SASKATOON, Sask. – Exclusive Autosport is excited to announce the return of 19-year-old Manuel Cabrera to expand their Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship team for the 2020 season. Cabrera competed with the team in limited programs during the 2018 and 2019 racing seasons, participating in a total of 12 races with a best finish of eighth at Road America.
The Atizapán de Zaragoza, Mexico resident will drive the No. 91 Gateway Telecomunicaciones / PMC Promotions Tatuus USF-17. Cabrera has been keeping his driving skills honed by recently racing in the 2020 Jaguar I-PACE eTrophy race in Mexico City and he’s also been working extremely hard on his fitness, all while maintaining stellar grades at Universidad Anáhuac México.
“I am very happy to welcome Manuel back to the Exclusive Autosport USF2000 program in 2020,” enthused Michael Duncalfe, Team Principal. “Manuel is strong behind the wheel and brings uncompromising determination and work ethic. He is such a pleasure to have on the team. His personality will without a doubt mesh really well with our engineering staff and the team we have put together. I am really looking forward to a positive USF2000 campaign with Manuel in 2020.”
Cabrera began his racing career in the assorted Mexican karting series in 2010 at the age of 10, running up front and winning numerous races and championships along the way. Manuel made the move to car racing by attending the Skip Barber Racing School in 2016, and then participated in their Championship Series that season. Cabrera graduated to the Formula PanAm series in 2017 and earned the championship title, winning a ticket to attend the Mazda Road to Indy $200,000 Scholarship Shootout in the process.
In the Formula PanAm program, he scored four wins in the six-series races and was on the podium in the other two. He also raced in the Formula Masters Asia series, scoring six top-five finishes, and was awarded the Rookie of the Year honors. In 2018, Manual raced seven races with Exclusive Autosport, racking his highest finish of eighth place at Road America and was named the Road to Indy Insider’s ‘Star of the Race’ at the Royal Purple Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. After taking some time off at the end of 2019, Manuel is ready and ultra-focused to fight for redemption posting winning results.
“I feel really happy to be able to be back with the whole team,” offered Cabrera. “As I have always said, it is a pleasure to work with them. I feel very grateful to them and at the same time very excited to be able to return to the track. There have been difficult days in my career as a driver, but I think that this year I come with more desire than ever. I will do my best in each race and I am definitely looking for great achievements. I hope to have a season to remember and that the team achieves good results this year.”
Cabrera will join his Californian teammate - Prescott Campbell - on Exclusive Autosport’s USF2000 squad, and he will also be teammates with Nikita Lastochkin (Indy Lights) and Braden Eves (Indy Pro 2000) at the official Spring Training test at Homestead-Miami Speedway on March 7-9. The team is poised and ready to battle for the championship titles in all three levels of this year’s Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires.
Exclusive Autosport is pleased to be able to partner with great companies, such as AERO™ Advanced Paint Technology (www.rethinkpaint.com), which is used on all their race cars.