Jake Parsons' racing diary

Up-and-coming Australian open-wheel racer Jake Parsons is hoping to join ther Mazda Road to Indy next year. He is scheduled to test for the Cape Motorsports team next week.

What a second half to the month! Having won three out of four AsiaCup Series races, with a close second in the other one at Sepang, I headed to Zhuhai, China, for my second event in the Formula Masters China series. The first problem I had was a nice one...squeezing the four AsiaCup trophies into our luggage!

We had a stopover in Macau, but there wasn't enough time to walk the track. I'd love to race there one day, though. With my first glance of Zhuhai I was pretty impressed. The surface looked decent with a fast layout. My aim for the races was to race up the front and learn as much as I can; since I'm not in the championship after only joining last round, my position doesn't matter so much, as long as I've been able to learn something.

Having been in the AsiaCup car the previous weekend, the Meritus.GP car felt quite fast to get back into, but after the first day I was comfortable with it again. My favorite corner is Turn 4. It's a chicane at the end of a long straight, you need to take a lot of kerb through it and keep up the corner speed.

I said I went there to learn, and I did just that in the first race. I'd qualified on pole position, and led from start to finish – only to get a 30 second penalty for moving slightly in the grid box, which dropped me 10 places. That's a lesson learned.

The second race was better and I won fair and square, to add to my first Formula Masters victory at Sepang earlier this year. I took second place in race 3, behind Matthew Solomon – who is fighting for the title – and in the final race I came home sixth having started at the back of the grid.

So, that meant two more trophies to pack – it's a nice problem to have, though. Amazingly,having only done eight of the 16 Masters races for Meritus.GP, I'm now fourth in points! There is one more event to go, but the best I can do I think is third place.

From China I went back to Sydney, before heading to Florida to test for Cape Motorsports. I'm doing a day in the team's Pro Mazda car. I'm really looking forward to the most is the power of that car. It's going to be the quickest thing I've ever driven. The Sebring track is very bumpy, and doesn't have a nice flowing feeling to it. Then again, it was two years ago when I tested there before in FF1600, so maybe I'll feel differently about it this time?

Then I head home to Australia, where I'm racing at Phillip Island in Formula Ford the weekend after. And of course I also have one more event, four races, left in the AsiaCup Series. I have a good championship points lead in that, but it's not over yet, and I must focus on winning that.

My off-season will start in the first week of December. We already have a couple of options to explore for next year. But I have that AsiaCup Series championship title to win first.

-Jake