Jason Pribyl earns podiums and lead in United Kingdom National Series

“I’m glad we got to hear from the winner, and that American accent”. MSVR Announce Chris Dawes, after the winners circle interview with Glenview's own formula car driver, Jason Pribyl. On April 13th, Jason, the #59 Ray Race Car F1600, and the Phil Wills Racing team joined the United Formula Ford series for the first two races at the world famous F1 track Silverstone Circuit. Despite having minimal time in his car and very challenging competition won and finished 3rd in his first races in the UK.

Prior to landing in the United Kingdom on April 30th, Jason was last in a race car October 22nd at the USF Pro Combine at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. With just a week of acclimation Jason had 3 brief test sessions at Snetterton Circuit to learn the track, shake down the car, and then finally learn to drive it fast. With two shortened pre-race sessions at Silverstone Circuit were the only practice the he and the PWR1 team would have prior to qualifying on race day.

Saturday, April 13th, started the season's first qualifying session and two races. Jason stepped into the car for qualifying with confidence, despite adding more firsts, new tires and reading a pit board for communication instead of the radio. After spending a few laps gentling the tires into readiness, Pribyl began running his initial push laps and shot straight to the pole. He continued to push faster laps until the pole was snatched away, by just 0.125, just as the session ended. Incredibly, Jason would be starting his first international race in second on the front row, a great way to start the race day and the season.

All of Jason's previous race starts were rolling, just like NASCAR and IndyCar, but like Formula One, this would be standing a start. Without having time to practice it but with visualization and coaching he nailed his first start, nearly taking the lead in turn one. The top 6 cars, including Jason, battled, defending and attacking every corner in the opening laps. Three laps in, the race was halted as first, second, and fourth collided, while Jason, in third, avoided the mayhem. Pribyl led the field behind the pace car and in yet another first, he nailed the restart and left the field behind to squabble for 2nd. He continued to lead the race until another red flag ended the race. In the post race confusion, Jason was directed to scrutineering and he had to run to the winners circle to be interviewed and receive his champagne and trophy. “It was a very busy race, the competition was challenging and had some mechanical issues I overcame, it was an amazing first race and I’m very pleased to be here”, said Pribyl during the post race interview.

Winning the first race Jason would start the second race from the pole. As the lights went out, he missed the start timing just a little and was passed by third into turn one. He kept his cool and was back into the lead by turn three. He and the yellow #29 swapped places a few times before Jason forced the driver into battling with the field while Jason pulled away. Throughout the race one of the faster drivers made their way through the field and eventually caught up to Jason and challenged him for the lead. After 20 minutes and 20 laps, Jason finished first but was relegated to third due to a 5 second penalty for track limits violation. Still an incredible result for such limited time to prepare. Team PWR1 Owner Phil Wills remarked, “Jason really drove a hard race, we are disappointed with the penalty but really pleased with the overall results in his first race”

With the weekend podiums and points the Jason Pribyl and #59 Ray Race Cars, and Phil Wills Racing 1, are now 18 points in the lead of the United Formula Ford championship. Their next race will be at Donington Park on May 11th.

Watch both races on MSVR YouTube, the first race starts 2 hrs and 2 minutes, the second race starts at 4 hrs 3 minutes.

Learn more about Jason Pribyl on his website https://jasonpribylautosports.com or look for Jason Pribyl Autosports on your favorite social media platforms