Catchfence

Zach Veach Looks To Best His Last Race Result of Second Heading Into Milwaukee Race Weekend

WEST ALLIS, WI (June. 15, 2011) – Andretti Autosport driver Zach Veach just completed his sophomore year of high school and unlike most kids his age entering the summer months at home, Veach is on the road for much of the summer chasing the USF2000 National Championship and the $350,000 sponsorship from MAZDASPEED. Veach’s journey continues this weekend for the 16-year-old’s inaugural visit to the Milwaukee Mile.

“Milwaukee is going to be a fun race, especially having the full ‘Mazda Road to Indy’ ladder series there in conjunction with the IZOD IndyCar series; it gives us drivers the great opportunity to get in front of the fans and the teams,” said Veach. “I have the honor to say that The Young Marines just signed onto my program for the balance of the season so I’m really excited to put a strong result in for them this weekend and with the storied history at Milwaukee, I want to be a part of that too!”

Veach enters the first back-to-back oval events of the 2011 USF2000 season and should he borrow from 2010 where he put in two top-five results in the two oval race events, he will continue his growth pattern on an oval in 2011. Just two weeks ago, Veach started and finished second at Lucas Oil Raceway in the “Night Before the 500” event, the first oval race of the 2011 season. Already this year, Veach took two race wins and three pole positions to capture the inaugural Cooper Tires presents the USF2000 Winterfest Championship and this season, he has earned two pole positions, a race win and four top-five finishes.

“We are coming off a strong run at Indianapolis and I really want to thank my team, Andretti Autosport, for a strong race last month and although it wasn’t a win, everybody did a great job and it felt really good to be back on the podium,” continued Veach. “The Night Before the 500 event was a good points race for me, we made a lot of ground up and we just have to keep our momentum rolling into Milwaukee this weekend. Working hard and staying on the podium these next races is going to be a battle all the way until the last checkered flag!”

Heading into the race weekend, Veach announced he had signed a partnership with The Young Marines, a youth education and service program for boys and girls, age 8 through completion of high school. The partnership with Veach is to include presence on his No. 7 Zakosi Data Backup Mazda, the formation of “Zach’s Pack” and a host of speaking engagements on behalf of the organization.

Practice for Sunday’s USF2000 race at the Milwaukee Mile begins with a promoter test day on Thursday, June 16, followed by practice on Friday, July 17, qualifications on Saturday, July 18 and the race at 10:00 a.m. Central on Sunday, July 19, proceeding the green flag for the Milwaukee 225 IZOD IndyCar Series’ event.

Sanctioned by INDYCAR, the USF2000 National Championship, presented by Cooper Racing Tires and powered by Mazda, is one of three series part of both INDYCAR’s “Mazda Road to Indy” ladder system and the MAZDASPEED Motorsports Development driver program.

To follow Veach’s progress on the asphalt oval in West Allis, WI., live timing and scoring is available on www.usf2000timing.com. For more information, please visit www.zachveach.com, or www.AndrettiAutosport.com.

About Zach Veach:
Zach “Ziggy” Veach is a 16-year-old autoracing driver who competes in INDYCAR’s ‘Mazda Road to Indy’ USF2000 National Championship Series, an important open-wheel stepping-stone to a career in the IZOD IndyCar Series and Indianapolis 500. In 2011, Veach captured the USF2000 Cooper Tires Winterfest Championship, on the heels of placing fifth in the 2010 season, despite missing two race events. In 2010, Michael Andretti signed Veach to his team, Andretti Autosport, while Veach was also being named one of CNN’s “Intriguing People” and was also nominated for Sports Illustrated “Sports Kid of the Year” award. In addition to his racing, Veach is an advocate for safer driving in conjunction with Oprah Winfrey’s “No Phone Zone,” and is the national spokesperson for FocusDriven, an advocacy group for victims of motor vehicle crashes involving drivers using their cell phones. In 2010, Veach released his first published Android application through his phone-app building company, ZaAPP, releasing urTXT, in the Marketplace for Android to help consumers avoid dangerous text messaging while driving and helms his own safe driving program, Ziggy’s Safe Driving, which hits 25 markets across the country each year. Veach has been a guest or profiled on a variety of national platforms including NBC’s The Today Show, CNN’s Headline News, ABCNews.com, Oprah Radio’s The Gayle King Show, The Los Angeles Times, AOL.com and is a blogger for RACER magazine. The son of a national truck and tractor-pulling champion, Veach entered his sophomore year of high school this past fall and released his first book, 99 THINGS TEENS WISH THEY KNEW BEFORE TURNING 16, on March 2, 2011. For more information, please visit www.ZachVeach.com.

About Andretti Autosport:
Based in Indianapolis and led by racing legend Michael Andretti, Andretti Autosport fields multiple entries in the IZOD IndyCar Series. Andretti Autosport also campaigns multiple cars in Firestone Indy Lights, the Star Mazda Championship and in the USF2000 National Championship. The company boasts three IZOD IndyCar Series championships (2004, 2005 and 2007), two Firestone Indy Lights titles (2008 and 2009), one USF2000 championship (2010) and has won the Indianapolis 500 twice (2005 and 2007). For more information, please visit www.AndrettiAutosport.com.

- Zach Veach Public Relations, Press Release