By John Goolsby, Prep Sports Editor
The Trussville Tribune will provide extensive coverage of the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix at Barber Motorsports Park in Leeds. IndyCar drivers Felix Rosenqvist, Santino Ferrucci, Scott McLaughlin, and Birmingham’s own Michael Suco, Jr., a rookie in the USF Juniors series, will be spotlighted.
Netflix’s documentary, Formula 1: Drive to Survive, is credited with growing the U.S. F1 fan base by five million viewers and almost doubling viewership per race over the last five years.
Briarwood Christian School senior Michael Suco, Jr. is counted among those new fans. “I had seen some racing videos on YouTube when I was 14, and I had been interested in cars growing up,” he said. “I ended up watching the entire thing and started having questions like, how do I get into this? What steps do I need to take to get there someday potentially?’
For 2024, Suco, Jr. finds himself driving for VRD Racing in the USF Juniors series. USF Juniors will be among America’s most competitive, if not the most competitive, junior category this year.
Suco, Jr. will get the opportunity to race on his home track when the USF Juniors series rolls into Barber Motorsports Park as a support series to the NTT IndyCar series at the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix on April 26.
Race engineer Jacob Loomis of VRD Racing is happy to see Suco, Jr. join the team. “It’s always nice being able to watch someone like Michael grow as a driver, especially when they have begun their open-wheel career with you,” he said. “Michael is a great listener and a hard worker, and will be a key part of VRD’s success this season and into the future.”
The path from interested fan to racing driver started with Michael’s father, Mike Suco. Mike had a relationship with an avid Porsche enthusiast named Hafiz Chandiwala. Chandiwala introduced the Sucos to Michael Gay, a Porsche Driving Experience instructor at Barber Motorsports Park who raced karts at Atlanta Motorsports Park.
Gay introduced the Sucos to Doug Evans and his son Erik of Atlanta. Doug would eventually provide Erik’s karts for Suco, Jr. to test and race. Erik did not need the karts as he prepared for his championship-winning assault on the British GT4 racing scene. Evans became the first American to win a British GT title.
A few months after Suco, Jr.’s 16th birthday, he got his first taste of an actual racing kart at a two-day test with the elder Evans at Atlanta Motorsports Park. Suco, Jr. spent those first two days in a four-stroke kart.
“Oh my gosh, it was insane,” he said. “It felt so fast, and it was a little damp, and I was on slick tires, and I managed to back it into a barrier and damage the axle.”
“My confidence was on the floor,” he said.
To his credit, Suco, Jr. regrouped and improved his time by more than a second on day two of testing. His improvement impressed Evans, who agreed to provide karts and coach Suco, Jr.
The Sucos would travel to Atlanta from Birmingham every few weeks over the following months to test and have one-on-one coaching. After competing in the Atlanta Motorsports Park winter series with positive results, Suco, Jr. began looking at the faster two-stroke karts.
“Being as old as I was compared to those kids who were driving, I was getting into it at 16; the rate at which I had to move was pretty quick,” he said.
After several months of driving a two-stroke kart, Suco, Jr. and his father reached out to VRD Racing, the team Erik Evans had driven for in F4 and F2000.
VRD Racing was founded by Brit Dan Mitchell and is based in Dawsonville, Georgia. The team fields numerous entries in multiple single-seater formulas. VRD has strong European ties and will partner with Arden Racing in the 2024 GB3 Championship (British F3).
Suco, Jr.’s first test in a car came at Atlanta Motorsports Park in a Radical SR1 that was limited to 60% throttle.
“I was basically walking around this track, but it was a good reference,” he said. “I had driven it [the track] on what I call a simulator…$200 wheel and pedals that I bought from Amazon,” he joked. “I think I was six seconds off in the Radical, and that was with a throttle limiter,” he said. “I was blown away by it.”
The Sucos returned a few weeks later, and Michael got his first test in a USF Juniors car.
“It was unbelievable being in that kind of car for the first time,” he said. “I had two other guys on track, too.”
The two drivers on the track were Hudson Schwartz and Sam Corry, now racing in USF2000. “They were flying by me, and I think I was four or five seconds off, but I was braking super early,” he said. “I just kept going from there, day after day, and got to where I was really close on pace, and we started testing other tracks with the team.”
In February, Suco, Jr. made his USF Juniors debut for VRD in the YACademy Winter Series at Homestead-Miami Speedway. “I didn’t perform exactly like I would have wanted to, but it was good enough to have a case to continue to do this,” he said.
Suco, Jr. got his first full race weekend experience at the season-opening races in New Orleans on April 5. The rookie sits 17th in the points standings after three races.
Along with his father, his mom Shelley, and sister Bella, are his biggest fans. Suco, Jr. expects lots of family and friends to be on site at Barber when he takes the green flag in a few weeks.
Briarwood Christian will well represent the USF Juniors races. While Suco, Jr. will be busy getting his car to the front of the field, Drew Goolsby, another Briarwood senior, will be busy shooting photos as an accredited NTT IndyCar Series photographer. Here is to hoping there will be a Lion reunion in Victory Circle.
The Children’s of Alabama Grand Prix takes place April 26-28. Race fans can purchase tickets at indyalabama.com or by calling 877-332-7804.
Tickets were sold in 41 states and 12 countries last year and the economic impact to the Birmingham area was between $18 and $27 million.