Lindenhurst, New York - Group-A Racing is pleased to announce its entry into the 2017 Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda with the purchase of new Tatuus USF-17’s. The teams’ return to USF2000 comes in a new era with the debut of the new state-of-the-art Tatuus USF-17 with which the team is planning a two to three car effort, along with a one to two car program in the National Class using the previous generation Van Diemen.
Group-A Racing is a Long Island-based team started in 1996 when it originally competed in the USF2000 Series. It’s debut took place at the now defunct Walt Disney World Speedway competing against names like Sam Schmidt, Steve Knapp, Augie Pabst, Alex Barron, Jason Bright, Sam Hornish Jr and many others. The team started on the outside pole in a field that had 67 entries, and led the majority of the race.
Since then the team has gone on to have a lot of success in both open wheel and sports car series, winning races and having championship efforts. The team is filled with a very experienced staff such as lead engineer Ian Brown, who has spent the past 30 years in race engineering mainly in IndyCar, Australian V8 Supercars and Indy Lights, and working for some of the biggest names such as Andretti, Holden and Herta.
The team has taken delivery of its first USF-17 car this week, and have chosen to skip the Chris Griffis test next week to make sure nothing is rushed and everything is properly prepared for the first outing. The team will start testing with potential drivers the beginning of November at its winter base in MSR Houston.
“I am really excited about returning to USF2000 next season,” said team manager Jonathan Scarallo. “The series has so much momentum behind it with all the support from INDYCAR, Mazda and Cooper Tire plus you have this beautiful new USF-17 car. The field is going to be massive with some incredible competition. I am really looking forward to giving our drivers all the tools they need on and off the track to go win races and hopefully a championship, earning the Mazda scholarship to Pro Mazda.”
The team will be based at MSR Houston for the winter giving them about 15-20 potential test days a month and drastically reducing cost. Drivers interested in testing and racing with the team can contact them via GroupARacing@aol.com