““I haven’t done a standing start before!” I exclaimed in anticipation into my radio, as I lit up the rear tires on my way to my grid box. I yanked up on the parking brake, gently found the biting point of the clutch, and revved the motor to 1,000 RPM too high. As the lights illuminated, I looked in my side view to see if I could see the flagger maniacally waving the green – the way you see on TV. It was exactly how I imagined it would be. I was so caught in the glory of it all that I missed the start, launched a little too hard, and did a burnout down the entire front straight at Silverstone.” Varco writes in an op-ed for Mazda Motorsports.

Austin Varco, SCCA racer from Southern California, tested the early spring weather this year 6,000 miles from home — in the U.K., racing at the famous Silverstone International Circuit.