Scott Tucker Driver of the Dream Team experiences immediate success with the newest car

By Molly Black


The Level 5 Motorsports team's 2011 year has shown it a versatile, prominent team filled with experience, skill and enthusiasm. Commanding the podium at the majority of the racing it entered-including winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and podium at Imola and Sebring, among others-is evidence that the Scott Tucker-owned, Microsoft Office-sponsored team has found a fantastic method in its schedule, race strategy and drivers, including Tucker, Luis Diaz and Christophe Bouchut. While they began the last quarter of an already awesome year with the ModSpace American Le Mans Monterey provided by Patron mid-September, all their ducks appeared to be in a row: their formula had been proven consistantly as responsible for an effective winning effort. But this race comprised one wild card, or wild car, as the case might be-the team would finally debut the HPD ARX-01g they had announced they were switching to mid-season.

The Level 5 team expected the automobile to be a good multiplier for their already winning equation, but as is the situation in racing, they also knew always to expect the unpredicted. For an additional team, the possibility and risk of stepping into a brand new vehicle so near to the season's most significant races could screw up drivers and the team's rhythm, but Level 5 is made up of drivers that have expertise not merely adapting to automobile changes but also in motor racing itself.

"Experience counts," said Christophe Bouchut prior to the ModSpace race. "We've worked hard to prepare for this race, but it's still brand new and there are still things to check." The team opened the gearbox for examination, sitting out of a final practice session to familiarise themselves with the brand new vehicle as much as possible before its very first run. Still, Bouchut was right: A car can be assessed as often as needed, and the race strategy can be cemented into the drivers' minds, but there comes a point for drivers when lessons from prior race knowledge gets control with a sort of intuition and feeling that can't be taught.

Tucker may be the least seasoned driver on the Level 5 team, but what he lacks in years driving he makes up for with a extraordinary learning curve that barely existed in the first place. A rookie in 2006 when he was 44, Tucker displayed natural skill and unexpected skill in the Ferrari Challenge Series before he made Level 5 Motorsports and began establishing a dream team of motorists. As the seasons moved on, Tucker began seeing his first major success. In 2009, he won the Sports Car Club of America National Championship. Later on, he was the first American to drive one of Audi's V-12 turbodiesels in a competition, during the 24 Hours of Le Mans. His passion for motorsports along with an unrelenting pursuit of excellence-which has caused him to keep up an ultra-disciplined training program along with a hard, three-series race schedule-have catapulted his brief career into the territory of his counterparts, whose initial races weren't too long after their first birthdays.

Christophe Bouchut, part of the Level 5 dream team, is amongst the most successful endurance drivers across the country. His victories have included the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. He has also won 3 Porsche Carrera Cup France championships, three FIA GT titles and a FFSA GT championship. He is the only triple FIA GT champion ever. Bouchut has been driving with Tucker's Level 5 team since 2008, adding his experience to Tucker's burgeoning motorsports empire and becoming an important part of the team's success.

Luis Diaz drove in the Toyota Atlantic and Indy Lights Series from 1999 to 2003 before moving to the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car series in 2004 when he co-drove the No. 01 car with former Champ Car competitor Scott Pruett for Chip Ganassi Racing. Three years later, Diaz moved again, this time into the American Le Mans Series, driving an LMP2 Lola B06/43-Acura for Fernandez Racing, and won the class championship in 2009. Diaz was also titled Most Popular Driver that year. Diaz's experience with Level 5 Motorsports is limited just to the 2011 season, but his familiarity with the LMP2 cars has without doubt been invaluable to the ever-changing team.

Level 5 Motorsports continues to operate on a near-perfect mixture of skills, passion, skill and experience. The cohesive blend of the drivers' backgrounds has established the team as dominant frontrunners in multiple series and allowed the 2011 momentum to carry on with the brand-new HPD ARX-01g car.




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