On September 2, 2023, Myles Rowe, #99 Pabst Racing with Pressure Indy, turned the primary Black driver to win an INDYCAR-sanctioned championship. After beginning the ultimate race with a 64-point sequence lead, 23-year-old Rowe clinched the 2023 Cooper Tires USF PRO 2000 title on the Portland Worldwide Raceway in Portland, Oregon. With this USF Professional 2000 championship, Rowe will advance to the INDY NXT by Firestone sequence in 2024.
Within the 2023 USF Professional 2000 sequence, Rowe amassed extra wins (5), pole positions (4), quickest laps (three), and podium finishes (seven) than any of his rivals. Throughout final 12 months’s USF 2000 Sequence Championship, Rowe positioned runner-up, ending inside six factors of the winner. Since age 4, Atlanta native Myles Rowe has been fascinated with all issues racing. He’s a previous 2018 Lucas Oil Components Automobile Race Sequence winner.
“This 12 months was a take a look at to see what I’ve obtained,” stated Myles Rowe. “And by chance, I used to be capable of pull it off.”
On December 3, 2020, Black Indianapolis enterprise chief and staff co-owner Rod Reid and Roger Penske, the proprietor of essentially the most profitable racing group in historical past, introduced the formation of the USF2000 race staff on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, as a part of the Race for Equality & Change range initiative. On August 29, 2021, Rowe turned the Black driver to win an INDYCAR-sanctioned race at New Jersey Motorsports Park within the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship.
“Once I first envisioned the Pressure Indy staff, I noticed it as a pipeline to create alternatives for black and brown expertise. A possibility to alter the face of motorsports,” stated Pressure Indy Crew Principal and Co-owner Rod Reid. “I by no means imagined profitable a championship practically two years earlier than we gained our first race.”
Pressure Indy celebrates this historic second by specializing in establishing a program that fuels alternatives for folks of coloration – together with drivers, crew members, and extra – throughout the INDYCAR paddock. The objective for Pressure Indy is to open as many doorways as attainable for various illustration and management within the motorsports world. Pressure Indy was based as a part of Penske Leisure’s Race for Equality & Change initiative, launched in July 2020 to create basic change within the motorsports business.
This championship win within the #99 continues Pressure Indy’s tribute to Dewey “Rajo Jack” Gatson, the Black racer denied entry within the Indy 500 within the Nineteen Thirties and 40s. Rowe drove the purple rear-winged USFPro2000 automotive to victory in honor of the Crimson-Tailed 99th Squadron of the Tuskegee Airman.
Be taught extra at ForceIndy.com
This information first appeared on blacknews.com
