Monza, Italy – FIRST Motorsport has announced that Douglas Bacon will continue to race for the team in 2017. Full details of the press conference are below. FIRST Motorsport representatives: Adam Blocker, Team Principal/Co-Owner Seth McCormick, Technical Director Douglas Bacon, Race Driver Adam Blocker: “Hello everyone. I hope you are all enjoying a beautiful day at one of the most historic and famous tracks on the Formula Virtual calendar: Monza. FIRST Motorsport have called a press conference today to announce that Douglas Bacon will continue to race with us in 2017. When he hasn’t had his race ruined by unreliability or inferior strategy, Douglas has been a match for Arden. After his brilliant drive in Belgium, the decision was made for us. We had to keep him on for another year; he has proven himself to be able to deliver the big result when the pressure is on and to be very useful when it comes to car development and setup. We look forward to working with Douglas next season and for the rest of this season.” Moderator: “Thanks for that Adam. On to you Douglas.” Douglas Bacon: “Firstly, I would like to thank Adam for the kind words and for choosing to re-sign me for next season. I am confident that we can be competitive next season and I can’t wait for it to start. With that said, we still have eight races of this season left to learn from and to continue to develop as a team and to secure our place as the best new team of 2016. This team has come a long way from where we were in Australia and I can only imagine where we will be next season in Australia.” M: “Fantastic. Now to ask some questions. First of all, let’s go to Seth. Seth: how is the car development going, and what can FIRST expect for this season and next season in terms of on-track performance?” Seth McCormick: “I cannot comment too much on the specifics of our development, just like any team in Formula Virtual. I can tell you that we have two clear goals for this season and 2017. We aim to retain our 11th place in the constructors’ in 2016, which Douglas defended brilliantly at Spa. This will not be easy because the threat from North Star is very obvious. In terms of 2017, we aim to be 6th in the constructors’ table. That may sound ambitious coming from a team that isn’t a year old yet, but we think we can do it with the knowledge we are picking up this season and with the great support we get from FIRST and Ford. I think our performance at the last race really proved that Ford are doing a good job and we will continue to build upon our relationship with them.” M: “Adam, where does the re-signing of Douglas leave FIRST’s young drivers Oleksandr Zozulya and Felix Perez next season?” AB: “Nothing definite has been decided for those two yet for 2017. We definitely intend on re-signing both of them, but we aren’t sure what roles they will have. As far as I can tell there are three options for both of them: racing on loan for another team, filling FIRST’s test and reserve driver role while doing another FV2 season, or just focusing on another FV2 campaign. It all depends on their performances for the remainder of the season as well as what opportunities come up for them.” M: “Is it likely that we will see one of them in a FIRST race seat in the future?” AB: “That depends on the performances of Arden and Douglas as well as Oleksandr and Felix.” M: “Douglas, what do you make of becoming the oldest driver to start a V-Prix? The commentators referenced that you were racing while some of your competitors were still in diapers.” DB: “I think that it is interesting to hold a record, but ultimately it doesn’t really mean that much. I am sure there are guys in the field now that will be racing when they get to be my age. I’m not that old yet, either. The life expectancy in the US is something like 75 years, so I’m not even halfway done yet. And in regards to my competitors being in diapers, it wouldn’t surprise me if some of them still are to be honest.” M: “What makes you say that? Do they seem that young to you?” DB: “Some of them are really young, almost half of my age, but there are others that have been pampered by their parents’ money. Unfortunately a reality of racing is that money has a large effect over one’s career.” M: “And finally guys: what is one thing you guys are still looking forward to in 2016?” SM: “Long Beach. That is going to be a special race for Formula Virtual and for this team in particular. Montreal is actually closer to Charlotte, so that’s when all of the guys from the factory will get to come up and watch first, but there is nothing like racing at home. Long Beach as a track will be unique on the calendar as well, there aren’t really any other tight street circuits that Formula Virtual goes to. The other two street circuits are in parks, unlike Long Beach [Montreal and Melbourne]. It will be interesting to see the guys go around the hairpin for the first time!” DB: “I am looking forward to a wet race at some point. That would give us a chance for a great result, and we have already showed potential in the wet in Shanghai, where I started from 8th. That would be another high pressure race though, because North Star and Holmqvist could definitely go better than 13th in a wet race.” AB: “I’m glad Douglas is looking forward to a bit more chaos. I don’t know if I can handle another race as crazy as Belgium though. I am looking forward to Long Beach and Montreal as well as a good fight with North Star and Holmqvist until the rest of the season. Hopefully we come out on top.” M: “Okay, thanks for the answers gentlemen. Thanks to everyone for showing up today for FIRST’s driver announcement, full transcripts will be available on the Formula Virtual website.” Douglas Bacon will continue to race in Formula Virtual in 2017, despite being 35 years old. He has shown that he still has the pace when he has had clean races this season, though. It will be interesting to see what he, teammate Hutchinson, and the FIRST team will be able to do in 2017, where they should be regular contenders for points finishes.
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