Dickerson, Stephens, Earn Team USA Scholarships

Pair of talented young drivers with Mazda ties will compete in the UK later this month.

Pirelli World Challenge, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Sept. 10-13, 2015:Talented young Americans Dakota Dickerson, from San Diego, and Michai Stephens, from Evanston, Ill., were named as winners of 2015 Team USA Scholarships. Following in the footsteps of such accomplished alumni as Mazda SKYACTIV Prototype drivers Tristan Nunez and Joel Miller, 2015 Cooper Tires Indy Lights champion Spencer Pigot and motorsports luminaries Jimmy Vasser, Bryan Herta, Buddy Rice, Andy Lally, Joey Hand, A.J. Allmendinger, Josef Newgarden and many others, the pair will travel to England this month to further their fledgling racing careers.

Dickerson and Stephens earned their selection following a shootout last month aboard Allen Berg Racing Schools FR1600 cars running on Cooper tires at Auto Club Speedway in Southern California. The adjudicating panel included Rice, who, after claiming a Team USA Scholarship in 1997, went on to win the 2004 Indianapolis 500 and 2009 Rolex 24 At Daytona, plus two-time sports car champion Alex Gurney and accomplished race engineers Geoff Fickling, Kent Stacy and Gerald Tyler.