* He’s the first Louisiana driver to achieve this honor
* He’ll participate at the Formula Ford Festival & the Walter Hayes Trophy in England.
*Jeansonne also got a ticket to compete in the USF2000 shootout for the $200k scholarship
* Recently he tested a USF2000 open-wheel car and won in the latest Lucas Oil Series round.
SULPHUR, Louisiana (October 7, 2017) – Aaron Jeansonne was chosen for the Team USA Scholarship. This gives him the opportunity to compete in the prestigious Formula Ford Festival, where you can only get an entry by invitation, which is held at Brands Hatch (Former Formula 1 track) and also he’ll race in the Walter Hayes Trophy at Silverstone (current F1 venue), both race meetings in England. Also, he got invited to the Mazda Road to Indy $200,000 USF2000 Scholarship Shootout.
“I can’t even put it into words… it’s such an honor to be chosen for the Team USA scholarship this year. It was only a wild dream a year ago and now it’s a reality. It’s insane! I waited very patiently and eagerly for the news and finally (Team USA Scholarship Founder and President) Jeremy Shaw told me to give him a call one day and the first thing he asked was if I wanted to go to England and my heart literally stopped. Of course, I replied: yes,” Jeansonne said.
“I’d never thought in my life that I would have the chance to represent the red, white and blue in anything, which makes this almost surreal, but I just plan to maximize the opportunity, have the time of my life and have as much fun as possible,” he added.
“I thank Team USA and all its supporters for everything and I believe it is the greatest program in the world in racing and without a program such as this, lots of very deserving drivers would have a much smaller chance of making it in this sport,” the 19-year old young man said.
Jeansonne is the first Louisiana native to become Team USA alumni and perhaps he is the least experienced of the participants, but managed to impress the racing community with his maiden victory in his debut in the Lucas Oil Formula Car Race Series last year. Since then, Aaron has managed to achieve three wins and he’s a regular in the podium in all race weekends, with three second places and three third spots in his first full-season.
Almost a quarter of the drivers in this year’s Verizon IndyCar Series (five out of 21 full-season campaigners) such as: Josef Newgarden (won Formula Ford Festival in Kent Class, Indy Lights champion and 2017 IndyCar champion), A.J. Allmendinger (Champ Car Rookie of the Year and also NASCAR, IndyCar and Grand-Am driver), 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 Sulphur, Louisiana driver has been busy lately, since he was one of the four candidates for this year’s Team USA Scholarships who recently enjoyed the opportunity given by Bryn Nuttall of BN Racing to test a Tatuus-Mazda USF-17 at the Autobahn Country Club in Joliet, Illinois.
The young American driver and his peers received advice during the two-day outing by BN’s driver coach, Victor Franzoni, who recently clinched the Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires, and former Team USA Scholarship winner Michai Stephens.
“I want to thank Bryn Nuttall, BN Racing, Team USA Scholarship, Jeremy Shaw and all those involved to make this test happen. This opportunity means the world to me. Bryn was very welcoming and I found him to be very easy to relate to. Having the chance to learn from Victor and Luke Varley was something I didn’t take for granted; I took in a ton of information in a very short amount of time.”
The young driver is already using some of the knowledge learned in the above test, since he’s carrying momentum to England fresh off a win in the latest round of the Lucas Oil Formula Car Race Series.
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