Competitive sports car racing isn't really the great spectator activity that, say, football is: Flying past a checkered flag at 200 miles per hour doesn't leave much room for a triumph dance. But motorsports followers are just as important to drivers as football buffs are to wide receivers.
Level 5 Motorsports owner and driver Scott Tucker will start and ends races together with his fans. After drivers' group meetings at races, before he hits the track, he heads up to sign autographs for fans. "This is where it really starts," he has said. "Having a big fan base coming to watch you gets everybody excited and pumped up."
In fact, Tucker would still race even if not a solo person ended up to watch him-which makes him the most efficient kind of professional athlete: someone who completely loves the adventure. His total dismiss for any of the added benefits which can come with being as flourishing as he has been, with a distinctive story to boot, have a way of drawing people to the sport: What would make an investor from Leawood, Kansas enter into the arena 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 and 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 achievement of a podium finish after 24 hours of grueling, prolonged competition.
Followers particularly in north america have looked to Tucker also because his is the very first Le Mans Prototype entry from the country in Twenty-five years. What made him enter the ALMS? Not a sponsorship or even a pay boost or something other than the belief that he just desired to, a shift that then begs the query, what's so wonderful about Le Mans Prototype cars? The answer is, a lot-something Tucker helps advertise to a group of fans that is inundated with Nascar, Grand-Am and Ferrari more so than LMP.
Truth be told, Tucker withdrew from a few really important races in the 2011 year while he awaited the finishing details on a different, cost-capped Honda vehicle for the team. For Level 5, that was on a breakaway successful year, the car had to be worthy of giving up points and podium appearances. For Tucker, it absolutely was. He'd been supervising updates over the vehicle and considered it was the most suitable 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 explained. "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 demanding figure to rally behind. Not simply is his story fascinating and his passion for the sport undeniable-his record is fairly darn nice. He won his 2nd 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 instructor and co-driver Bouchut, took an opportunity 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 performances for its fans. Having stayed mostly out of the spotlight, Tucker isn't your common sports hero, but that's because he's as much a fan of the overall game as he is a driver in it.
Level 5 Motorsports owner and driver Scott Tucker will start and ends races together with his fans. After drivers' group meetings at races, before he hits the track, he heads up to sign autographs for fans. "This is where it really starts," he has said. "Having a big fan base coming to watch you gets everybody excited and pumped up."
In fact, Tucker would still race even if not a solo person ended up to watch him-which makes him the most efficient kind of professional athlete: someone who completely loves the adventure. His total dismiss for any of the added benefits which can come with being as flourishing as he has been, with a distinctive story to boot, have a way of drawing people to the sport: What would make an investor from Leawood, Kansas enter into the arena 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 and 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 achievement of a podium finish after 24 hours of grueling, prolonged competition.
Followers particularly in north america have looked to Tucker also because his is the very first Le Mans Prototype entry from the country in Twenty-five years. What made him enter the ALMS? Not a sponsorship or even a pay boost or something other than the belief that he just desired to, a shift that then begs the query, what's so wonderful about Le Mans Prototype cars? The answer is, a lot-something Tucker helps advertise to a group of fans that is inundated with Nascar, Grand-Am and Ferrari more so than LMP.
Truth be told, Tucker withdrew from a few really important races in the 2011 year while he awaited the finishing details on a different, cost-capped Honda vehicle for the team. For Level 5, that was on a breakaway successful year, the car had to be worthy of giving up points and podium appearances. For Tucker, it absolutely was. He'd been supervising updates over the vehicle and considered it was the most suitable 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 explained. "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 demanding figure to rally behind. Not simply is his story fascinating and his passion for the sport undeniable-his record is fairly darn nice. He won his 2nd 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 instructor and co-driver Bouchut, took an opportunity 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 performances for its fans. Having stayed mostly out of the spotlight, Tucker isn't your common sports hero, but that's because he's as much a fan of the overall game as he is a driver in it.
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