ther's car with the nonchalance and grace you'd expect of the only awaits. Rossi pulls off to the side of the road to let a few cars pass. American holding an "FIASuper License-a prerequisite for racing His father, Pieter, knows what's next. "Don't hit the curb," he mur- in Formula 1. Although he's just finished an elaborate celebratory murs, more concerned about his expensive wheels than any may- dinner after meetings with potential sponsors at the Consumer hem to come. Alexander doesn't bother to reply. When the round- Electronics Show, Rossi shows remarkable restraint as he cruises about is clear, he nails the throttle, cranks in a bunch of steering, through the typical flotsam of a Las Vegas night. He ignores a and dirt-tracks around the traffic circle in a heady haze of engine young reveler who's retching outside the open door of his limou- noise and tire smoke. sine, then declines a challenge to street race with a sport-utility After completing one full revolution in perfect drift form, he vehicle filled with giggling hotties. In fact, he hardly pushes the comes to a stop. "How are your rear tires?" he asks his father. speed limit until passing well beyond the city limits on his way to "OK. Why?" his hotel near Lake Las Vegas. "1 want to do it again." There's nothing out here-no cars, no cops, no traffic lights, Pieter shakes his head. "Once is fine. But then somebody calls just a long, straight furrow of empty road that fairly beckons for the cops, and that's how you get into trouble. Come on, we'll be speed. Rossi can't resist the temptation to let the V-lO sing, and the back here on the way to the airport tomorrow." l:i! :g ! :.: Z ""S "'11:1 "",_ZIG -',_"'co ZJ: c:>"- ... ~ :18 La""I- '_J: co c, BRING AN AMERICAN PRESENCE BACK TO THE GRAND PRIX SCENE. And there, in a single 360, is Team Rossi in action: Alexander So it's not inconceivable that there might be not one but two Amer- takes care of business in the cockpit with verve, aplomb, and preci- icans fighting for Fl podiums a few years down the road. sion. Pieter is the deal-maker, the sponsor-finder, the whatever-it- It's been a long time coming. The lack of competitive Ameri- takes guy who keeps his son's career on the right course. Working to- cans in the world's most expensive, exotic, and internationally gether, they've secured a highly coveted slot as a reserve driver for popular form of racing has long been the source of national soul- Caterham Fl, which means Alexander will test during free practice searching, especially during an era when F1 is drawing drivers before grands prix in 2012. And next year, if all goes according to from motors ports backwaters such as Poland, Russia, and India. Team Rossi's fastidiously laid plans, he'll be the first American to race After all, what do they have that we don't? The issue seems par- in Formula 1 since Scott Speed flamed out so spectacularly in 2007. ticularly galling now that a U.S. Grand Prix is scheduled for Aus- Meanwhile, halfway across the country, the heartland racing tin, Texas, in November and a second Fl race in New Jersey is ten- mecca of Indianapolis is the unlikely home of another father and tatively set for 2013. And as Derek Daly puts it, "Unless there is an son chasing the Fl dream. Actually, the father-Derek Daly-spent American driver in Fl, those races will not succeed:' five seasons in Formula 1 before hanging up his racing suit. Now, So plenty of eyes are on young Rossi and Daly. Not just in For- he's using his Fl contacts and hard-headed negotiating skills to mula 1 but also here in the States. Will they be the next coming of help his twenty-year-old son, Conor, follow in his wheel tracks. Phil Hill and Mario Andretti, the only Americans to win world This year, Conor will do his second consecutive season in GP3, charnpionships? Or will they join the long list of Americans who which is an international open-wheel series that's two rungs below made a run at F1 but didn't have the talent, or money, or luck-or Fl, and he's reportedly on the radar of at least one Formula 1team. all three-to make it to the top? mericans haven't always been strangers to Formula 1. During the 1960s and '70s, there was a formidable American contingent in international rnotorsports, but the ranks of Yanks thinned considerably in the '80s. The pipeline dried up after A Michael Andretti's debacle at McLaren in 1993. Unable to get enough proper testing time in a difficult car and unwilling to commit to living in Europe, Andretti looked second-rate next to his teammate-who happened to be Ayrton Senna at the height of his powers. The episode convinced Fl movers and shakers that there was no reason to look for drivers in the United States. If the mountain wouldn't go to Muhammad, then journalist/broadcaster Jeremy Shaw-a Brit who'd moved to the States-realized Muhammad would have to go to the mountain. With the help of various motorsports professionals, Shaw created the Team U.SA. Scholarship in 1990 to help Americans race in the hotly contested and closely watched Formula Ford Festival in the United Kingdom. Besides spotlighting the talent of young Americans, the idea was to show Americans what it took to succeed in Europe. "Here, the racing is a lot more chummy and fun," Shaw says. "Over there, it's much more cutthroat. You get thrown in at the deep end, and you're on your own." Shaw proved to be a remarkably prescient evaluator of young talent; the Team U.S.A. honor roll includes top-shelf pros such as Jimmy Vasser, Bryan Herta, Buddy Rice, A. J. Allmendinger, and Joey Hand. Eventually, though, it became clear that one European race a year wasn't going to cut it. So the next generation of American Fl hopefuls moved to Europe. Patrick Long, Paul Edwards, Jonathan Summerton, and Josef Newgarden showed plenty of speed, but their progress up the European formula-car ranks stalled when they ran out of money, and they returned to solid careers in the States. Only Scott Speed grabbed the brass ring, largely thanks to the financial backing and marketing clout of Red Bull. Formula car racing is hellishly expensive, especially in Europe. A ride in a premier GP3 team runs about $800,000. To that, add travel and living expenses. And insurance. And crash damage. "We didn't have a Brazilian bank account with gazillions of dollars, so we had to be creative," Pieter Rossi recalls. When Alexander was racing in the For- mula BMW series here in the States, the Rossis defrayed their expenses by putting to- gether elaborate VIP programs for paying guests. Later, they created a limited partner- ship composed of commercial sponsors and personal investors to fund their racing program in Europe. Conor Daly has taken a somewhat different route. Until this year, most of his racing expenses have been covered by scholarship money earned tile previous season. For 2012, though, he struggled to come up with the funding for another year in GP3, and his father says they came close to forming a Rossi-style investment group. Derek Daly acknowledges that his own reputation in Europe probably helped his son secure a race seat with a front-running team. "But no matter what doors I can open, Con or has to be strong enough to walk through them by himself," he says. "Racing has a way of finding you out very, very quickly." here's not much shop taJk about racing while DaJy and tional component. (Three of last year's Fl drivers were former Rossi kill time during a photo shoot in San Diego. That's Formula BMW champions.) He won three times during his first business, after all. Instead, the conversation is dominated season, in the States. His second, he won the World FinaJs in Mex- Tby the mundane stuff that interests most rwenry-year-olds. ico City, which earned him a Sauber-BMW F1 test (and an FIA "So, have you met any famous people in Formula l?" Daly Super License). In 2009, Rossi excelled in the InternationaJ For- asks Rossi. mula Master Champions. The next year, he won twice during a Rossi thinks it over. ''NataJie Portman at Cannes," he says. frustrating up-and-down GP3 season. Last year, he was third in ''Noway!'' World Series by Renault, which is one rung down from Formula 1 Rossi scores extra points with Jennifer Lopez in Monaco and and which has produced two world champions in Fernando Paul McCartney in Abu Dhabi.