by Alex Johnston
Canadian driver Mac Clark this year competed in the USF2000 Championship for DEForce Racing, and at present occupies fourth in the standings in the year he took his rookie win in the series. He's also my latest guest!
19 year old Mac is aiming to follow in the footsteps of his hero, James Hinchcliffe(who is also his mentor!), by making it as an IndyCar driver, which he appears to be making a good job of so far in his single seater career.
📸 Mac is mentored by IndyCar legend James Hinchcliffe.
This year, he raced finished fifth overall, winning twice with six podiums to his name and also made the step up to debut in the USF Pro 2000 Championship where he took pole on debut and took two podium in an impressive showing.
Onto Mac's answers to my questions!
1. Hairpins or chicanes? Chicanes for sure in my opinion. I like the switchbacks and kerbs, I'm a big kerbs guy! Especially at high speed!
📸 Mac at COTA.
2. Long straights or slow corners? Slow corners are 100% better than long straights.
3. Understeer or oversteer? I love that. It’s a question I get a lot actually! It’s oversteer every time! Understeer, you have to wait, but an oversteer car? Oversteer can be fast! Loose is fast, that’s what the NASCAR guys say.
📸 Celebration mode.
4. Fast circuits or technical circuits?Technical circuits: this goes kinda back to my comment on fast corners. So much more reward as a driver. To get a circuit or a series of corners right, there’s a lot you can do to make difference and that’s what we as racing drivers like.
5. Wet races or wet/dry races? I would say dry races. Don’t get me wrong, I love racing in the rain, ever since karting it’s such a raw form of motorsport as you come up, karting arenas are epic; but dry racing you have more freedom. It’s faster, there’s more grip, you can ‘send it’, the racing tends to be a bit better. You can take the inside or outside. Wet races are very exciting though.
6. What's your favourite circuit you've raced? I’m a little bit biased being Canadian and growing up in the Toronto area, but Canadian Tyre Motorsport Park(or MoSport), it’s definitely my favourite. Very high speed circuit, some very technical aspects too, you have to make the trip if you haven’t been out there!
📸 IMSA cars tackle the undulating, challenging 'MoSport' circuit.
7. Favourite you've NOT raced? I think it’d have to be Spa. I feel like that’s quite a basic, generic answer that I might get flak for but it has so much history. How could you not want to race at Spa? It’s definitely on my bucket list, that’s where I wanna be!
📸 Classic Spa.
8. Your favourite F1 livery ever? I’m not well versed in F1 but the McLaren liveries. I really should know more than I do, but I was always attracted to the McLaren’s. The Shell/Marlboro one for the Senna era was definitely ahead of it’s time.
📸 Perhaps F1's most iconic car.
9. Your favourite helmet design ever? I don’t know if I have one specific one, but I do have one I took inspiration from and that would be Scott McLaughlin’s one from when he was racing V8 Supercars. He had like a bright yellow helmet..with the shell logo as well funnily enough with the (previous) Senna comment..It had like a matte finish, and I implemented that into my first custom helmet and it’s carried with me and the sharp lines were something that stuck with me. I’d definitely say that’s my favourite apart from my own, hahaha!
📸 Mac has drawn inspiration from 'Scotty Mac's' previous designs.
10. Who's the best driver you've raced against? The best driver that I have raced against would have to be…I raced against Romain Grosjean on iRacing! I don’t know if that counts or not hahaha! It’s something really cool about iRacing in general is you race against a lot of pro’s, you’re in lobbies with Max Verstappen’s and Romain Grosjean’s and Lando Norris’s. Both as racing driver and fan you can connect with these people online and get the opportunity to race with people of that calibre. Those are the guys I would say have been the best I have raced against.
📸 Mac's not yet had the chance to race Grosjean on a live track, but found him a real challenge when competing with him on iRacing!
Thanks to Mac for taking the time to chat and give some excellent answers! Hopefully we can chat again sometime!
📸 Image credits: NTT IndyCar Series, DEForce Racing, Mac Clark, Formula Motorsport Limited, Sky Sports, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park(MoSport).
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