Max’s season of competition ended at Laguna Seca in the United States, but not in the LMP1 Zytek as expected. Instead it was a one off race in the Star Mazda Series which gave an opportunity to compare him with the best young American single seater racers and Max acquitted himself well, qualifying a very impressive 4th overall.
Max had hoped to be making his US debut driving alongside older brother Tom in the Arena Motorsport entered Zytek. The brothers had driven the car together earlier this year in the Le Mans Series event at Silverstone, finishing 5th. However the organisers of the American Le Mans Series would not allow Max at 16 years old to compete. Despite the appeals of Arena and Max’s management, IMSA would not grant a dispensation to their minimum age of 18 and therefore it appeared Max had travelled to Laguna Seca in vain.
A deal was struck late on Thursday afternoon for Max to race in the Star Mazda Series which supports the ALMS and is America’s closest equivalent to Formula 3. An opportunity existed to drive one of Velocity Motorsport’s cars alongside their lead driver James Davison who was 2nd in the Series point’s standings.
In spite of having never seen the car or circuit before and having only an hours free practice on the Friday, Max immediately set times in the top ten and during Saturday’s qualifying session he stunned the regulars and his new team by qualifying 4th fastest, ahead of his experienced and successful team mate.
The race featured a rolling start, something which Max had years of experience of from his Karting days and as the field accelerated away at the start, Max held his place into turn 1. Unfortunately he got pushed wide on the exit, onto the dusty line and therefore struggled with dirty tyres through the next two corners. Having lost many places on that opening lap, any chances to make up much ground were lost when the majority of the 45 minute race was held behind the safety car.
Max ended his race in 15th place, disappointed not to have been able to convert his pace into a good result as he described after the race;
“It has been a good experience for me to do this. The cars are similar to the F3 but with more power and less downforce. The main difference though is the tyres which in this are cross-plys, not radials and very difficult when they are cold. I was always going to find it hard in the opening laps of the race as I hadn’t got any experience of racing these cars and it really didn’t help getting pushed off line at the first corner. The race, or rather the procession, was disappointing, but I’m happy that I could show my pace in testing and more importantly in qualifying. I would like to thank the Velocity Motorsport team for giving me the opportunity and being so helpful and friendly. It has been an enjoyable surprise having come out here expecting to race with Tom in the sportscar.”
