Steve Cameron

Press Releases

Doing Triple Duty

“The carpenter’s cord, if you hold your ear close enough, is musical in the breeze.”

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson –

It’s a rare situation in auto racing when the person running the team is also a top-notch driver who participates in test sessions and coaches the drivers on race weekends.

When it does happen, as is the case with Steve Cameron and Lynx Racing, you get the kind of results the team has achieved in the Toyota Atlantic series -- back-to-back championships, thirty-nine race victories, thirty-four poles and several drivers graduated to the top ranks of open-wheel racing, including Patrick Carpentier (Forsythe Racing), Alex Barron (Red Bull Cheever Racing), and Buddy Rice (Team Rahal).

“Being team manager, test driver and driving coach results in quite a full schedule, but it really is useful in terms of getting as much information as possible across to these young drivers in the season or two they’re with us,” says Cameron. “And it really keeps me on my toes because I have to be as fast as they are or they won’t take me seriously. Somewhere in the process there comes a point where the pupil becomes the master, and that’s exactly the goal Lynx Racing has in mind every time we sign a hot young driver. It’s a good system, but it’s also a little hard on the egos involved -- theirs when they first get here and find that some old guy is faster in the car than they are, and then on mine when they get it figured out and start beating my times.”

Cameron, now in his tenth year as team manager and driving coach for Lynx Racing, has more than 30 years of experience as mechanic, crew chief, driver and team manager with an intriguing variety of teams. In 1979, his rookie year as a driver, he won the New Zealand Formula Vee series and was awarded the Bruce McLaren Memorial Trophy. On his way up the ladder, he has raced in Formula Ford, Formula Mazda, Pro Sports 2000, Formula Atlantic and IMSA.

His major accomplishments behind the wheel include a pair of IMSA Camel Lights class victories in the 24 Hours of Daytona (1991 and 1992) and a runner-up finish in the 1992 Atlantic Championship. Cameron also ran several races in the 1994 season as a factory development driver for Raven Race Cars. Recently, Cameron has also been instrumental in testing and developing the all-new Star Formula Mazda ‘Pro Series’ formula car.

In his capacity as Lynx Racing's driving coach, Cameron guided the early careers of such open-wheel rising stars as Patrick Carpentier, Alex Barron, Buddy Rice, Memo Gidley, Michael Valiante and Lynx Racing’s newest driver, Bryan Sellers. He is also very active in karting, both as a winning driver and spotting and encouraging young talent. Additionally, through his own company, Cameron Karting, he is a distributor for ITALKART karts, one of the top brands in the intensely competitive world of karting.

Lynx Racing, founded fourteen years ago by Peggy Haas and Jackie Doty is dedicated to providing that career-making ‘big break’ to potential young champions who have the speed but not the money or connections. The Lynx program is a 'scholarship' that includes funding of $2.5 million over two years, the best cars and equipment and instruction in the wide range of disciplines demanded in modern motorsports, from chassis setup and racecraft to dealing with the media, the fans and corporate sponsors.

The Lynx driver for 2004 is Bryan Sellers, 21, of Centerville, Ohio. Sellers, the 2002 Formula Ford Zetec champion with eight wins and seven poles, drove four Atlantic races with the Lynx team in 2003 season, scoring two top-10 finishes. He will run the full 12-race Atlantic schedule for Lynx in 2004 with additional support from 3 Dimensional Services and Rick Waddell’s Drive4USA program.

Atlantic is the triple-A baseball of open-wheel auto racing, just one step below the Bridgestone Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford. It is the official 'development' series for Champ Cars, a place where the top drivers of tomorrow sharpen their skills in front of the team owners who will provide their eventual employment.

"Having been on both sides of the wheel gives me a unique perspective when working with a young driver," says Cameron. "No matter how fast they inherently are, there is a process that they need to be guided through to turn them into winners. Communication is the key to that process, and when we achieve it, winning comes naturally.”

For further information on Lynx Racing, please visit the team's web site at www.lynxracing.com, or telephone team P.R. Manager Peter Frey at (818) 906-6997. The Toyota Atlantic series has a web site at www.toyotaatlantic.com.