IN THE NEWS

31 May 2008...in Andrews' fourth day ever in a stock car, he competed in the INSSA late-model race at Stateline, Idaho, winning the Trophy Dash, getting 3rd in the 'B' heat race, and moving from 12th up to 7th in the 100-lap Main, out of 14 entries.

8 April 2008...the Laguna-Seca Skip Barber Race was a bittersweet weekend for Andrew. He qualified on the pole by 7-tenths Saturday morning in a field of 13 in his Sportsman Class. Unfortunately on the 2nd warm-up lap, he clipped the curbing going up the hill in turn 6 and did some front end damage, so he had a DNS on Saturday. The field gridded on Sunday as to how they finished Saturdays' race, so Andrew had to start last (13th). When the green flag dropped, he moved through the field and finished 4th, which drew a lot of attention from everyone watching the race.

4 March 2008...Andrew just completed the Cory Krusemans 2-day Sprint Car dirt oval racing school in Ventura, California. The first day was spent in the Ford Focus Midget car learning the lines and building speed. The second day was split between getting laps in the 650hp Sprint Car and the Ford Focus Midget. By the time Andrews' last session of the day in the Midget car, Cory said that his speed was impressive and that he would be running in the top 12 out of a field of 20 cars if he was in a race there.

13 February 2008...Andrew has enrolled in Cory Krusemans' Sprint Car racing school in Ventura, California. The purpose of this school is to learn car control on a dirt oval, which will be invaluable when he gets into a Stock Car on asphalt. The school takes place on March 2nd and 3rd. Once a year, the Hendrick and Ganassi stock car teams send their drivers to this school for a refresher course.

19 January 2008....the race schedules have been set and Andrew will be running in 4 different race car series this year, starting with his first SCCA race in Portland in his Formula Continental.....then the following weekend he will race at Laguna-Seca in a Skip Barber Formula Car Race... followed by his first race in a Modified Stock Car in Calgary in May...followed by his first race in a 2007 late-model Stock Car in Idaho...on top of these series, Andrew will be running some road course races in the Allison Legacy Series in North Carolina....Andrew will also be developing with DFR Racing in a Pacific F2000 Formula Car down in California, getting ready for a full time ride in 2009 and will most likely race in the Pacific F2000 race in Las Vegas in October.

17 December 2007.....Andrew has been offered a ride in a 2007 Chevrolet Late-model stock car to run the local Northwest races, with a team owned by Spokanes' Jack Morse...

8 December 2007...Pacific F2000 test for DFR Racing at Buttonwillow, California.....see Press Release below

18 November 2007.....Andrew competed in the Supernational Kart Event in Vegas and finished 7th in a field of 30 entries in the Semi-Pro S 1 class competing for the Italian Motors Team.

12 November 2007...Andrew tested for a stock car team at the "Bullring" at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in a 550hp Modified Stock Car. The team owner, former Winston Cup driver Trevor Boys, was very impressed and invited Andrew to join the team for the 2008 season in both their modifieds and their Allison Legacy cars, which will run in Canada for the modifieds with North Carolina and Georgia being the venues for the Allison Legacy cars.
Andrew was consistent in his lap times, which is what they were looking for, and was just 3-tenths off the pace of their long-time team driver.

10 November 2007....Andrew finished out the Formula Renault (TR) Series at Buttonwillow, California with his first win in the 1600 class, followed by Josh Goshen from California and Ryan Booth from Florida.

December 17, 2007

Pacific F2000: Zimmer Tests with Dave Freitas Racing

Andrew Zimmer enjoyed a successful test with Dave Freitas Racing at Buttonwillow
(Photo: Vince Zimmer)

FULLERTON, CALIF. (December 16, 2007) - Italian Motors ICC Pilot Andrew Zimmer was recently invited by Pacific F2000 team owner, Dave Frietas of DFR Racing, to take part in a two-day test at Buttonwillow Raceway Park in Southern California.

Getting his first chance to drive a FF2000 Zetec car, Zimmer was joined at the test by 2006 series champion Robert Podlesni, Dave Freitas Racing engineers Ricky and Matt. Although DFR does not currently have any seats open for the 2008 season, they still wanted to evaluate Zimmer for its driver development program.

With the help of Podlesni and Frietas, along with the new Pi data system, Zimmer came up to speed quickly and was very impressed with the handling of the Van Dieman chassis and the power of the Ford Zetec engine. After the first two sessions on the track, Frietas said that they didn't think that Zimmer would be that advanced going into the test, and he was very impressed by his car control, speed, and down-shifting skills.

Testing on Saturday ended with Zimmer getting in five productive 30-minute sessions, dropping his times in every session. At the start of the Sunday test day, Frietas insisted on a new tires to see exactly how fast the youngster could go. New tires yielded times that were only two seconds slower than Podlesni's, which impressed everyone. When Sunday concluded, Zimmer got in six sessions that saw his times drop as the sessions concluded.

The teams' conclusion is that they want Zimmer as part of the driver development program, being coached by Podlesni.

Of note, sharing track time at Buttonwillow during the test the Ganassi Racing IPS team, with Indy Pro Series champion Alex Lloyd and Chris Festa behind the wheel.

As the weekend ended, coach Podlesni came up to Andrews' Dad and said "you have one talented kid there".