Veach To Carry The Young Marines Branding Throughout 2011 USF2000 Season
WASHINGTON, DC (June. 14, 2011) – The Young Marines, a youth education and service program for boys and girls, age 8 through completion of high school, announced today a partnership with 16-year-old Andretti Autosport USF2000 race car driver Zach Veach. The partnership will include Veach carrying the Young Marines imagery 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.
“The Young Marines organization is very excited about the partnership with Zach ‘Ziggy’ Veach,” says Mike Kessler, National Executive Director/CEO, Young Marines National Headquarters, “Zach represents the kind of values that we instill in our Young Marines of Teamwork, Leadership, Discipline and living and promoting healthy, drug-free lifestyle. Zach is a polite, but no-nonsense kind of young man who believes that anything is possible if you set your mind to it. His healthy, drug-free view of life parallels our program’s mission.”
The Young Marines discovered Veach when he appeared on NBC’s Today Show, promoting his new book, 99 THINGS TEENS WISH THEY KNEW BEFORE TURNING 16. That appearance sparked an interest with the Young Marines program and they knew Veach would be a perfect fit to speak at their annual Adult Leader’s Conference (ALC) in May, 2011. Veach served as the keynote speaker at the leadership conference in Charlotte, NC, sharing his story with nearly 400 of the adult volunteers of the Young Marines program before taking the wheel of his USF2000 car in the “Night Before the 500” where he placed second.
“I’m honored to welcome The Young Marines to our family,” said Veach. “I had the opportunity of speaking at their leadership conference and was able to meet their staff and the members of their organization and was really impressed with the group they had. To have an organization such as this part of my racing program is very humbling and I’m excited to be working with them moving forward.”
The values of living a healthy, drug-free lifestyle are what Veach lives by and for which mirror the core values of the Young Marines. With that, Veach was awarded the title of an honorary Young Marine at a small ceremony at the Indy 500 in May 2011 by outgoing 2010 Young Marine of the Year, 17-year old Casey Scott (VA) and Kessler.
“We are happy to have Zach as a part of the Young Marines’ family,” continued Kessler. “This partnership takes our mentoring within our program to the next level and gives our youth the opportunity to relate to someone similar to them on a larger scale. I am excited for our Young Marines and look forward to mobilizing Zach’s Pack in his upcoming racing schedule.”
The Young Marines is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 that works to positively impact America's future by providing quality youth development programs for boys and girls that nurtures and develops its members into responsible citizens who enjoy, and promote, a healthy, drug-free lifestyle. The program focuses on character building through a combination of self-discipline, teamwork and leadership. Young Marine units are community-based programs run by dedicated adult volunteers in over 300 communities across the United States, and overseas.
Practice for Veach’s race at the Milwaukee Mile begins Thursday, June 16 as part of a promoter test day. Veach will also practice on Friday, June 17, qualify on Saturday and race on Sunday, June 19 at 10:00 a.m. central as a support series to the IZOD IndyCar Series headliner.
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, www.AndrettiAutosport.com, or www.YoungMarines.com.
About The Young Marines:
The Young Marines is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 that works to positively impact America's future by providing quality youth development programs for boys and girls that nurtures and develops its members into responsible citizens who enjoy, and promote, a healthy, drug-free lifestyle. The program focuses on character building through a combination of self-discipline, teamwork and leadership. Young Marine units are community-based programs run by dedicated adult volunteers in over 300 communities across the United States, and overseas. For more information, please visit www.YoungMarines.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.