CHICAGO, Ill. - Newman Wachs Racing is pleased to announce its first Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires driver for the 2019 season. American Nolan Siegel will make his debut in the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on the March 8-10 weekend, and the 14-year-old California native will be focused on learning the car and the tracks throughout the year.
“I’m really looking forward to working with Nolan this year,” said Brian Halahan, NWR Team Manager. “I think he’s going to surprise a lot of people throughout the season. He’s been working with Tom Dyer, our driver coach, over the winter months and has also completed a few days of testing, so he should be ready to go at the season opener in St. Pete.”
Siegel got his start racing karts in Northern California at the renowned Simraceway Performance Karting Center, which is located at Sonoma Raceway. In 2013, as a car lover at the age of eight, he sampled a kart at the Sonoma facility and hasn’t stopped since.
The next year, Nolan continued karting at the local club level before stepping it up in 2015 and 2016, competing in the California Rotax Max Challenge and then the ROK Sonoma Series. Siegel won the ROK Junior championship in the ROK Sonoma Series in 2017, and he also competed against some of the best karters at the Superkarts! USA California ProKart Challenge.
The 2018 season brought many new experiences for the young pilot, as he continued his develop his racecraft at the SKUSA ProKart Challenge, running in both the X30 Junior and S5 Junior Stock Honda shifter. Nolan also traveled overseas to compete in a Central European Rotax Championship event.
Siegel then made the decision to test out the world of open-wheel formula car racing. Staying close to home, he competed in the Sonoma Raceway Formula 3 Series, where he was crowned the 2018 champion at the young age of 13. Motivated by his success in 2018 and with the help and mentorship of Tom Dyer, Siegel is now prepared to take on the challenge of the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship with Newman Wachs Racing.
“I am very excited to step up to a new level of competition,” Siegel enthused, “especially with such a well-known and established team like Newman Wachs Racing. It is going to be a big challenge, but I am ready and itching to get out on track in St. Pete."
Newman Wachs Racing has been hard at work this off-season, prepping cars and testing multiple drivers. While their main focus remains the Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires, the team did compete in the NASA 25 Hours of Thunderhill last December, where they fielded a Radical SR3 RSX that placed second in class. Building on that success, they dominated the class to come home as the winner of their next race, the PBOC 6-Hour Sebring Winterfest in January. The entire team has now shifted back to the Road to Indy and the official series test in Homestead, Florida on March 2-3 before traveling north for the season opener in St. Petersburg, Florida on March 8-10. The team is looking forward to the new drivers and the new season ahead.