VEACH HOPES FOR BETTER RESULTS IN FIRST CAREER RACE AT BARBER

By on March 30, 2012


Zach Veach finished a disappointing 17th on Saturday in the Star Mazda Race on the streets of St. Petersburg. (photo by Rodney Meyering)

BIRMINGHAM, AL (Mar. 28, 2012, courtesy of Zach Veah PR) While most teenagers were on Spring Break in March, Andretti Autosport driver Zach Veach was instead participating in Spring Training at Barber Motorsports Park in preparation for his first race on the 2.38-mile, 17-turn road course, following his season opener on the Streets of St. Petersburg.

“After a tough weekend in St. Pete, the team and I are ready to get back in the car at Barber and get in a good result,” said Veach. “At the test there last week, we had great pace and I’m excited to see this weekend get started! I want to thank the team for a great effort at St. Pete, and for getting the cars ready for this weekend. Also a big thank you to Zakosi Data Backup, Replay XD, Young Marines, Arai, and OMP for making all of this possible for me.”

Veach, a 17-year-old from Stockdale, Ohio, continues on a busy schedule which had him participating in a two-day open-test at Barber followed closely by four days of on-track activity on the Streets of St. Petersburg in preparation for the first race of the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear.

During Spring Training at Barber, Veach was 10th quick of the 21 drivers competing in the test. At the time, Veach was taking his first tour of Barber, following his move up to Star Mazda from the USF2000 National Championship Series, where he spent two seasons with Andretti Autosport.

Veach heads to Barber following his two race events on the Streets of St. Petersburg, Fla., this past weekend. The start to the 2012 season was a rough one. During Veach’s first race, his throttle stuck as he entered Turn 4 on the first lap, which caused him to make contact with another competitor. He would then have to make an unscheduled pit stop to replace his front nose, sending him a lap down and hampering his finish as the checkered flag flew with the driver of the No. 88 Zakosi Data Backup Mazda in the 21st position. During the second race of the weekend at St. Petersburg, Veach reported several imbalances in his racecar during the race, where he eventually finished 11th to close out the opening weekend.

Practice for this weekend’s race at Barber begins on Thurs., Mar. 29 at 8:00 a.m. CST. He will contest two race events during the IZOD IndyCar Series headlining weekend with races scheduled for Fri., Mar. 30 and Sat., April 1.

Veach’s 2012 effort in the Star Mazda Championship is primarily supported by Zakosi Data Backup with additional support from: The Young Marines, ADS IT Solutions, Replay XD, OMP, and Arai Helmets.

Sanctioned by INDYCAR, the Star Mazda Championship is one of two series part of both the Mazda Road to Indy ladder system and the MAZDASPEED Motorsports Development driver program. Andretti Autosport is currently the only INDYCAR team to compete in each level of the Mazda Road to Indy.

To follow Veach’s progress at Barber Motorsports Park, live timing and scoring is available via the phone app “Race Monitor” or online at www.starmazda.com/timing or for more information, please visit www.ZachVeach.com or www.AndrettiAutosport.com.

About Zach Veach:
Zach “Ziggy” Veach is a 17-year-old autoracing driver who competes in INDYCAR’s ‘Mazda Road to Indy’ Star Mazda Championship Series, an important open-wheel stepping-stone to a career in the IZOD IndyCar Series and Indianapolis 500. In 2012, Veach captured the Formula Car Challenge Winter Series Championship and in 2011, he secured the USF2000 Cooper Tires Winterfest Championship and was voted the “Most Popular Driver in USF2000”. Named by ESPN The Magazine as a NEXT athlete in motorsports, Veach keeps an active pace both on and off the race track. In 2010, Michael Andretti signed Veach to his team, Andretti Autosport, while also being named one of CNN’s “Intriguing People” and being nominated for the Sports Illustrated “Sports Kid of the Year” award. In addition to his racing, Veach is an advocate for safer driving as the national spokesperson for FocusDriven, an advocacy group for victims of motor vehicle crashes involving drivers using their cell phones and has campaigned for Oprah Winfrey’s “No Phone Zone.” Veach designed a phone application through his phone-app building company, ZaAPP, releasing urTXT, in the Marketplace for Android to help consumers avoid dangerous text messaging while driving. Like most of his peers, Veach was bullied as a kid and works to combat the growing epidemic as part of the Cyber Safety Academy’s “No BULL Challenge” as a key ambassador. 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 and The Huffington Post. The son of a national truck and tractor-pulling champion, Veach is sponsored by Zakosi Data Backup, The Young Marines, Replay XD, Arai Helmets, OMP, ADS IT Solutions, and artrotondo.com. He entered his sophomore year of high school this past fall and released his first book, 99 THINGS TEENS WISH THEY KNEW BEFORE TURNING 16, in 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 competes 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.

About The Star Mazda Championship Series:
For 2012, the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear will again be a major part of the “Mazda Road to Indy”. The 2012 schedule consists of 17 races on 10 weekends, most with IndyCar. Rising stars from around the world will compete on road courses, street circuits and ovals in front of more than a million fans as they battle for prizes valued at $1.5 million, including a scholarship to move up and race in the 2013 Firestone Indy Lights series. Drivers 16 and older are welcome to compete and the Star Mazda Championship also features the Expert Series for drivers 30 and older. The Star Mazda Championship features standing starts, wheel-to-wheel racing at 160 mph and budgets a fraction of other top open-wheel ladder series. For more information on the Star Mazda Championship and its drivers, as well as the Mazda Motorsports ladder system, please visit www.StarMazda.com.

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