Scott Speed of Manteca

I saw the U.S. Grand Prix of Formula 1 on my TiVo today. An American driver, Scott Speed, participated, and one of the commenters mentioned that Scott is from Manteca, California. Scott had a great weekend for someone driving an uncompetitive car and qualified and excellent 12th, but he was eliminated in the 1st corner pile-up in the race.

David Coulthard, a veteran of more than 200 races and multiply time winner, drives for a midfield team Red Bull now. This is what he said about the incident:

"I was up along side Christian at the start going into Turn one and could see Tonio coming up on the outside. I didn't like the look of it, so I backed off, kept in the middle of the road and let them all go past."

So, David actually lifted when he saw that accident was imminent. That's pretty amazing, because obviously you lose a lot of positions if you do that and nothing happens. He later went on to finish 7th and got 2 championship points. Looking at such performance it becomes evident that Scott has a lot to learn about the racecraft yet.

I wonder what path Scott took to get where he is now. Our racing community is not what you'd call booming. He had to race carts somewhere when he was 12. But I do not know of a cart track and teams anywhere around her. He probably moved to Midwest early.