Kirkwood Completes Chastain F1600 Line Up
Noblesville, IN – Chastain Motorsports will complete its four car assault on the F1600 Formula F Championship Series with Kyle Kirkwood, who is making the transition from karts to cars and will drive a Mygale/Honda for the 21-race season.
The Palm Beach, Florida native will make his debut in the winter exhibition event for the F1600 Series, taking place at Palm Beach International Raceway, his home circuit, February 12-14, ahead of the season opener at Road Atlanta in April.
"I'm extremely honored and excited to have the opportunity to race with Chastain Motorsports this year. Everyone on the team seems to be highly professional. I look forward to a competitive and successful 2015 season,” said the 16-year-old.
Kirkwood will join his three teammates, Will Harvey, Parker Chase and Andy Lewis under the guidance of IndyCar driver and professional coach Jay Howard and Howard’s Motorsports Driver Development program.
Harvey competed in the Series in 2014, while Lewis ran one event. Both Chase and Kirkwood will be true rookies in Chastain’s all-American driving lineup. All four drivers will run similar blue Mygale/Hondas.
Howard previously coached Kirkwood, back at the young age of 10, and Howard’s father, Paul Howard, has built many of Kirkwood’s karting engines. Paul Howard’s engines powered Kirkwood to set a record by winning every single race of the Florida Winter Tour in his debut season in the Junior TaG category, going on to dominate the Rotax Junior category for a long time.
"Kyle is a very talented young man, I have watched him grow over the years, I am very optimistic for him this year,” added Jay Howard.
Kirkwood has been racing since the age of five and in 2015 and was hand selected by NASCAR’s A.J. Allmendinger as the recipient of the prestigious Walldinger Racing/ Shell-Pennzoil Karting Scholarship at age 13.
He was the first American to qualify on the pole position and the first American to start a Pre-Final on the Pole at the Rotax Grand Finals in New Orleans 2013. In addition, in 2013, Kyle won the SKUSA Super Nationals in Las Vegas as a rookie S5 driver.
Kirkwood swept the ROK Cup USA in Ocala (Fla.) as a rookie “Senior” as well as winning the SKUSA Dallas Spring Nationals as a rookie S2 driver. He closed out 2014 as a finalist for the MAXSpeed Group Driver Advancement Program.