– but brimful of confidence for Canadian adventure
Jack Hawksworth was denied a podium finish at the very least in the Iowa Speedway Foundation 100 – round six of the 2012 Star Mazda Championship – when a mechanical failure caused what he described as the biggest accident of his career to-date, but so impressive was his form around the flat-out Midwest oval, that the US racing rookie is confident of rediscovering his winning ways in the upcoming meetings.
Arriving stateside with a glittering reputation forged in karting and single-seaters in Britain and Europe, Jack confessed that at first, oval racing was completely ‘alien’ to him, tackling it as he was with no prior experience and facing a tremendous learning curve.
Although his oval baptism in the blue riband ‘Night Before the 500’ at Lucas Oil Raceway had yielded only seventh place – slim pickings indeed for a driver who had hitherto finished no lower than second in his new adventure the other side of the Pond – the Team Pelfrey ace stressed that it had nonetheless been extremely beneficial.
“We clearly didn’t come away with the result we had wanted at Lucas,” conceded the talented young Bradford-born speed demon, “but I learned a lot there and felt much more prepared heading to Iowa. Everything just seemed to ‘click’ this time; we had a really good car and were in the ballpark right from the outset.”
Featuring immediately inside the top six during practice around the fearsomely fast, 148mph average speedway, Jack went on to secure the outside front row grid slot in qualifying, breaking the lap record for good measure and missing out on pole position by a scant 0.024s. From there, the early-season Star Mazda pace-setter entered the race optimistic about his prospects of reclaiming the top step of the rostrum.
“For some reason, I lost momentum at the start and slipped down to fifth,” recalled the 21-year-old British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) Rising Star. “I quickly fought my way back through to third, at which point the two leaders were more than seven seconds ahead, but I closed that gap right up.
“I cruised up behind them and was piling on the pressure, when with just over 20 laps to go, I felt a vibration all the way along the back straight – and then as I entered Turn Four, I went one way and the car went the other and put me into the wall. I had no time to react.
“Looking at the replays, when I turned into the corner, the rear tyre was already off the car and heading towards the fence. I’ve never hit a wall as hard as that before – it was the first really big accident of my career, in truth – but I’ll say one thing...when you can walk away from a shunt like that a bit dazed but otherwise unhurt, it shows you just how strong and safe these Star Mazda cars are.
“I was gutted, though, because we had a superb car underneath us and would definitely have finished on the podium. Whilst I’m not sure I would have risked it all for the win given that I was already ahead of my main championship rival and set to extend my points advantage, I’m pretty confident we could have had second...”
Although Jack’s gritty, hard-charging effort – seeing him set the second-fastest lap of the race in his dogged pursuit of his two adversaries, a mere six hundredths adrift of the quickest outright – ultimately came to nought through no fault of his own and cost him the championship lead in the process, the highly-rated Cullingworth hotshot knows he can take much encouragement moving forwards.
As the 2012 Star Mazda schedule travels north for three Canadian races back-to-back in Toronto, Edmonton and the legendary Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières in Québec, he is positive that the return to street circuits and natural-terrain road courses – on which he proved so devastatingly successful earlier in the campaign – will similarly herald a return to victory lane.
“In terms of the championship, obviously Iowa was very disappointing,” mused the TORGOEN Swiss brand ambassador, “but in terms of my oval performance, it was a bit of a breakthrough. I knew the potential was there at Lucas, but it was good to actually demonstrate it and be able to genuinely fight. Anybody who perhaps doubted after Lucas that I could race on an oval, now knows different.
“The failure we suffered was just one of those things and you have to move on, and I’m really looking forward to getting back onto the road courses and street circuits again. We’ve won twice on those types of track already this year, so I’m convinced we can regain our early-season form and re-assert our authority in the championship.
“Being the hunter now rather than the hunted won’t change my approach or the team’s approach at all. Yes, we had a little bit of misfortune at Iowa that has left us on the back foot, but given the pace we’ve shown so far, I’m convinced we’ll come out fighting in Toronto – and hopefully this time, we’ll get the reward, too.”
