Daley Gathers Two Top-10s in Pro Debut with Group-A Racing
Young Jamaican driver Collin Daley got to make his pro debut this past weekend after a few days of testing. The 15 year old driver gathered two top 10 finishes with the Group-A Racing eam in the F2000 Championship Series.
The weekend started off with two practice sessions on Friday in temperatures around 100 degrees. Due to the track having all the rubber washed away from the rain the night before and the extreme heat, the track conditions were very much less than ideal for the teams and drivers to deal with. Daley would be 7th in the first session and 6th in the second, giving a good show of potential for the next day in qualifying and the first race.
The Group-A Racing team would make some minor adjustments to the car for Daley but was conscious the track would be much different the next morning and did not want to go too far.
That night a very dangerous storm came through the south Jersey area with very high winds and hard rain destroying thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment for the teams with many tents being destroyed. But with that it would wash away all the rubber from the track yet again. Even with that Collin Daley would put in a really solid effort to place his MSI Investment, Group-A Racing car in 7th giving him a nice starting position for his first race in cars.
In the race Collin showed very good race craft battling it out with serious veterans trading positions back and forth not giving anything up to anybody. He would start to develop a bit of an understeer that as the laps continued it would get worse for him. Even with that Daley would bring it home for a top 10 finish in his pro racing debut.
On Sunday for race two Collin would start 10th based upon fastest race laps the day before. The race would instantly go yellow due to many incidents on the track on the first lap. The yellow would drag out for a long time due to cars being scattered all along the race track. This left the drivers with just a handful of green flag laps once it was all cleaned up. Collin would yet again mix it up with the regulars and come home with another top-10 result.
"All-in-all the weekend would have to be called a success." said team owner Joe Scarallo Sr "This was Collins first race weekend in cars and he did a really good job. He showed really good race craft and some good pace over the weekend. He is straight out of karts and as he gets more experience he will continue to move up the time sheets even more."
Daley is backed by Madison Financial Group/MSI. It is headed by Horace Madison, a long-time Business Manager from the US. Clients have included OutKast, Usher, DMX, Eve, Ma$e, Arian Foster and Glen "Big Baby" Davis. Current clients include Lil Wayne/Young Money, Meek Mill, Torion; and Reema Major. Plus there are "local" Caribbean clients such as Jamaican film writer/Director Cess Silvera, Singer/Actor from Barbados Kirk Brown, and Jamaican music producer JonFX. MSI in conjunction with Gina Ford of G2 Marketing handles the Management and Marketing responsibilities for CJ. Additionally MSI is starting to work closely with Carole Beckford of Beckford & Associates, to expand their presence in the Caribbean, especially Jamaica.
Collin Daley will now continue his development with Group-A Racing at more test days and regional race events. For more information on other race and testing opportunities you can contact Group-A Racing via GroupARacing@aol.com or (631) 957-3901, along with following them on Twitter @GroupARacing. Race fans can also see in-car footage from Group-A Racing activities at http://www.Youtube.com/GroupARacing