SAN ANTONIO, April 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Eighteen year old racecar drivers Jared Beyer and Ricky Taylor are teaming up at the Bosch Engineering 250 at VIR. The duo is one of the youngest teams to ever race in Grand-Am Racing. In testing at VIR-Virginia International Raceway, the two have proven to be competitive with the older drivers. The race will be in Alton, Virginia on April 27th and will be televised on Speed TV.
By any measurement, Beyer Racing is the youngest team in the Rolex Series paddock for 2008. The team's debut in the No. 19 Ford Crawford Daytona Prototype will set the stage for Jared's 10 year goal; to win the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Jared leaves for VIR on Wednesday, April 23rd for race testing and set up. Jared will be blogging from the track before and after the race to share his experience and keep up with his fans. (See Jared's blog at http://jaredbeyer.typepad.com/)
About Jared Beyer
Jared Beyer was born in San Antonio on October 27, 1989. From an early age, Jared participated in sports to hone his naturally competitive spirit. He graduated early from New Braunfels High School, and intends to pursue a degree in engineering. At the age of 18, Jared has been racing successfully for 6 years. Jared has been coached by driving professionals Al Mitchell, Ross Bentley, Andy Wallace, Beaux Barfield of MSR Houston, and Davy Jones, Le Mans and Daytona driving champion. Now Jared is entering the Grand-Am Rolex Series in 2008.
Jared had great success competing in karting in the SWRA, the Texas-based Southwest Roadracing Association, regarded as the largest road racing organization in the International Kart Federation (IKF).
About Ricky Taylor
Ricky Taylor is the son of professional racecar driver, Wayne Taylor. Ricky, age 18, started his racing career in go karts at the early age of ten. He won multiple karting endurance races and championships before stepping up to Skip Barber Racing in 2005. In 2007, Ricky was crowned Skip Barber Southern Series Champion before sailing through the 14-race Skip Barber National Series scoring a pair of wins, a series-high five pole positions, and finishing second in the season-long championship. His five pole positions tied him with Scott Speed and Salvador Duran for second-most poles in a single season.
During the past year, Ricky's skill has been showcased in hundreds of testing laps, driving the No. 10 SunTrust Racing Pontiac Riley. In January, Ricky finished fifth in the Rolex 24 at Daytona in the SunTrust Pontiac for his father Wayne Taylor's racing team. Along with joining Beyer Racing for the Rolex Grand-Am Series, Ricky is also racing in the IMSA Lites Series in 2008.
About Beyer Racing
Beyer Racing was founded by entrepreneur Jeff Beyer. Jared Beyer and Ricky Taylor will be Beyer Racing's driving team. Stephen Charsley is the team's General Manager, with thirty years of experience in mechanical engineering and racing team leadership. The team will participate in six of the races in the Rolex Grand-Am 2008 Series, and plan on a full racing schedule in 2009. For more information, visit http://www.beyer-racing.com.
About Grand-Am
The Grand American Road Racing Association was established in 1999 and is located in Daytona Beach, Florida, near the home of NASCAR, International Speedway Corporation (ISC), and Daytona International Speedway. Although originated by some members of the NASCAR community, Grand-Am centers on different styles of racing, such as sports car racing, touring car racing, and motorcycle racing. The premiere series of Grand-Am is the Rolex Sports Car Series, which originated in 2000 as a successor to the United States Road Racing Championship. Combining classes of Sports Racing Prototypes and grand Touring-style production-based cars, the series includes a wide variety of North American tracks.