Competitive sports car racing isn't quite the great spectator sport that, say, football is: Zooming past a checkered flag at 200 miles per hour doesn't leave much room for a victory dance. But motor racing followers are just as essential to drivers as football buffs are to wide receivers.
Level 5 Motorsports owner and driver Scott Tucker begins and ends races with his fans. After drivers' conferences at races, before he hits the track, he heads over to sign autographed memorabilia 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."
Without doubt, Tucker would still race even if not a single person arrived on the scene to watch him-which makes him one of the best kind of professional athlete: someone who in fact loves the game. His complete disregard for any of the advantages which can come with being as successful as he has been, with a distinctive story to boot, have a way of getting individuals to the sport: What could make an investor from Leawood, Kansas go into the realm of professional sports car racing as a 44-year-old rookie? Tucker's narrative, an anomaly in an industry in which drivers have often been training for years by the time they hit 44, has caught the eye of the Discovery Channel, which broadcasted the feature video "Daytona Dream," about Tucker and Level 5's 2010 quest and ultimate success of a podium finish after 24 hours of grueling, continuous competition.
Followers especially in america have looked to Tucker also simply because his is the very first Le Mans Prototype entry from the country in Twenty five years. What made him enter into the ALMS? Not a sponsorship or a pay raise or anything other than the belief that he purely wanted to, a move that then begs the question, what's so cool about Le Mans Prototype cars? The answer is, a lot-something Tucker helps market to a fan base that is inundated with Nascar, Grand-Am and Ferrari more so than LMP.
Actually, Tucker withdrew from a handful of valuable races in the 2011 season while he awaited the concluding details on a absolutely new, cost-capped Honda car for the team. For Level 5, that was on a breakaway winning season, the vehicle had to be well worth surrendering points and podium appearances. For Tucker, it absolutely was. He'd been checking up-dates on the vehicle and decided it was the most efficient 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 reported. "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 really that Tucker is a particularly tough figure to rally behind. Not merely is his history captivating and his adoration for the activity undeniable-his record is actually darn effective. He won his second consecutive T1 division national championship for 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 '09, Tucker scored a single-season record of 10 wins 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 guru and co-driver Bouchut, took an opportunity for Le Mans Prototype class competition and in 2010 won the LMP class championship, which bumped 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 continually deliver action-packed, podium-worthy performances for its fans. Having kept mostly out of the spot light, Tucker isn't your ordinary sports hero, but that's because he's as much a fan of the action as he is a driver in it.
Level 5 Motorsports owner and driver Scott Tucker begins and ends races with his fans. After drivers' conferences at races, before he hits the track, he heads over to sign autographed memorabilia 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."
Without doubt, Tucker would still race even if not a single person arrived on the scene to watch him-which makes him one of the best kind of professional athlete: someone who in fact loves the game. His complete disregard for any of the advantages which can come with being as successful as he has been, with a distinctive story to boot, have a way of getting individuals to the sport: What could make an investor from Leawood, Kansas go into the realm of professional sports car racing as a 44-year-old rookie? Tucker's narrative, an anomaly in an industry in which drivers have often been training for years by the time they hit 44, has caught the eye of the Discovery Channel, which broadcasted the feature video "Daytona Dream," about Tucker and Level 5's 2010 quest and ultimate success of a podium finish after 24 hours of grueling, continuous competition.
Followers especially in america have looked to Tucker also simply because his is the very first Le Mans Prototype entry from the country in Twenty five years. What made him enter into the ALMS? Not a sponsorship or a pay raise or anything other than the belief that he purely wanted to, a move that then begs the question, what's so cool about Le Mans Prototype cars? The answer is, a lot-something Tucker helps market to a fan base that is inundated with Nascar, Grand-Am and Ferrari more so than LMP.
Actually, Tucker withdrew from a handful of valuable races in the 2011 season while he awaited the concluding details on a absolutely new, cost-capped Honda car for the team. For Level 5, that was on a breakaway winning season, the vehicle had to be well worth surrendering points and podium appearances. For Tucker, it absolutely was. He'd been checking up-dates on the vehicle and decided it was the most efficient 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 reported. "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 really that Tucker is a particularly tough figure to rally behind. Not merely is his history captivating and his adoration for the activity undeniable-his record is actually darn effective. He won his second consecutive T1 division national championship for 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 '09, Tucker scored a single-season record of 10 wins 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 guru and co-driver Bouchut, took an opportunity for Le Mans Prototype class competition and in 2010 won the LMP class championship, which bumped 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 continually deliver action-packed, podium-worthy performances for its fans. Having kept mostly out of the spot light, Tucker isn't your ordinary sports hero, but that's because he's as much a fan of the action as he is a driver in it.
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