New Car for Scott Tucker and his Dream Team
The Level 5 Motorsports team’s 2011 year has proved it a versatile, prominent team filled with knowledge, skill and enthusiasm. Commanding the podium at the majority of the competitions it entered-including winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and podium at Imola and Sebring, among others-is proof that the Scott Tucker-owned, Microsoft Office-sponsored team has found a winning formula in its schedule, race strategy and drivers, including Tucker, Luis Diaz and Christophe Bouchut. While they began a final quarter of an already great year with the ModSpace American Le Mans Monterey provided by Patron mid-September, all their ducks seemed to be in a row: their formula had been proven time and time again as reliable for an effective winning effort. But this race comprised one wild card, or wild car, as the case might be-the team would finally debut the HPD ARX-01g they had announced they were switching to mid-season.
The Level 5 team expected the car to be a beneficial multiplier for their already winning equation, but as is the situation in racing, they also knew always to anticipate the unexpected. For another team, the possibility and risk of stepping into a completely new car so near to the season’s biggest races could screw up drivers and the team’s rhythm, but Level 5 is made up of drivers that have expertise not merely adapting to vehicle adjustments but in motorsports itself.
“Experience counts,” said Christophe Bouchut prior to the ModSpace race. “We’ve worked hard to prepare for this race, but it’s still brand new and there are still things to check.” The team opened the gearbox for evaluation, sitting out of a final practice time to familiarize themselves with the new car as much as possible before its very first run. Still, Bouchut was right: A car can be checked out again and again, and the race strategy can be cemented into the drivers’ minds, but there comes a time for drivers when lessons from past race knowledge gets control with a sort of gut instinct and feeling that can’t be taught.
Tucker may be the least skilled driver on the Level 5 team, but what he lacks in years behind the wheel he makes up for with a vibrant learning curve that barely existed to start with. A rookie in 2006 at the age of 44, Tucker displayed natural skill and surprising skill in the Ferrari Challenge Series before he made Level 5 Motorsports and began developing a dream team of individuals. As the seasons developed, Tucker began seeing his first major success. In 2009, he won the Sports Car Club of America National Championship. Later on, he was the very first American to drive one of Audi’s V-12 turbodiesels in a competition, during the 24 Hours of Le Mans. His passion for motorsports as well as an unrelenting pursuit of excellence-which has caused him to maintain an ultra-disciplined physical fitness regimen and also a hard, three-series race schedule-have catapulted his brief career into the territory of his counterparts, whose first races weren’t too long after their first birthdays.
Christophe Bouchut, part of the Level 5 dream team, is just about the best endurance drivers internationally. His victories have included the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. He has also won about three Porsche Carrera Cup France championships, three FIA GT titles and a FFSA GT championship. He is the only triple FIA GT champion ever. Bouchut has been driving with Tucker’s Level 5 team since 2008, adding his experience to Tucker’s burgeoning motorsports empire and becoming a fundamental piece of the team’s success.
Luis Diaz drove in the Toyota Atlantic and Indy Lights Series from 1999 to 2003 before moving to the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car series in 2004 when he co-drove the No. 01 car with former Champ Car competitor Scott Pruett for Chip Ganassi Racing. 3 years later, Diaz moved again, this time into the American Le Mans Series, driving an LMP2 Lola B06/43-Acura for Fernandez Racing, and won the class championship in 2009. Diaz was also titled Most Popular Driver that year. Diaz’s experience with Level 5 Motorsports is limited to only this year’s season, but his knowledge of the LMP2 cars has without doubt been invaluable to the ever-changing team.
Level 5 Motorsports continues to operate on a near-perfect blend of technique, love, skill and experience. The cohesive blend of the drivers’ backgrounds has established the team as dominant frontrunners in multiple series and allowed the 2011 momentum to go on with the brand new HPD ARX-01g vehicle.
Scott Tucker’s Level 5 Motorsports are 2011 ALMS Champions Scott Tucker