- American open-wheel star hails breakthrough weekend in Hungary
- VRD Racing by Arden ace impresses with pace and overtaking prowess
- Oxford-based racer promises to ‘push even harder’ next time out
Shawn Rashid took a significant step forward in his sophomore season in the GB3 Championship at the Hungaroring last weekend (22-23 June), unleashing a scintillating turn-of-speed that has given him ‘a ton of confidence’ to carry into the remainder of the campaign.
The tight, twisty and technical Hungaroring – located just outside the Hungarian capital of Budapest – might have been uncharted territory for Rashid, but the rising American open-wheel star was fast out-of-the-blocks, going a superb second-quickest amongst the 21 high-calibre contenders in the first free practice session, a scant 0.013s adrift of the benchmark.
He maintained that stellar form in qualifying, posting the eighth-quickest lap time – a career-best, and a mere seven hundredths-of-a-second shy of the top five. Unfortunately, a grid penalty from the previous round meant Rashid would begin the curtain-raising contest from 13th, and a sluggish start then dropped him to 15th, from where he struggled to fight back around a circuit where overtaking is famously a fine art – particularly in equal cars.
In searingly hot temperatures, the 28-year-old Atlanta, GA native slipped from 11th to 13th when the lights went out in race two, prior to regaining his starting spot and setting off in dogged pursuit of the pack ahead. Lapping faster than the drivers around him, he closed down a sizeable deficit on his way to a second top ten finish of 2024, winding up less than two-and-a-half seconds behind seventh place.
Rashid lined up fifth on the partially-reversed grid for the weekend’s finale in the fiercely-disputed single-seater series, and got his elbows out on the opening tour in defence of his position before a coming-together relegated him to 15th. Thereafter, the VRD Racing by Arden ace engaged in a number of entertaining battles and pulled off several skilful passes to climb back to 11th at the chequered flag, only for a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits to demote him to 12th.
More significantly, however, Rashid set the race’s third-quickest lap time – better than all bar one of the drivers who finished in front of him – and to prove that was no flash in the pan, he was consistently fast throughout. That has given the Purdue University Industrial Engineering graduate a great deal of encouragement ahead of the next outing on the calendar at Dutch Grand Prix venue Zandvoort on 13-14 July, when he is eager to maintain his burgeoning momentum.
“I’m really happy with the way the weekend went,” he acknowledged. “A lot of this season has been about rebuilding my confidence from last year. I’m clearly still lacking experience compared to most of the other drivers on the grid, but I’ve been putting in so much hard work and training, and it’s really nice to see that now paying off and that we’re taking steps forward at every event.
“The race results in Hungary certainly didn’t reflect our level of performance. I didn’t make great launches in the first two and I felt I should have been more aggressive in my racecraft, but the reversed-grid race was a revelation for me – even if that one didn’t get off to the best of starts, either!
“I locked up into Turn Two, which cost me a position, and then I went to the inside of another driver at Turn Five, but I don’t think he saw me and there was contact, which dropped me way down the order. I fought back but unfortunately, we had some communication issues that meant I didn’t know about the track limits warnings that culminated in the penalty.
“For me, though, the result was not the most important thing – it was all about the feeling I had, and in that respect, honestly, it felt like a race win. For the first time in my entire racing career, I really felt like I had tapped into a different space mentally. I felt completely at one with the car, which is a sensation I’d never experienced before, and that shone through in my lap times.
“We’d offered glimpses of that kind of pace in previous events, but now we’re really beginning to add some consistency as well and the team is getting the set-ups properly dialled-in, all of which gives me a ton of confidence to carry forward. I’ve got a wonderful group of people around me and VRD Racing by Arden has shown a lot of faith in my ability and potential. We’re definitely on an upward trajectory, and that only motivates me to push even harder…”
“I feel very optimistic and positive after the weekend,” echoed Rashid’s manager, former British Touring Car Championship Independents’ title-winner, Rory Butcher. “Shawn’s speed is becoming stronger and more consistent as the season goes on and his rivals are starting to take note that he’s a true threat.
“Securing eighth in qualifying and setting fast laps in the races in a field this competitive is no mean feat, and we can now look at how to better convert his raw pace into results. It’s easy to forget that Shawn had never driven a race car until only three years ago, and seeing him perform the way he is right now is hugely rewarding for everyone in his team.”
Photos by Alex Langley.