courtesy of Zach Veach PR

Zach Veach Returns to USF2000 For The Final Two Rounds of 2011 Competition

BALTIMORE, MD (August 31, 2011) – While Andretti Autosport driver Zach Veach’s fellow competitors were taking a breather in the USF2000 National Championship Series schedule this past weekend, Veach made his first foray into the Star Mazda Championship with a successful top-10 finish at Infineon Raceway. Veach will continue with his third consecutive race weekend by heading east to Baltimore this Labor Day Weekend to race in the inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix. With a summer full of accomplishment drawing to a close, 16-year-old Veach is excited to be a part of history.

“Baltimore is going to be a exciting weekend to say the least,” said Veach. “Like always there are four different cars that can cross the finish line first. It’s really a great opportunity though with the track being new, nobody has a setup or line down, so we’re going to have make every minute and lap count to be successful at the end of the day. With it being the last two races of the year, we’re going to put it all on the line to get my Andretti crew and Zakosi Data Backup Mazda on the top step of the podium!”

Prior to Veach taking the track to expand on his 10 top-10 finishes and eight top-five finishes on the season, he will open the weekend with a charity appearance on behalf of Racing for Kids at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center of Baltimore alongside Firestone Indy Lights driver Anders Krohn. The two INDYCAR regulars will visit with the patients while signing autographs and taking photos with the Racing for Kids showcar.

The inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix is an exciting three-day “festival of speed” that will take place on the streets of downtown Baltimore. A two-mile temporary street circuit will be set up around the Inner Harbor and Camden Yards spanning 2.4-miles and encompassing 12 turns. Although the race is being held on active city streets, this area will be transformed into an elite racetrack with all the best possible safety equipment and fan facilities.

The races will take place between September 2-4 and are an established part of the INDYCAR racing schedule. This weekend’s events will include world-class motorsports competition from several different racing disciplines, including Veach’s USF2000 National Championship. In addition to professional racing, there will be a wide array of family activities and entertainment that will create an exciting weekend of speed and fun.

Veach begins practice for his two races on Friday, Sept. 2 at 8:00 a.m. EDT. This teen athlete’s races are scheduled for Sept. 3 at 2:15 p.m. EDT and Sept. 4 at 10:20 a.m. EDT. Following the races, the USF2000 National Championship points leader will be crowed the championship at the season-ending banquet Sunday evening. The Zakosi Data Backup driver currently sits third in series points.

Sanctioned by INDYCAR, the USF2000 National Championship, presented by Cooper Racing Tires and powered by Mazda, is one of three series part of both INDYCAR’s “Mazda Road to Indy” ladder system and the MAZDASPEED Motorsports Development driver program.

To follow Veach’s progress at the Baltimore Grand Prix, live timing and scoring is available on www.USF2000Timing.com or for more information, please visit www.ZachVeach.com or www.AndrettiAutosport.com.

About Zach Veach:
Zach “Ziggy” Veach is a 16-year-old autoracing driver who competes in INDYCAR’s ‘Mazda Road to Indy’ USF2000 National Championship Series and Star Mazda Championship Series, important open-wheel stepping-stones to a career in the IZOD IndyCar Series and Indianapolis 500. In 2011, Veach captured the USF2000 Cooper Tires Winterfest Championship, on the heels of placing fifth in the 2010 season, despite missing two race events. In 2010, Michael Andretti signed Veach to his team, Andretti Autosport, while Veach was also being named one of CNN’s “Intriguing People” and was also nominated for Sports Illustrated “Sports Kid of the Year” award. In addition to his racing, Veach is an advocate for safer driving in conjunction with Oprah Winfrey’s “No Phone Zone,” and is the national spokesperson for FocusDriven, an advocacy group for victims of motor vehicle crashes involving drivers using their cell phones. In 2010, Veach released his first published Android application through his phone-app building company, ZaAPP, releasing urTXT, in the Marketplace for Android to help consumers avoid dangerous text messaging while driving and helms his own safe driving program, Ziggy’s Safe Driving, which hits 25 markets across the country each year. Veach has been a guest or profiled on a variety of national platforms including NBC’s The Today Show, CNN’s Headline News, ABCNews.com, Oprah Radio’s The Gayle King Show, The Los Angeles Times, AOL.com and is a blogger for RACER magazine. The son of a national truck and tractor-pulling champion, Veach entered his sophomore year of high school this past fall and released his first book, 99 THINGS TEENS WISH THEY KNEW BEFORE TURNING 16, on March 2, 2011. For more information, please visit www.ZachVeach.com.

About Andretti Autosport:
Based in Indianapolis and led by racing legend Michael Andretti, Andretti Autosport fields multiple entries in the IZOD IndyCar Series. Andretti Autosport also campaigns multiple cars in Firestone Indy Lights, the Star Mazda Championship and in the USF2000 National Championship. The company boasts three IZOD IndyCar Series championships (2004, 2005 and 2007), two Firestone Indy Lights titles (2008 and 2009), one USF2000 championship (2010) and has won the Indianapolis 500 twice (2005 and 2007). For more information, please visit www.AndrettiAutosport.com.