From These Seeds Will Sprout World Champions
by Brian C. Mackey
Can so many motorsport veteran observers be wrong? Are we doomed to repeat misguided perceptions? There have been continual discussions, sometimes heated, sometimes misinformed, but always passionate, on the lack of American driver participation in the premier classes of open wheel racing. Today, there are steady streams of Europeans and South Americans gaining access to the limited number of seats available in the U.S. and American drivers are often left on the sidelines. Sponsorship and funding issues aside, team owners continue to value the experience gained on the road courses of Europe as the pinnacle of formula car training. The rationale is that what is learned in Europe is superior to the training ground experiences available to the American up and coming drivers. Team owners need only look to history as their guide. The Europeans and South Americans have proved to be formidable challengers and their success on this end of the Atlantic is the solid evidence needed that the overseas training ground infrastructure is producing champions. Americans, it seems, are failing to attain sufficient skill to take on all newcomers. Those few that travel to Europe to challenge this perception are often left to find excuses on their inability to compete successfully. It appears that Americans are just not capable of seriously challenging the best foreign drivers in their native arenas. Their collective failures, while individually can be explained away, taken as a whole perpetuate the theory that Americans are not up to the challenges and lessons learned by their international equivalents. There are exceptions. Some American drivers have managed a success or two, or pulled off a competitive finish in select events. But the repeated victories, dominating performances over an extended period of time are, at first glance, virtually non-existent.
But upon closer examination, there are a few success stories. One of them worth noting is the story of 26 year old, Jason Workman. He comes from a middle-class family that does not have the independent financial means to race in the European arena. Yet, with his relatively modest upbringing as the starting point, Workman has managed to accomplish what few others before him has been able to achieve. He brought home a European championship crown. But to say it was easy would be foolhardy.
So how did he do it? What lessons can be learned that will help the next generation of Americans gain from his European experiences and help to dissolve the reputation that American drivers are inferior compared to their European trained colleagues?
Like many before him, Workman was an unknowing pioneer. The decision to race in Europe was a challenging one. But where did the decision originate? Workman must have established some form of strategy that enabled him to consider the move in the first place. After all, he had started his racing by competing in Skip Barber events as well as select national FF2000 and Star Mazda races. The answer is one of those fortuitous accidents that ambition often leads us to. During his high school years, Workman was a top high school wrestler and golfer. It was during this time that he met a European professional golfer and racing fan, Alex Graas. This unlikely event cascaded into a series of opportunities that led Workman to the race tracks of Europe and the championship crown. After being impressed with Workman as an individual as well as an up and coming driver, Graas decided he would support the young driver’s ambition. He wanted Workman to race in Europe to test his mettle against the Europeans. “I knew that Jason had the talent to compete successfully in Europe and win races,” said Graas, now Workman’s race manager. “I felt that it would be relatively simple proposition to arrange some select Formula Opel races and Jason would be on his way!”
But it turned out to be a learning experience more than a success. Workman was under-funded, drove an uncompetitive Formula Opel entry and all the while lacked the ability to stay in Europe between races. It was what was to become a familiar story for many American hopefuls and Workman would return to the U.S. with modest results at best. So Workman and Graas regrouped and together learned that certain elements of racing in Europe had to be viewed differently if they were to find the success they both knew was within their grasp. These altered directions would help spell the difference when Graas arranged for a second foray into the unknown European arena. Graas had numerous racing contacts and worked the phone lines of Europe to eventually land Workman the opportunity to compete in Europe at a partially subsidized level. A Danish FF2000 team headed by veteran Henrik Nymark, wanted an American driver for his team and after numerous conversations, Graas had arranged and agreed to a deal for Workman to compete in the European arena with some stipulations attached based upon his performance. The better Workman did, the more secure he would be in the available seat. If he failed to perform, the deal would evaporate and he would be forced to come home.
So in 1999, the Atlanta, Georgia resident, took a giant leap of faith and traveled to Europe to compete in the Scandinavian Formula Ford Championship. The series is the premier open wheel competition in Northern Europe. It had significant fan and sponsor support. Indeed, the Workman entry prepared by Nymark’s team “Racing Denmark” was sponsored by the Scandinavian branch of Valvoline Oil Company and sported the same popular paint scheme exhibited by many Valvoline entries of the time, including the then CART Championship entry of Al Unser, Jr. This Scandinavian series had produced several drivers who became well-known international driving stars thereafter including Tom Kristensen and John Nielsen. Even Aryton Senna elected to compete in the series during the formative stages of his early European driving career. The Scandinavian series was a quality product, full of hard-charging young rookies and seasoned veterans. Workman would join the series as the first and lone American, driving the 2nd car entry of Team Denmark, the leading team in the series. The team’s primary driver was the expected number one and touted as the series’ next champion.
“When I arrived in Europe this time, I had really no idea what to expect,” recalled Workman. “I had told some friends and family before I left that my goal was to get some podium finishes and maybe even a race victory or two. I certainly did not want to embarrass myself. I knew the mistakes of the past must not be repeated and had watched numerous Americans travel to Europe only to find a difficult transition and came back home disappointed with their performance. I already knew that feeling and did not want another example of that. I knew that another European venture with modest results would virtually kill my future career.”
The first ‘difference’ employed by Workman and Graas related to the bottom line strategic decision regarding racing in Europe. It was not to be a “part time” endeavor. Workman would live in Europe to focus all his time on the racing agenda. That presented Workman with some early challenges.
“I had no place to live,” noted Workman. “My race team helped to obtain a one room apartment with no phone, no cable TV, no air conditioning and little furniture. I had a bed, a table, chairs and a lamp. It would be my home for the next several months. It was lonely, boring, and isolating. I had no friends, no means of talking to the locals since few spoke English. I had absolutely nothing to do. I thought about giving up then, as I was homesick, missed my friends and was miserable, but the opportunity to race a full season gave me the courage to carry on.”
Workman looks back on that early stage as producing one other important insight. He had nothing to think about except racing!
“I was able to concentrate like never before on the one aspect of my European experience that I was interested in pursuing. I was all racing. Day and night; night and day, my focus, all my energy, was devoted to this one area of my life. I think that if I had found distractions during those early days, like sightseeing, fooling around with friends or simply having fun and taking in the sights, it would have meant that the racing part of my European experience would have suffered. I literally had only one thing to look forward to, climbing into the cockpit of a race car, and when that time came, I was ready.”
Between races, Workman needed some local currency in order to make even his modest lifestyle capable of producing some moments of relaxation. He was able to help out at a local factory welding lawn furniture. It was not glamorous work but did produce minimal income and also served as a consumer of his available time. In addition and in preparation for the upcoming season, Workman spent a lot of time on fitness. Now between his racing obligations, his exercise regimen and his welding job, Workman’s schedule was full. As the racing season got underway, his mood and his ambitions began to rise.
“I spent all my free time with the team,” said Workman. “They became friends, my only friends in Europe and I worked hard to get to know them and become a team-mate of them all.” These efforts helped to forge a bond that would help Workman as the season unfolded and the campaign for the championship began. As time wore on, the entire team would work harder, longer and smarter. Together they would transform Workman from an outsider to a team member capable of capturing their complete support. It was this transformation that began to emit the ingredients for success that perhaps had been missing from earlier efforts. While Workman was indeed a visiting American, he was able to become “one of them” in ways that a part-time, non-resident campaign was incapable of accomplishing.
Opening weekend of the racing season brought mixed results. Workman failed to finish either of the first two races and went off track in both events. “All rookie mistakes,” said Workman. “I just did not have the confidence yet to really mix it up with my fellow competitors. I was a bit tentative on the track.” However, the first weekend did foreshadow elements to come. From the first race on, Workman found that he was capable of running fast, as fast as the rest of the field. In both events of the first two races, Workman had qualified on the front row and was running at the sharp end before he spun out of the race. The stage was set for what was to become a different outcome from the standard American racing experience in Europe.
At the same time, after a couple of months in his one room apartment, Workman was able to move in with one of the mechanic’s families. “They allowed me to live in their spare bedroom and my entire living experience was vastly improved,” added Workman. “They were incredibly good to me and the time I spent with my lead mechanic would ultimately help me gel with the team as well.”
The gel was set by the third race. It would harden into a dominating performance that would lead Workman to the series championship. After the first two races, Workman tasted victory for the first time in the series. It was the turning point. Workman went on to win 8 of the next 10 races, set fastest lap in six, established four new track records and mathematically secured the championship with two races remaining on the race schedule. It was the most dominating performance in the series’ history. Team-owner Nymark remarked that Workman’s racing had been “nothing short of perfection”. His cool head under pressure helped Workman, according to Nymark “make things happen.” At the end of the season, Jason Workman was the undisputed champion, the 1999 Scandinavian Formula Ford 2000 Champion. But perhaps the most notable element of all was that Jason Workman was an American and a product of the American infrastructure system that helped provide him with the skill needed to completely destroy his European counterparts. Perhaps it was not the American training system failing to produce the championship caliber drivers, but rather the methods that Americans commonly employed when they chose to compete in Europe.
“It’s not an easy transition,” continued Workman. “Like I did originally, I think that many Americans make the mistake that racing in Europe can be a part time effort. Wrong! The best thing that a young American driver could do would be to start very, very young and consider moving the whole family over there! That would give the American drivers the early start in the European environment considered so important. With that in mind, I’m sure Americans could compete just as effectively as at home. Short of that, the important element is focus. An American driver must make a full commitment when racing in Europe. To go over there on Thursday, race on the weekend, then fly back home on Monday, is an unrealistic approach and the prime cause for failure. I think that has been shown over and over again. If you are going to race in Europe, then live in Europe. It pays dividends over a period of time.”
Workman’s experience demonstrates that the method of American participation has as much to do with success as driver training series. The infrastructure in the USA is essentially as effective as those available elsewhere. The training ground series of FF2000, Star Mazda, Barber-Dodge Pro Series, et al, as well as driver development programs such as Drive4USA (sponsored by FormulaCar magazine) demonstrate that the building blocks for success are available. But our European history has shown that few Americans have made the proper investment of time and commitment in order to achieve consistent success.
“I was able to become a team-member and gain the support of my crew more effectively by living among them in Europe,” added Workman. “They respected my commitment to the team. It was all hard work but I earned their respect and they repaid me handsomely with their commitment to the team. I was not considered an outsider and that was a key element to my success.”
Workman returned to the USA and parlayed his European success with a move up to the American LeMans Series in 2001. After finishing 2nd in LMP675 at the Petit LeMans race (Road Atlanta) in 2001 and again in 2002, Workman was able to secure a full-time seat in LMP675 with Essex Racing for 2003. With the continued assistance of his now long-time business partner, Alex Graas, Workman looks forward to maintaining his competitive edge by touting the success he achieved in Europe.
“It has been a help,” said Workman. “It gives me an advantage to be able to tell Team Managers that I won a series championship in Europe. But I fully believe that if top American drivers approached the European arena in a similar fashion, then there would be many more Americans producing the kind of results I did in Europe.”
While a steady stream of American successes might dilute Workman’s unique angle to his personal history, it would help dissolve the theory that Americans can’t cut the European mustard. Team owners would not be as inclined to look across the Atlantic for their first choice of top driver talents. Pioneers like Jason Workman have cut a clear path to dispel that perception. More dominating and extended success stories like his would help to shift the balance of choosing the next up and coming phenom driver closer to home to include consideration toward a domestic choice rather than an almost knee-jerk preference toward an international one. Reputations still count in racing. America needs to produce the kind of success stories in Europe that will change the track record from one of continued disappointments to steady expectations of success. Jason Workman has illustrated a road map on how he was able to get the job done. Those that follow would be wise to look at the lessons learned, the strategies employed and the accomplishments achieved to drive home the point that American drivers are capable of producing the kind of results that are the seedlings of future world champions.
