Zach Veach (left) shares the 2nd place win with the Rocket Sports & Entertainment Network team at the St. Pete Grand Prix media race in 2011. (RSEN file photo)

BALTIMORE, MD (Aug. 29, 2012) – Andretti Autosport driver Zach Veach utilized a three-week hiatus from competing for the Star Mazda championship for some time as a normal teenager enjoying the last of the summer months before heading back to school. Not only did Veach return to high school this week, he is also returning to the racetrack for a second trip to the Streets of Baltimore for the Grand Prix of Baltimore presented by SRT.

“I’m very excited for the Baltimore race, it’s a great city, a fun track, and most importantly, the home track for my sponsor, K12,” said Veach. “It’s going to be a lot of fun having the people at the track that made it possible for me to chase my dreams, and get a great education in the process. We are going to be working extremely hard to get a win for the K12 team and show them more about the world of INDYCAR racing.”

Along with entering his senior year of high school this past Mon., Aug., 27, Veach kicked off the race week in the Baltimore area with a visit at his primary sponsor’s headquarters in nearby Virginia. K12, the largest provider of online education for grades K-12, hosted Veach along with his No. 77 Andretti Autosport Star Mazda Championship racecar for K12 employees and families to get an up close and personal view of Veach and his career as a teen racing driver.

“It was really awesome to visit K12,” continued Veach. “Week in and week out I’m out on the racetrack and traveling the world pursuing my dream of being a professional racecar driver and really being a student of life. K12 is making this happen for me because they enable me to still continue my education.”

Following his visit to his sponsor’s headquarters, Veach is scheduled to make a charity appearance on behalf of Racing for Kids at Kennedy-Krieger Children’s Institute on Thurs., Aug., 30 alongside his fellow Andretti Autosport drivers including IZOD IndyCar Series drivers Marco Andretti, James Hinchcliffe, and Ryan Hunter-Reay, Firestone Indy Lights drivers Sebastian Saavedra, and Carlos Munoz, Star Mazda teammate Sage Karam, and USF2000 drivers Thomas McGregor and Shelby Blackstock. Veach also plans to support Hunter-Reay at his Racing for Cancer benefit, The Yellow Party, later that day.

The Baltimore Grand Prix is an exciting three-day “festival of speed” that will take place on the streets of downtown Baltimore. The two-mile temporary street circuit is 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. INDYCAR is making its second trip to Baltimore following the inaugural event in 2011. This year’s event is also being promoted by Veach’s team, Andretti Autosport’s sister company, Andretti Sports Marketing.

Veach will be contesting two races on the Streets of Baltimore with practice beginning on Fri., Aug. 31 at 8:40 a.m. followed by qualifications later that day at 1:55 p.m. EDT. Race #1 is set for Sat., Sept. 1 at 2:35 p.m. while Race #2 is set for Sun., Sept., 2 at 11:35 a.m. in support of the headlining IZOD IndyCar Series race that same day at 2:40 p.m. Veach has two previous starts on the Streets of Baltimore in USF2000 with two top-10 results in 2011. On the 2012 season, Veach sits 10th in series points with six top-10 finishes, three top-five results and a best finish of second at the Grand Prix of Toronto this season.

In addition to the Star Mazda Championship Series and the IZOD IndyCar Series, the USF2000 National Championship Series, the Firestone Indy Lights and the American Le Mans series will also be contesting races.

Live timing and scoring is available throughout the weekend via http://www.starmazda.com/timing/ or by downloading the Race Monitor app. Further, the race will be prepared for network distribution via tape delay on Discovery’s Velocity Network, Canada’s Rogers SportsNet, and globally on ESPN International. In the U.S., the race will air at 12 Noon, EDT on Sat., Sept. 29. For international dates and times, check local listings.

Veach’s 2012 effort in the Star Mazda Championship is primarily supported by K12 with additional backing provided by: the Young Marines youth organization, Zakosi Data Backup, ADS IT Solutions, Replay XD, OMP, Oakley, 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.

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 K12, Zakosi Data Backup, the Young Marines youth organization, Replay XD, Arai Helmets, OMP, ADS IT Solutions, and artrotondo.com. He enters his senior year of high school this 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.