2011 - Competitive sports car racing isn't really the great spectator activity that, say, football is: Soaring past a checked flag at 200 mph doesn't leave much space for a wining dance. But motor racing followers are just as essential to motorists as football followers are to wide receivers.
Level 5 Motorsports owner and driver Scott Tucker will start and ends races along with his fans. After drivers' group meetings at races, just before he hits the track, he heads up to sign autographs for supporters. "This is where it really starts," he has said. "Having a big fan base coming to watch you gets everybody excited and pumped up."
The reality is, Tucker would still race even if not a solitary person arrived on the scene to watch him-which makes him the very best kind of professional athlete: a guy who truly loves the game. His total dismiss for any of the benefits that may come with being as prosperous as he has been, with a distinctive story to boot, have a way of pulling individuals to the sport: What might make an investor from Leawood, Kansas go into the realm of professional sports vehicle racing as a 44-year-old rookie? Tucker's tale, an anomaly in an industry in which drivers have often been training for years by the time they hit 44, has caught the interest of the Discovery Channel, which broadcasted the feature movie "Daytona Dream," about Tucker and Level 5's 2010 quest and ultimate achievement of a podium finish after 24 hours of grueling, constant competition.
Supporters specifically in the country have looked to Tucker also mainly because his is the 1st Le Mans Prototype entry in the country in Twenty-five years. What made him enter in the ALMS? Not just a sponsorship or a pay boost or anything other than the belief that he just desired to, a shift that then begs the question, what's so great about Le Mans Prototype cars? The answer will be, a lot-something Tucker has helped advertise to a group of followers that is inundated with Nascar, Grand-Am and Ferrari more so than LMP.
The truth is, Tucker withdrew from a couple of crucial races in the 2011 season when he awaited the ending touches on a brand-new, cost-capped Honda car for the team. For Level 5, that's on a breakaway outstanding year, the automobile had to be worthy of giving up points and podium appearances. For Tucker, it absolutely was. He'd been keeping track of up-dates over the automobile and made a decision it was the most effective model available in the LMP2 class.
"The fans are important to me because ultimately, we feel the same way about competitive sports car racing," Tucker mentioned. "Only, I get to be the one behind the wheel, and if I can share that with them, and they're excited about it too, then that's the best thing."
Not that Tucker is a particularly difficult figure to rally behind. Not only is his story captivating and his passion for the sport undeniable-his record is pretty darn good. He won his second consecutive T1 division national championship at the SCCA runoffs at Road America, and in 2010, he served Ferrari as a test driver as it developed the next generation of supercar, the 599XX. In 2009, Tucker scored a single-season record of 10 victories in the Ferrari Challenge series and won the Ferrari Challenge Dealership Championship for Boardwalk Ferrari. He also won the Sports Car Club of America National Championship in a Ferrari 430.
After working his way through the Ferrari Challenge series and the Grand-Am series, Tucker, together with coach and co-driver Bouchut, took a chance for Le Mans Prototype class competition and in 2010 won the LMP class championship, which knocked them up to the LMP2 class for 2011.
With drivers' championships all but official this season for Tucker and Bouchut, the Level 5 Motorsports team will continue to deliver action-packed, podium-worthy shows for the fans. Having remained mostly out of the spotlight, Tucker isn't your common sports hero, but that's because he's as much a fan of the activity as he is a driver in it.
Level 5 Motorsports owner and driver Scott Tucker will start and ends races along with his fans. After drivers' group meetings at races, just before he hits the track, he heads up to sign autographs for supporters. "This is where it really starts," he has said. "Having a big fan base coming to watch you gets everybody excited and pumped up."
The reality is, Tucker would still race even if not a solitary person arrived on the scene to watch him-which makes him the very best kind of professional athlete: a guy who truly loves the game. His total dismiss for any of the benefits that may come with being as prosperous as he has been, with a distinctive story to boot, have a way of pulling individuals to the sport: What might make an investor from Leawood, Kansas go into the realm of professional sports vehicle racing as a 44-year-old rookie? Tucker's tale, an anomaly in an industry in which drivers have often been training for years by the time they hit 44, has caught the interest of the Discovery Channel, which broadcasted the feature movie "Daytona Dream," about Tucker and Level 5's 2010 quest and ultimate achievement of a podium finish after 24 hours of grueling, constant competition.
Supporters specifically in the country have looked to Tucker also mainly because his is the 1st Le Mans Prototype entry in the country in Twenty-five years. What made him enter in the ALMS? Not just a sponsorship or a pay boost or anything other than the belief that he just desired to, a shift that then begs the question, what's so great about Le Mans Prototype cars? The answer will be, a lot-something Tucker has helped advertise to a group of followers that is inundated with Nascar, Grand-Am and Ferrari more so than LMP.
The truth is, Tucker withdrew from a couple of crucial races in the 2011 season when he awaited the ending touches on a brand-new, cost-capped Honda car for the team. For Level 5, that's on a breakaway outstanding year, the automobile had to be worthy of giving up points and podium appearances. For Tucker, it absolutely was. He'd been keeping track of up-dates over the automobile and made a decision it was the most effective model available in the LMP2 class.
"The fans are important to me because ultimately, we feel the same way about competitive sports car racing," Tucker mentioned. "Only, I get to be the one behind the wheel, and if I can share that with them, and they're excited about it too, then that's the best thing."
Not that Tucker is a particularly difficult figure to rally behind. Not only is his story captivating and his passion for the sport undeniable-his record is pretty darn good. He won his second consecutive T1 division national championship at the SCCA runoffs at Road America, and in 2010, he served Ferrari as a test driver as it developed the next generation of supercar, the 599XX. In 2009, Tucker scored a single-season record of 10 victories in the Ferrari Challenge series and won the Ferrari Challenge Dealership Championship for Boardwalk Ferrari. He also won the Sports Car Club of America National Championship in a Ferrari 430.
After working his way through the Ferrari Challenge series and the Grand-Am series, Tucker, together with coach and co-driver Bouchut, took a chance for Le Mans Prototype class competition and in 2010 won the LMP class championship, which knocked them up to the LMP2 class for 2011.
With drivers' championships all but official this season for Tucker and Bouchut, the Level 5 Motorsports team will continue to deliver action-packed, podium-worthy shows for the fans. Having remained mostly out of the spotlight, Tucker isn't your common sports hero, but that's because he's as much a fan of the activity as he is a driver in it.
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