One way or another, it has been quite a week for Russ Danzey – one that began with the highly-rated young Sheffield star successfully achieving his required GCSE grades to be accepted onto the prestigious Advanced Apprenticeship in Sporting Excellence (AASE), and that ended with his maiden car racing podium in only his third-ever outing to put the cherry on top of the cake.
The AASE is billed as ‘a government-funded programme designed to help talented drivers achieve their sporting potential, achieve competitive advantage and pursue a career in motorsport’, and is a scheme reserved strictly for elite athletes, making Russ’ selection quite an accolade. Essentially a sports science course for ‘young people between 16 and 18 who have the realistic potential to achieve excellence and perform at the highest level’, it is run by the MSA – and endorsements don’t come much higher than from Britain’s motorsport governing body.
Based at Loughborough College and with established names of the likes of multiple British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) race-winner Tom Onslow-Cole on-hand for guidance and mentoring, the young AASE intakes from the realms of junior circuit racing formulae like Russ as well as karting, motorcycling and rallying will benefit from a structured programme over two years targeted at making them better all-round drivers. The Dore-based hotshot can scarcely wait to begin.
“They’ve taken on some young drivers that they feel have the best potential in the country, and aim to give them more skills and a better grounding to improve their chances of becoming professional racing drivers,” explained the 16-year-old, who will dovetail his AASE commitments with A-Levels in maths, physics and electronics at Birkdale School. “They encourage elite athletes to maintain their studies whilst achieving their sporting goals.
“They cover all aspects with psychologists, nutritionists, fitness trainers and time-management experts, even all the way down to teaching us how to explain to our friends and schoolmates what we do, because a lot of them don’t understand just how much time motor racing takes up.
“It’s fantastic to be on the course, and a great privilege to have even been recognised. I’m so proud to be considered ‘elite’ and it’s just a massive boost for me; you always believe in yourself, of course, but to get something like this, I really couldn’t ask for anymore, and I’m looking forward to it so much.”
As if that alone wasn’t enough, just a handful of days later Russ headed to Thruxton in Hampshire, ready to do battle again in the inaugural Autosport Young Guns single-seater series in his 135bhp, 130mph John Surtees Scholarship machine around the quickest circuit in the country. He might not have had any opportunity to try the track out beforehand, but it was clear that the Falcon Motorsport ace was not going to let that hold him back.
“The first time I saw it was on Friday, and we only had one practice session before qualifying,” he revealed. “I found it a very nice circuit to drive – virtually the whole lap is literally flat-out, with only a couple of real braking places. After the practice session I already felt quite comfortable – we were really quick, and I was catching one of my team-mates who was third in the championship for most of the season.”
Despite having to contend with a few persistent if inevitable niggling issues with his car being so new still – with a disobedient throttle providing the main cause for concern – Russ maturely reflected that ‘in a sense that’s actually making me a better driver, because I’m having to work harder’ and went on to qualify a solid fifth as he continued to build up his confidence levels around the fearsomely fast track, leaving him bullish about his race day prospects.
“In the first race I didn’t make the best start I’ve ever made,” he candidly confessed. “I got a bit too much wheelspin off the line, and whilst I was still challenging for fifth into the first corner, I was on the outside line so I had to concede the place.
“After that, the car was quite twitchy at the front end and the throttle problem came back quite severely. I consequently lost the tow a little bit to the cars ahead, and that’s worth about half-a-second-a-lap around Thruxton. That made it hard to keep up, but I just managed to get fifth back towards the end, and we knew we could make some adjustments to help it go a little bit quicker in race two.
“My start was much better second time around, and initially I was challenging for fourth, but then two cars ahead almost came together which forced me to back off, so I stayed fifth. I was pulling away from sixth place and catching the two drivers in front of me, but then the throttle problem returned and sent me completely sideways through the chicane, which lost me some ground and allowed the guy behind to pass me.
“The three ahead then began fighting amongst themselves, which helped me to catch back up again and get right onto the back of them. Through the long, sweeping left-hander just after the Complex I got up the inside of fifth place with a few laps to go, which put my front wheel just ahead of his going into the next corner, and I just squeezed him a little bit so that he had to yield. I was then gaining on third and fourth again when the two leaders collided into the last corner on the last lap, which promoted me to third!”
A rostrum finish in only his third meeting out of karts was a magnificent accomplishment, and one that will doubtless give Russ’ confidence a significant boost as he now evaluates his options for 2011. A genuine milestone so early on in his fledgling car racing career, the South Yorkshire speed demon acknowledged that he has greatly enjoyed his initial foray into single-seater racing – and is now palpably hungry for more.
“The top two finishers were both 18, so two years older than me and a lot more experienced too,” he mused in conclusion. “It was fantastic to be on the podium with them – I hadn’t been expecting that at all! When I had seen drivers up there earlier on in the season, every time they had always kept their bottles of champagne closed – but this time, I was the first one to pop the champagne open and really celebrate! It’ll certainly be a hard week to follow!
“It’s been really good to get the experience in Autosport Young Guns and to race against good drivers like I have done, and to have had such a supportive team principal at Falcon as Nick Streatfield and Craig Dolby as a driver coach has brought me on hugely, I feel. It’s definitely all a massive learning curve, and incredibly exciting. We’re not really sure what the plan is next, but there are a few things on the table so we’ll just have to see what the best offer is. I can’t wait for next year now, to be honest – and to go into it even stronger!”
Russ is now seeking sponsorship for 2011, and if you are interested in backing South Yorkshire’s brightest budding F1 hope, please contact his father Rob on 07779 995555 or at: robert.danzey@mac.com
