By Jesse Schwarck
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."
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 fact remains, Tucker would still race even if not a solo person arrived to watch him-which makes him the top kind of professional athlete: someone who really loves the adventure. His full dismiss for any of the rewards which could come with being as thriving as he has been, with a different story to boot, have a way of attracting visitors to the sport: What could make an investor from Leawood, Kansas enter in the arena of professional performance car racing as a 44-year-old rookie? Tucker's account, an anomaly in an industry in which drivers have often been training for a long time by the time they hit 44, has caught the eye of the Discovery Channel, which broadcasted the feature motion picture "Daytona Dream," about Tucker and Level 5's 2010 quest and ultimate success of a podium finish after 24 hours of grueling, steady competition.
Fans especially in the United States have looked to Tucker also because his is the first Le Mans Prototype entry from the country in 25 years. What made him enter the ALMS? Not a sponsorship or a pay raise or anything other than the fact that he simply 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 has helped promote to a fan base that is inundated with Nascar, Grand-Am and Ferrari more so than LMP.
Actually, Tucker withdrew from a number of essential races in the 2011 year as they anticipated the concluding details on a completely new, cost-capped Honda automobile for the team. For Level 5, that was on a breakaway successful year, the vehicle had to be well worth giving up points and podium appearances. For Tucker, it absolutely was. He'd been checking up-dates for the vehicle and made the decision it was the very best 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 stated. "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 an esp
Fans especially in the United States have looked to Tucker also because his is the first Le Mans Prototype entry from the country in 25 years. What made him enter the ALMS? Not a sponsorship or a pay raise or anything other than the fact that he simply 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 has helped promote to a fan base that is inundated with Nascar, Grand-Am and Ferrari more so than LMP.
Actually, Tucker withdrew from a number of essential races in the 2011 year as they anticipated the concluding details on a completely new, cost-capped Honda automobile for the team. For Level 5, that was on a breakaway successful year, the vehicle had to be well worth giving up points and podium appearances. For Tucker, it absolutely was. He'd been checking up-dates for the vehicle and made the decision it was the very best 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 stated. "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 an esp
Actually, Tucker withdrew from a number of essential races in the 2011 year as they anticipated the concluding details on a completely new, cost-capped Honda automobile for the team. For Level 5, that was on a breakaway successful year, the vehicle had to be well worth giving up points and podium appearances. For Tucker, it absolutely was. He'd been checking up-dates for the vehicle and made the decision it was the very best 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 stated. "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 an especially hard figure to rally behind. But not only is his tale fascinating and his desire for the activity undeniable-his record is fairly darn great. He won his 2nd consecutive T1 division national championship in 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 Ten 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, along with mentor 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 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.
"The fans are important to me because ultimately, we feel the same way about competitive sports car racing," Tucker stated. "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 an especially hard figure to rally behind. But not only is his tale fascinating and his desire for the activity undeniable-his record is fairly darn great. He won his 2nd consecutive T1 division national championship in 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 Ten 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, along with mentor 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 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.