The Team Green Academy announced in late December that Tony Renna, Bryan Selby, Jeff Shafer, Matt Sielsky and B.J. Zacharias have been selected as the finalists in its American driver training and support program for the 1997 season. The finalists were selected from a group of 25 of the country’s best up-and-coming drivers during a series of three day evaluations recently conducted by the Academy and Derek Daly’s SpeedCentre Racing School (DDS) at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Renna won co-rookie of the year honors in the 1996 Barber Dodge Pro Series in addition to in addition to helping Valvoline Team USA finish second in the recent EFDA Formula Opel Nations Cup at Donington Park, England. Selby also ran Barber Dodge last year scoring five top ten finishes in eight races. Sielsky contested the 1996 U.S. National Formula Ford 200 Championship, Shafer was a standout in the Skip Barber Formula Dodge (West) series and Zacharias was the SCCA Central Division’s Spec Racer champion. Next up for the group is testing at the world-renowned Human Performance Institute in January before a final five day evaluation back in Las Vegas.

In Vegas, a panel consisting of Kim and Barry Green, of Team Green, DDS Instructors Derek Daly and Bob Earl and 1996 PPG Cup champion Jimmy Vasser, together with motorsports journalists Gordon Kirby and Jeremy Shaw, will select the two Team Green Academy winners for 1997.

The two winners will be offered contracts with Team Green to compete in the 1997 racing season at a level commensurate with their experience and abilities. In addition, they will be coached throughout the season by the Team Green Academy and DDS instructors Daly and Earl.