As teams in the Road To Indy Presented By Cooper Tires series make their final adjustments and ready their cars and drivers for the season opener in St. Petersburg March 13-16, Ayrton Ori emerges to claim a spot in the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship by rejoining forces with Legacy Autosport for the 2020 season.
Ori recently said "Loyalty and performance are what brought me back to Legacy Autosport. At the end of last year Legacy made us an offer that let us get into USF2000 and I don’t think it would have been possible otherwise. We showed up and they did everything they said they would do, no questions asked. They gave me a fast, well prepared car and good support. When we got our budget together, I did talk to some other teams to understand what was out there, but I don’t think I ever thought we were going anywhere else. It’s a family effort and it feels like home."
"We’re looking forward to our first full year of competition in a single series and I think USF2000 is a great venue to get the most exposure and value for our sponsors, Spray Nine, Permatex, The Human Growth Foundation, Poya-Tech, Bell Racing Helmets and more to be announced in the near future."
"I’m most excited about being able to continue to chase my dream. I’m only 15 years old but I’m both extremely grateful for the opportunity and motivated because I realize I’m that much closer to the goal, that dream, that possibility is what motivates me.” said Ori.
Looking closer at just some of this young driver’s impressive career highlights, you will see 2017: Competed in 1 SCCA Regional at Sebring, in Nov. - first car race, age 13, finished 7th, graduated from Skip Barber 3-Day Competition School in April, 2017, at 12 years old. One of youngest graduates in the 40-year history of school
2018: F1600 in the Philip Island Magic All-Star Event at Phillip Island in Australia with a CAMS Pro License, 12 FRP F1600 Pro series races (four weekends), finished 17/32 while only running 4/7 events, high of 5th place finish, two SCCA Majors events (COTA & VIR) in FF/F1600, high of 4th place finish, qualified Elan NP-01 on pole for SCCA ‘Devil in the Dark’ 12-Hour race at NJMP, Mid-Ohio Racing School- youngest graduate in history.
2019: Competed in Portland & Laguna Seca rounds of the USF2000 series, FRP F1600 Pro Series through round 4, two podiums, F1600 support race of F1 Canadian Grand Prix at Montreal, SCCA Majors event at Sebring FL in FF/F1600, finished 5th and 2nd, SCCA Majors event at Road Atlanta in FF/F1600, finished 2nd.
"The 2019 season taught me the performance envelope of the car and how to extract the maximum from it over a race distance. It also showed me the level of competition, which is extremely high. You’re talking a really uncommon level of talent in USF2000 and it caused me to raise my game. The level of engineering support is impressive too. We had strong engineering in F1600, but the entire field in USF2000 is so close that you can’t overlook anything, and Legacy’s engineers are spot on."
Mike Meyer (owner of Legacy Autosport) said "It’s great to welcome Ayrton back to the Legacy family, All of us here are very excited to get down to business and improve our results from the end of last year. Ayrton has so much raw talent, we all really looking forward to helping him excel."
"I feel we have assembled a strong program with Aryton and Cameron and look forward to seeing these two very passionate drivers work together as a team for race wins and ultimately the championship" said Meyer.
With less than two weeks left until the season opener, it will be exciting to see Ayrton and Legacy race for the top spot on the podium in the 2020 championship.