I am proud to announce that I am a nominee for the Team USA Scholarship program http://teamusascholarship.org/. This is a prestigious scholarship that sends two young American drivers to England to race at Brands Hatch for the Formula Ford Festival and to Silverstone for the Walter Hayes Trophy. Previous winners include Josef Newgarden, Spencer Pigot, Conor Daly, A.J. Allmendinger, Bryan Herta, Jimmy Vasser and many more who have later found long, successful driving careers.
Team USA invited the selected drivers to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course to participate in multiple opportunities this past weekend during the IndyCar and Road to Indy event. This included getting to watch IndyCar practice from the pit box of different teams. I would like to thank Dale Coyne Racing and Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports for hosting me during the practice sessions of the Honda Indy 200. We listened to the team communications on a headset, including the conversations not normally heard on a scanner when the team is stopped on pit road. This was a great chance to learn how a professional driver communicates with his engineers and learn how the top step operates.
The rest of the weekend was filled with meeting important people in the racing world who can help my career. We got the opportunity to talk with Jay Frye, the president of IndyCar and we had a dinner where we talked to drivers Josef Newgarden, Oliver Askew, Kyle Kirkwood, Spencer Pigot and Aaron Telitz. Plus, Mike Hull from Ganassi Racing, Jim Leo of PitFit Training, Kelly Jones of RaceCraft1, Jonny Baker of The Road To Indy, Steve Wittich of TracksideOnline.com and Dan Anderson, the owner and operator of The Road To Indy.
The weekend also included good experiences with media training, including public interviews at the Cooper Tire stage in the fan section. I also was interviewed for a future story by Brian Carroccio of Auto Racing 1.
I am honored to be involved in the program and I can’t wait for the next events in the selection process. I can’t thank Team USA and all of the people involved enough for the incredible opportunity.
I will be on track again in the Lucas Oil Formula Car Series from August 16-18 at NCM Motorsports Park. I am excited to continue to learn and battle for a championship.
I am also excited to announce that I will be competing in my first F1600 event August 23rd-25th at Summit Point Motorsports Park with Rice Race Prep. It will be a great learning experience to be able to give feedback to an engineer and learn to improve the car.
We are now looking for a title sponsor for our F1600 event and remaining Lucas Oil Series events (as well as associates). If you are interested, please contact me at JacksonLeeRacing@gmail.com.
Thanks, as always, for the support!
Jackson