GETTING much closer to my dream!

That’s how Michele Bumgarner actually describes her blooming career in car racing when she recently announced the start of her training for next year’s Champ Car Atlantic Series in the United States following her impressive performance in the 2007 Accelerate Shoot Out Program, a three-day competition held in different types of cars and on various racetracks such as Las Vegas, Nevada and Laguna Seca, California.

“I’m really amazed that I’m getting closer to my dream of being a Formula One driver. I’m still young but I know I can reach my dream in the near future,” Bumgarner said after a recent press conference at the City Kart in Sucat, Parañaque.

Last week she left for the US to join the S&L Racing/Newman-Wachs Team, which signed her up as its newest driving sensation. S&L Racing is a relatively new North Carolina-based team owned by former NFL Hall of Fame member Gale Sayers and former Super Bowl MVP Ray Lewis.  The team entered into partnership with Newman-Wachs, which is coowned by actor and racing aficionado Paul Newman and Eddie Wachs, who are together fielding a team in the Champ Car Atlantic Series. Bumgarner is scheduled to undergo an intensive driver-development program before actually competing in December in Phoenix, Arizona.

Bumgarner is also scheduled to race in Formula Atlantics in San Jose and Baltimore next year and hopes to make good there in order to move up to the Champ Car World Series or the Indy Racing League, where the sensational female driver Danica Patrick is currently seeing action.

“I already tested and trained in the various cars for the team, and I’m also undergoing rigorous weight training so I can be fit throughout the year,” said Bumgarner, who turns 18 in two months.

The meteoric rise of Bumgarner can be attributed to her focus and determination to succeed. In her quest to further excel in racing, she retired from karting early this year and concentrated in joining the Accelerate program as part of her preparation to enter the tough US racing circuit.

She beat her rival-colleagues one by one to win the three-day series and wowed her mentors, paving the way for her signing as one of S&L Racing’s drivers. “We are excited to have Michele on the S&L Racing Team. Her experience behind the wheel, her knowledge of racing and her desire to win are what we were looking for a driver,” said Sayers.

For his part, Lewis said: “Having a driver who has the will to win and the courage to excel was the most important factor in picking Michele. She has proven she can race. She now has the opportunity to win with S&L Racing. As a professional athlete and a racing fan, I’m excited to be part-owner of a racing team with Gale, whose goal is not only to win but to help give people a chance to be winners.”

Bumgarner said that she is very much respectful of the team’s chief engineer, Don Halliday, who has also handled Patrick in the past. “He’s really good, and I’m very thankful that I have him on our team,” Bumgarner said.

S&L Racing described Halliday as “part of the rare breed of racer and engineer among the few to build and drive his own race cars successfully.” Halliday began as a driver at 21 while studying mechanical engineering and, within four years, won the New Zealand Formula Vee Championship in a car he designed and built in 1977. The next year he dedicated himself exclusively to the engineering side and began working on some of the world’s most famous race teams. From McLaren and Brabham, where he was part of winning the 1983 World Championship in Formula One, he moved to Truesports, Team Kool Green and Team Rahal in Champ Cars. He has worked with a litany of great drivers, including the three-time world champion Nelson Piquet and Indy 500 winner Kenny Brack. In addition to his responsibilities with Newman-Wachs Racing, Halliday is founder and president of Halliday technologies, an engineering firm holding numerous groundbreaking patents.

Also in the team are Mark Bloom­quist, the team business manager, and Ove Olsson, the team manager who has 37 years of auto-racing experience behind him. He had worked in the Porsche factory in Stuttgart, Germany, before starting his own business called Olsson Engineering in the US. He has worked with the likes of legendary racers such as Brian Redman and Michael Andretti and has collected championship titles across several race disciplines.

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GETTING much closer to my dream!

That’s how Michele Bumgarner actually describes her blooming career in car racing when she recently announced the start of her training for next year’s Champ Car Atlantic Series in the United States following her impressive performance in the 2007 Accelerate Shoot Out Program, a three-day competition held in different types of cars and on various racetracks such as Las Vegas, Nevada and Laguna Seca, California.

IT seems that there’s no other way to deal with the ever-increasing cost of gasoline but to look for alternative means of powering our cars and vehicles.