Otay, so it's been a long time since I've done
this, albeit I'd planned to resume this mythical No Fenders Rising Star award
'Wayback in 'Twenty-twelve, but; Y'all know the drill, eh? As typical, the
story's been fermenting awayz' here in thy cellars 'O Nofendersville...
As the Debutant Recipient of this esteemed
award, which sadly doesn't include any cash prize or nothin' went to then
aspiring New York teenager Marcus Wilkinson whom I profiled in ;
Which spawned the
Award Winning follow-up story late last year titled; Second Generation Drivers aspiring to ascend to Formula 1...
As HELL! If Linksheven can have its own
Driver, then so can No Fenders; Kapishe! Oh, wait a My-Nute, that's right, just
like this award, which we're still awaitin' No Fenders Artiste Dave to
create... Linksheven has long since Left 'Duh Building; Hooah!
And thus, your "Johnny-come-Lately"
to thee Party, is retroactively awardin' the past 2012-13 winners whilst
splish-splashin' away in Kona, Hawaii! in order to Ketsup' to last year's trophy
winners Ja Volt! (Since I'd originally planned upon bottlin' these
in December...)
And I'll only keep Y'all in somewhat limited
suspense, since my choice is totally NON-Scientific and somewhat sentimental,
as our second ever winner faced some stiff Competizione' from the likes of 2012
Indy Lights Rookie Of the Year (ROY) and series champion Tristan Turbo'
Vautier; who I've still got a Pair 'O Shades of his; Hya! As in (somewhat) limited edition sunglasses;
YIKES!
Along with another stellar Indy Lights rookie
known here at No Fenders as Carlos Silk' Munoz, not to mention my personal
"Dark Horse" favourite Brian Clauson, a multi-time Sprint Car
champion who contested the 2012 Indy 500 as a rookie alongside Sarah Fisher
Hartman Racing's regular Schue' Joseph STUD! Newgarden - as I even went so far
as to purchase a Clauson T-Shirt to wear at that year's Indy 500...
But instead, the award for the 2012 nifSTAR trophy goes to
Tristan Nunez, whom I learned about accidently whilst waiting at the Portland
Train Station, when Tacoma Bureau Chief Mary Ellen read me his story in the
most miniscule "Backwater" Newspaper as we awaited the arrival of
Panda...
As
Tristan's simply a BAD ARSE! Having originally been a Go
Karting champion, he transitioned into single seaters via the Skip Barber
driving school, before graduating to the then ALMS Prototype Lights class where
he simply obliterated the field en route to the 2012 championship in his rookie
year, taking 11-wins, 12-poles and 13 Top-5 finishes! And then for the icing on
the cake, he won that year's Walter Hayes trophy at Silverstone's Formula Ford
Festival for Team USA!
Then I lost track of him momentarily, albeit
knowing he'd gone "Pro" at the tender age of 17 for Mazda's
"Works" Speedsource Skyactive Diesel Mazda 6 GX team.
Yet, it's kind of weird only learning that
Mazda graduated to Prototypes last year, ten days after their series season finale at Road Atlanta!
As Mazda once again had entrusted Speedsource to prepare 'N campaign its two
Lola derived P2 Skyactive Diesel entry's in last year's inaugural Tudor United
Sports Car championship, with Nunez behind the wheel of the team's No. 07
racecar. As I'm pretty certain he'll be back with Mazda and Speedsource in
2015...
UPDATE
Tristan Nunez, along with Speedsource are
indeed contesting this year' s Tudor United Sportscar Championship, again with
the same Mazda diesel powered P2
entries, having just contested this year's Rolex 24. (Jan 24-25) Unfortunately,
with less than stellar results. As the #70 of Nunez/Jonathan
Bomarito/Sylvain Tremblay & thee "Mayor 'O
Hinchtown," nee James Hinchcliffe finished a disappointing 49th overall
after only completing 198-laps.
Meanwhile the sister #07 car driven by
Joel Miller/Tom Long/Ben Devlin/Tremblay completed almost twice as many laps
before retiring on lap-345...
NIFSTAR WINNERS
2012: Tristan Nunez
2007: Marcus Wilkinson
