AARON JEANSONNE IS THE FIRST LOUISIANA DRIVER TO BE CHOSEN FOR TEAM USA SHOOTOUT

* The winners will participate at the Formula Ford Festival & the Walter Hayes Trophy in England.

* Also there’s a $200k USF2000 Scholarship at stake.

Recently, Team USA Scholarship announced that Aaron Jeansonne is one of six drivers who will participate in the Team USA Shootout. The winners will follow in the footsteps of famous professional drivers such as Josef Newgarden (won Formula Ford Festival in Kent Class, Indy Lights champion and current IndyCar points leader) and A.J. Allmendinger (Champ Car Rookie of the Year and also NASCAR, IndyCar and Grand-Am driver), who claimed racing scholarships in the past, plus the opportunity to race in international events in Europe.

Jeansonne is a special driver, not only because he’s the first Louisiana native to get this opportunity to succeed in motor racing, also, he probably is the least experienced of the participants, but managed to impress the racing community with his maiden victory in his first race weekend in the Lucas Oil Formula Car Race Series last year.

Since then, this young driver has managed to achieve a second win, plus constant podiums in all race meetings, with three runner-up performances and three third places in his first full-season.

“I feel very honored to have been chosen as a finalist for the Team USA Scholarship; even being chosen as a candidate was huge for me. A year ago at this time, I had never raced on a road course nor had driven a race car, but I had my eyes on the Team USA Shootout wishing that I could be part of it,” the 19-year old young man said.

“It was only a huge dream at the time, and it’s almost surreal that I actually have my chance. I just cannot thank everyone enough that has helped me reach this point and all that support me. I’m unbelievably excited for this opportunity,” the Sulphur, Louisiana driver added.

Almost a quarter of the drivers in this year’s Verizon IndyCar Series (five out of 21 full-season campaigners: Charlie Kimball, JR Hildebrand, Conor Daly and Spencer Pigot), plus current sports car stand-outs Dane Cameron, Joel Miller, Joey Hand, Andy Lally, Bryan Sellers, Bryan Herta, Jimmy Vasser and Trent Hindman, are all Team USA alumni.

The process also was very strict, since drivers were drawn from a variety of categories and had individual interviews with an illustrious panel of judges representing virtually every aspect of the sport, during the Verizon IndyCar Series weekend at Mid-Ohio.

This weekend will be held the Team USA Shootout, which will be two days of evaluations, both on the track and off, will be held in conjunction with the Lucas Oil School of Racing. The two winners will race in the prestigious Formula Ford Festival and the Walter Hayes Trophy later this year in England. Also, they get invited to the Mazda Road to Indy $200,000 USF2000 Scholarship Shootout.

For Aaron Jeansonne has been a hard road to reach this opportunity, he first worked as an aircraft mechanic at Northrop Grumman in Lake Charles, Louisiana to pay his Lucas Oil School of Racing raid. Later, he was let go during a reduction of personnel in the facility and he didn’t give up, getting a new job. Now, he expects to be among the winners to keep moving forward in his race career.