Press Releases

The Next American Champ Car Star

"Unhappy is the land that breeds no hero."

-- Bertolt Brecht

More young American drivers winning races is the generally agreed-upon formula for jump-starting the re-birth of open wheel road racing in the U.S., and one need look no further than Lynx Racing driver Bryan Sellers to see the next American Champ Car star.

Although he has already tested successfully with the Newman-Haas Champ Car team, Sellers will drive this year in open-wheel racing's version of AAA-baseball, the Toyota Atlantic Championship.

And the team he's driving for, Lynx Racing, is a uniquely successful combination of championship-winning racing team and driver development program. Owned by two women, Peggy Haas and Jackie Doty, Lynx enters its 14th year of Atlantic competition in 2004 with a list of graduates that includes such American open-wheel stars as Alex Barron, Buddy Rice and Memo Gidley.

"I'm stepping into some big shoes at the Lynx team, but I'm ready for it," says Sellers, a movie-star handsome 21 year-old who hails from the most appropriate place imaginable for a rising American racing hero Centerville, Ohio. The new owners of Champ Car have done a heroic job in saving the series, and the future looks bright. I'm just one step away from that future, and I'm driving for a team that Champ Car team owners keep an eye on. Lynx is kind of a "finishing school" for drivers who are ready to make the jump to Champ Cars, and I was fortunate enough to drive four Atlantic races with Lynx last year so my education is already in high gear. And our pre-season testing has gone extremely well, so we're ready to go racing."

Like most open-wheel drivers today, Sellers started young and showed championship form early by winning the World Karting Association National Championship in 1998. That same year, he competed in two STAR Formula Mazda races, winning both. In 1999, Sellers competed in the Skip Barber Formula Dodge Series, winning 15 of 26 races on his way to capturing the Midwest championship and Rookie of the Year honors.

In 2000, Sellers won seven Skip Barber Dodge National Championship races and finished second in the championship. He also won the prestigious Team USA Scholarship to race in New Zealand, where he beat then-teammate A.J. Allmendinger "who would go on to become the 2003 Toyota Atlantic champion" in six of eight races.

In 2002, driving for Cape Motorsports in the intensely competitive Formula Ford Zetec Championship, Sellers scored eight wins and started from the pole seven times on his way to the championship. As a result, he was named to the American Auto Racing Writers & Broadcasters Association (AARWBA) All-American First Team, joining such notable drivers as Cristiano da Matta, John Force, Sam Hornish Jr., Boris Said and Tony Stewart. His championship also earned him a test at Sebring in Christian Fittipaldi's No. 11 Lilly Newman/Haas Racing Toyota Lola.

"Bryan's accomplishments, his personality and his drive to succeed remind us a lot of some previous Lynx drivers, and he fit right in with the team," says Lynx team manager Steve Cameron. "He has tremendous speed, his technical feedback is impressive and he learns fast. Its going to be a very competitive Atlantic season with some extremely quick drivers coming back for their second full year, but Bryan has so much talent and determination that we're confident he'll be competing for race wins right from the start and challenging for the championship all year."

2004 marks the 14th anniversary of one of the most unique and successful organizations in auto racing today. Created and owned by two women, Peggy Haas and Jackie Doty, the mission of Lynx Racing is to seek out young drivers with the desire and potential to become champions at the highest level of the sport and provide them with funding, equipment and training that focuses on their mental and spiritual development as well as their on-track skills a process the team calls "Destiny by Design." The "scholarship" provided by the team is worth $2.5 million over two years. Graduates of the Lynx Racing program include such open-wheel racing stars as Patrick Carpentier, Buddy Rice, Memo Gidley and Alex Barron.

"We're very pleased to have a rising star like Bryan join Lynx Racing," say team co-owners Peggy Haas and Jackie Doty. "He's obviously a tremendous young talent, and he has that certain sparkle in his eye that, in our experience, distinguishes a driver who's both fun to be around and has a bright future. He's just exactly what we look for in a Lynx driver, and we're confident he'll succeed in both Atlantics and then in Champ Cars. They could use another fast young American driver, and we're happy to help him get there."

Sellers will compete with additional backing from several long-time sponsors, including 3 Dimensional Services, a company specializing in high-tech prototyping. He will also receive support from Microsoft executive Rick Waddell's Drive4USA, a program which "like Lynx Racing" seeks to identify young drivers with championship potential and provide them with the funding and support to move up the ladder to the top levels of motorsports.

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.