Top race driver gives NJMP thumbs up

By Patrick Bugnaski
The Daily Jouranal

MILLVILLE -- The New Jersey Motorsports Park received the stamp of approval from a racing legend Thursday.

Formula 1 World Champion driver, Nigel Mansell, visited Millville with his two sons, who race in the Atlantic Championship Series -- the highlight event at this weekend's Mazda Formula X event.

"This is one of the best new circuits I've been to," Mansell said. "And I've been all over the world."

Mansell remains the most decorated English driver in history. During his career, which spanned from 1980 to 1995 in Formula 1 and Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART), he won 36 races, including championships in 1992 and 1993. He is the only driver in history to hold both titles simultaneously.

He was also the first driver to ever win the CART title in his first year in the series. He is the fourth winningest driver in Formula 1 history behind Michael Schumacher, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna, with 31 victories.

"What it means to New Jersey Motorsports Park to have Nigel Mansell come here and run laps on our track and say the things he said about how well our track is designed and how challenging it is for a professional racer, words can't express how that makes us feel," said park official Don Fauerbach.

Mansell took a handful of slow laps around the 2.25-mile Thunderbolt Raceway with Fauerbach and his sons, Leo and Greg. With a driver as accomplished as Mansell behind the wheel, you can bet a lot was learned about the track in those few laps.

"Every driver has a certain way of learning a track," Leo said "One of us may see something the other one doesn't."

"You learn three times as fast when there's three of you," Greg added.

According to Fauerbach, Mansell and his sons pointed out tiny nuances in the track during the laps and discussed the finer points of the corners.

The trio later hopped in the go-karts for some laps.

The elder Mansell was most impressed with how it compared to other recently completed facilities.

"This is the first track I've visited in a long time with zero Mickey Mouse corners," Mansell said, referring to gimmicky, tight, low-speed turns many tracks feature as a means to slow cars down. "To have a circuit like this from the get-go that has what I call 'quality corners' is a great achievement."

Mansell was also impressed with the bustling airport in the background and the woodsy setting of the track.

"The thing that they've done here, which is very difficult, is they created character and atmosphere," Mansell said.

But after seeing the track, Mansell wants to do more than just watch his sons speed around the circuit.

"The punch line is," Mansell said, "I want to race this weekend."