Edition #8 - August 2011

 

OPERATIONS MANAGER'S REPORT

The last few months have certainly been a whirlwind of activity at the AMSF with a number of exciting events and developments which have kept us all very busy! One such development is the appointment of a new Director to the AMSF Board - we are thrilled to welcome the Australian Grand Prix Corporation CEO, Andrew Westacott, to the AMSF team, and you can read more about Andrew and why we’re privileged to have him as an AMSF Director later in this newsletter.

Our drivers past and present continue to impress us as they fight their way through the challenges of their respective championships. I’m sure you will have been as excited as we were to see previous AMSF International Rising Star Daniel Ricciardo secure a drive with the new Hispania Racing Team. The 22 year old made his debut at the British Grand Prix and became the first AMSF recipient to break into the prestigious world Formula 1.

Meanwhile current AMSF International Rising Stars Molly Taylor and Scott Pye are also flying the Australian flag overseas, proving themselves as strong competitors on the international stage. Molly’s WRC Academy campaign continued in Finland with a top ten finish rounding out a hectic month of July the young Australian. You hopefully managed to see Molly on ONE HD recently in a program documenting her career so far which aired in April – a very interesting insight into a motivated and determined young driver. In the meantime Scott Pye recently raced against best of the British and European Formula 3 Series contenders at the latest Round of the Coopers British international Formula 3 Championship being held at the famous Spa-Francorchamps circuit. Battling a bout of illness Scott showed his fighting spirit by taking top a 10 finish in all three races. On Australian soil our AMSF Rookie Rising Stars and CAMS Rising Stars drivers have found a new level of confidence in their new Minda Motorsport prepared Mygale chassis and are pushing for race and round wins.

All of the CAMS Rising Star and AMSF Rookie Rising Star drivers joined us at the 2011 AMSF Motorsport Camp which was held at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra. Along with 11 other young drivers, they learnt from leading AIS trainers and experienced motorsport minds about cardiovascular fitness, recovery, nutrition, psychology, strength and conditioning, media and sponsorship along with a range of other practical sessions. All 15 participants gave it their all, especially at the Thursday evening’s go-karting activities!

More recently, the CAMS Rising Stars and AMSF Rookie Rising Stars helped out at the AMSF Drive Day which was held at Eastern Creek in NSW. In spite of some of the heaviest rain the area had seen for months, the event enjoyed a great turnout and was a fun and entertaining day both on track and off with a wheel change competition, raffle, live auction and lunch hosted by Greg Rust. Mark Skaife took some lucky participants out for hot laps, as did several of our AMSF drivers. Most importantly the day raised important funds for the AMSF and we are hoping to build on this year’s success to grow the event in future years. Our next AMSF Drive Day will be held at Phillip Island, VIC in November 2011 and we’ll be keeping all fingers crossed for a somewhat drier day for that one!

We are excited to announce that nominations are now open to find the 2012 Rising Stars in all categories, State, National and International. Find out how you could be a part of it in our nominations article.

Our corporate sponsors continue to support us generously, and one of our longest running sponsors is Penrite who this year celebrates their 85th Anniversary. And if any of you are interested in Forex Trading, AMSF Rookie Rising Star sponsor GO Markets is offering a free trading guide and practice account exclusively for Foundation Focus subscribers!  A big thank you to all our corporate sponsors, Network Group members and individual donors – our work would not be possible without your help.

We try to make the Foundation Focus newsletters as current and as interesting as possible, and appreciate any content or comment – just email your ideas to info@amsf.org.au and we can go from there. In the meantime, enjoy this edition!

Lucas Docking
Operations Manager – AMSF
info@amsf.org.au +61 3 8415 8661