Green Bay police have the option of wearing special badges commemorating the Packers’ Super Bowl win. The badges, in use through August 2012, feature the team’s logo and the city’s nickname, Titletown USA.
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BIO BLAST NAME Zach Veach AGE 16 HOMETOWN Stockdale, Ohio FAME CLAIM 2011 USF2000 Winterfest champ; currently third in USF2000 National Championship standings
When you LOOK LIKE YOU’RE 13,
promote Veach to also compete in Star
people are reluctant to think you can drive
Mazda for the final two races of the
a car. Then Zach Veach (who’s actually 16)
series, meaning a move to Indy Lights
flashes his license and says he’s a race car
may come sooner than expected.
driver climbing the development ladder to the Izod IndyCar Series. Sure, kid, good one. But don’t wait for
turn a wheel that’s like torquing a
As one accomplished veteran driver will
25-pound dumbbell at eye level without
attest, Veach’s ability behind the wheel
the benefit of power steering. “That just
is years ahead of his racing peers.
makes me work harder every day. Ever
“Speed is something you can’t teach,”
since I was playing with Hot Wheels, I’ve
says Michael Andretti, owner of Andretti
dreamed of racing in the Indy 500.” all the 11th-grade honor student has on
watching him dominate lower-level
his mind. In addition to Veach’s daily
circuits. “And Zach had it right away.”
regimen—a two-hour morning workout,
15 miles from the Kentucky border,
48
ESPN The Magazine
September 19, 2011
online school courses and afternoon sessions on a race simulator—he found
Veach is one of the early test cases for
time to pen a book, 99 Things Teens
the Indy Racing League’s two-year-old
Wish They Knew Before Turning 16, and
feeder system, which includes the
start a company, ZaAPP, developing an
USF2000 National Championship, Star
Android app to deter teens from texting
Mazda Championship and Firestone Indy
while driving.
Lights. He’s on track to reach the majors
He’s so congenial and well-spoken
before his 19th birthday—a fast ascent
that Andretti has dubbed him a “little PR
considering his father, Roger, a
machine,” and that’s precisely what the
truck-and tractor-pull champion, didn’t
IRL hopes to create in its rising stars: a
allow him behind the wheel until he was
better driver and a more marketable
12. Most hopefuls are in go-karts by age 4.
young name. “To have credibility, we have
Despite the eight-year delayed start,
By LaRue Cook
But holding that bottle of milk is not
champ, who signed Veach in 2010 after
A native of rural Stockdale, Ohio, located
ZACH VEACH IS MAKING WAVES IN INDYCAR’S MINOR LEAGUES, BUT THIS Teenager iS MUCH MORE THAN A GEARHEAD.
the 5'2", 95-pound Veach, who’s able to
the punch line, because it’s not coming.
Autosport and a former open-wheel
QUICK STUDY
“I’ve been one of the smallest guys for my age out there since I started,” says
to create the best of the best at the
missing the first two races of 2010 while
bottom,” says league CEO Randy Bernard,
waiting for a team to pick him up and
who is banking on future talent to soften
competing alongside drivers as old as
the blow of losing his most recognizable
20, Veach managed to finish fifth in the
driver, Danica Patrick, to NASCAR next
USF2000 standings as a 15-year-old. He
season. “Without them, we can’t claim to
rode that momentum to a title in the
have the pinnacle of racing at the top.”
short winter portion of the circuit and
Veach may well be the first of those
held a top-three spot as the series
future IndyCar stars. But in the interim,
entered its finale at the Streets of
watch out for him on the highway. After
Baltimore over this Labor Day weekend.
all, he did just get his license eight
The success prompted Andretti to
months ago. No joke.
Photograph by Greg Ruffing