On Track... Milwaukee Mile
Milwaukee's first visit was a high low event for Jonathan Summerton, who was at the track for his first time this weekend with the Firestone Indy Lights Series.

Starting with a couple of practices Jonathan soon got the hang of this 1 mile flat oval which makes it unique compared to the high banks of some tracks. In practice 1 Summerton was 2nd fastest. For the second practice the team tested several set ups and Jonathan said, "The car was fast straight out of the truck. We didn't put new tires on like several teams as we wanted to see how the race would wear the tires, so the results don't show our true speed. Anderson are doing a great job and we can run with anyone.."

Qualifying on the same day makes everyone that little more cautious, as if you hit the wall basically you're done. Jonathan went out on his warm up lap and had a push so took it a little easier than perhaps he should have. This showed in his first timed. By the second lap he improved setting the track record and the two together was 2nd fastest. On his return to the pits his feedback was taken by the team to help his team mate to go out and set a blistering P1 time. This left Jonathan in inside 2nd grid.

"For the race we had a good start," said Jonathan, "and soon we were running well holding third but then in lap 5 the yellow came out due to an incident." As the cars prepared to go green they started to accelerate and Jonathan was hit in the rear by a car behind him. Summerton said it came into the back of me and caused me to spin. Luckily I kept it off the wall but flat spotted my tires. I called into the team and they deiced to wait possibly for a yellow, rather than go a lap down. In the interim I went racing moving from the back slowly but surely and had reached 10th place when my front tire blew and put me into the wall. It was unfortunate that this happened as even though I had flat spots the car was still good and I could have moved up a few more spots but with the tire blown it wasn't going to happen."

Anderson racing team are working well to give me great cars and I know we can win the championship given the chance. I would like to thank Mockett, Charter, Allied Building products, Give Kids the World, and Andersen family for all everyone has done and of course the crew and fans for their support.

Next race is Iowa, June 20th

Indy race report - May 25, 2009
Indianapolis, the capital of American racing, where Jonathan Summerton had the highs and lows of motor sport.

Starting off the Indy 500 weekend with Andersen Racing Team Jonathan became a passenger in an engineer's dream setup as he tried to go faster and faster. The only thing slowing him down was the coefficient of drag of the car. In today's Indy Lights cars set up on the ovals is so important as basically you are flat out all the way around. "In the first practice we had a car that was capable of performing well in the race but it didn’t have top speed," voiced Jonathan.

When qualifying came all three Andersen drivers struggled to find any speed. Each qualifying comprised of 2 laps averaged. When complete the team had 18th, 19th and 20th. "It was a disappointing result for all of us", Jonathan said. "We had hoped to be at least in the top 10. We know we have a fast car for the race so we will just have to try that bit harder."

Come race day, starting from the back, Jonathan was on the move. By the end of the first lap he was already up to 14th. He then continued to gain positions reaching 9th. Unfortunately his front shock cover was loose and he was concerned that it would lift and fly off, so when the first yellow came out he darted into the pits to have it fixed. He was ready to start from the back again. When the green flew again he was on the move towards the front and quickly reached 11th place. However, he was told to pit as his radio was cutting in and out, which, at speeds of nearly 200 MPH can become very dangerous. So, he pitted once again to change his radio out. This is an awkward job to access and caused Jonarhan to go down 1 lap without any chance of lapping everyone to win. Still, Jonathan went out again starting from the back and moved up the field progressively.
Lap 40 was fast arriving but by the checkered flag Jonathan had progressed up to the 4th place car proving that without these problems Jonathan could have definitely been on the podium.

Jonathan commented, "The car handled well. I really enjoyed racing in the Indy Lights Indianapolis race. It is certainly exhilarating to be driviing at nearly 200 mph. I thank Alllied Building Products, Mockett and Andersen racing for the opportunity. Plus, I would like to ask people to help Give Kids the World Foundation. They do a fantsstic job in giving terminally ill kids their one wish in life in Central Florida."

Next race is at Milwaukee, Sunday, May 31, 2009.

KANSAS - SUNDAY APRIL 26, 2009
Jon finished 7th after starting 16th in his first oval so now moves into FIRST place in the championship

What a great weekend Jonathan had in Kansas. This was his first official practice on an oval, first race on an oval, and picked first out for qualifying, plus the big one, leaving Kansas in First for championship points. After the first 3 races in the Indy Lights series Jonathan was second in the points and knew the first oval race would be different.

"Going into the weekend I wanted to learn as much as I could as the only oval I had been on was the one for my Indy Lights test at Kentucky, so I didn't want to risk the car in my first event. Practice was a good learning experience on how the car is affected in traffic and by the wind in different corners. Racing close to the other cars was a lot of fun and my times were good considering the facts.

Going out first in qualifying didn't help me though. I didn't really know the line and would have preferred to go after a few drivers, but that was the place I drew, and qualifying 15th wasn't where I thought we would have finished. We could have done better. This, my first race on an oval was really a lot of fun as slowly but surely I improved advancing from 15th to 7th and I feel if we had stayed green we could have taken the car to a podium. But 7th is good and the best part is I go to Indianapolis with the points lead.

I want to thank Doug Mockett for the sponsorship and hope everyone buys his great products. Thanks to Dan and John Andersen for their confidence in my driving and to Allied products for their support. I would also like to thank the mechanics, the team and the engineers who are always there to help me do my part. They work many hours in the background preparing and repairing the car; always with happy faces. Now I need to focus on prep for Indy with the test on the 5th May and the race on Friday 22nd May."
 

LONG BEACH CA.-Sunday, April 19, 2009-
Jonathan is now up to 2nd place in the championship after another outstanding run at Long Beach street circuit, where he finished 4th. Summerton has placed in the top four of all three races and is now second in the points.

" We had a car that was very consistent," said Summerton, driver of the No. 9 Andersen/Allied Interior Products/Lafarge car for RLR/Andersen Racing. "I wouldn't say we had the quickest car but we were consistent. I think consistency should win the championship, so hopefully that stays true. I'm happy with fourth place but I would have liked to been on the podium."

ST. PETERSBURG, FLA.--Jonathan Summerton enjoyed an outstanding debut last weekend (April 3-5) in the Firestone Indy Lights Series, finishing second on Saturday and fourth on Sunday in the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Summerton, the 20-year old from Kissimmee, Fla., started from the sixth starting position in the 27-car field in Saturday’s season opener on the 1.8-mile street circuit.

The RLR/Andersen Racing driver, Jonathan Summerton, passed James Hinchcliffe on the start, James Davison in Turn One on lap 15 and J.R. Hildebrand on a restart on lap 22 to move up to second place behind Junior Strous, who finished ..7205 of a second in front of Summerton.

“I stayed clean on the start and just paid attention to where everyone was going,” Summerton said. “It was chaos. You could see it coming. Then I basically kept following Junior (Strous). Each pass he made, I just kept following him. It was really good. I think we had the quicker car, but in the end following him was a little rough as I lost some of the downforce on the car and he didn’t make any mistakes. All in all, I’m quite happy with second place. It was an exciting race.”

Summerton started 16th in Sunday’s second race and drove maturely and patiently, wanting for clean opportunities and staying out of trouble.
When most of the field took the inside line going into Turn One following the start, Summerton went to the outside and emerged in 10th place and passed one more car to move up to ninth by the end of the opening lap.



“At the start everyone went to the inside, so I went to the outside. A gap opened up at the apex of Turn One and I jut went flying in. I saw an opening and I went for it.”

In a race with multiple incidents of contact from overly aggressive driving, forcing six full-course cautions for 18 laps, Summerton didn’t allow any cars to pass him and drove around the trouble ahead to finish fourth.

“The yellows helped because the restarts gave me opportunities to pass,“ Summerton said.“ I made a few passes during the race, too, and ended up behind Jay Howard for quite a few laps. We finally got by him (on lap 26) when Hildebrand and Ana Beatriz had their contact and we were up to fourth.

“It was awesome, tons of fun. We went from 16th to fourth. I don’t think you could have asked for much more. My goal was a top-five and we did it. We had a car that I know could have won the race. It’s just a shame we couldn’t get clear air to run the lap times, because I know we had the fastest car out there.

“Allied Interior Products and RLR/Andersen Racing have done a good job putting the car together. I really thank them this weekend. We started off rough and ended on a high.”

Summerton ranks second in the championship with 72 points. Strous also won Sunday’s race and he’s the points leader with 100.

“I’m very proud of the way Jonathan managed the race,” team co-owner Dan Andersen said. “He showed great maturity and racecraft to take the car form 16th place to fourth. We could ask for no more of Jonathan. He is an exceptional driver.”

Summerton’s hopes to find sponsors so he can drive the next Indy Lights race on April 19 in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach (Calif.).

SEE JONATHAN'S 2009 SCHEDULE

2009 - It's Andersen Racing!
PALMETTO, Fla., March 21 - RLR/Andersen Racing is pleased to announce that it has signed rising star Jonathan Summerton to drive its No. 9 car in the Firestone Indy Lights series Summerton, 20, of Kissimmee, Fla., is one of the drivers rumored to be in contention to join the United States' new Formula 1 team in 2010. MORE

Jonathan chosen as one of the top ten best ever drives in A1 Grand Prix
A1GP Shanghai, China 2007/08
For a day that ended in glory, race day hadn’t started well for Jonathan Summerton. An accident at the start with New Zealand’s Jonny Reid, ended his Sprint race before the lights had even gone out. But it wasn’t the repair of the car which worried officials, it was the damage to Summerton’s right hand in the impact. He chose to race in the later Feature however, aided by an anti-inflammatory dressing designed to reduce the bruising and swelling to a tendon. He then went on to deliver a virtuoso performance, pulling away from the rest to win by 9.7 seconds from Portugal’s Filipe Albuquerque. “Who wants the lottery numbers now,” joked Summerton afterwards, referring to an A1GP.com interview he gave a fortnight previously, predicting a maiden USA victory.

Jonathan signs for Andersen Racing and a season of Indy Lights
Summerton's first event with RLR/Andersen Racing will be the season-opening doubleheader on the street course at St. Petersburg, Fla. April 4-5. The team hopes to continue to field a car for Summerton in the remaining 13 races pending the signing of some additional marketing partners it is pursuing.

He began his career competing in karting events at the Ocala (Fla.) Gran Prix. Andersen Racing's karting team is competing there this weekend, while its Star Mazda squad was racing at Sebring on Friday too.

Andersen Racing offers one of the most comprehensive driver development programs available anywhere, with programs in karting, Formula BMW Americas, Star Mazda and Firestone Indy Lights. It is the development team of Rahal Letterman Racing.



" We are very pleased to enter into a driver development deal with one of America's brightest open-wheel stars, Jonathan Summerton," said RLR/Andersen acing co-owner Dan Andersen. "His talent is recognized by many of us in the open-wheel community, and it is our great pleasure to have him as part of our 2009 Firestone Indy Lights lineup. We expect great things from him, beginning at St. Pete."

" We have had Jonathan on our radar for the last few years, as he has not only shown talent behind the wheel, but also the desire to continue improving and learning," said Bobby Rahal of Rahal Letterman Racing. "We believe Jonathan has the talent to continue progressing toward the top of the sport, and we are pleased to have him as part of RLR/Andersen Racing."

Jonathan Summerton takes struggles at Sebring in stride
ORLANDO SENTINEL : SEBRING — Were it not for a slipping clutch, Kissimmee's Jonathan Summerton might well have won the Atlantic Championship race at Sebring, a Friday afternoon prelude to today's 12 Hours of Sebring endurance race. Summerton qualified his Mazda-powered Swift in first place for the 70-mile race, remarkable since as of this time last week, Summerton had no ride for the race and has only been in a race car twice since October.

" I'm still shaking some of the rust off," he said. Even with the balky clutch, Summerton finished third, behind winner and 2008 Star Mazda champion John Edwards, and in second, Belgian Frederic Vervisch. The Atlantic series has long been a training ground for race drivers, with graduates that include open wheels stars such as Danica Patrick, Michael Andretti, Jimmy Vasser and Graham Rahal.

Indy Diary
Wow what a week in Indy. I landed in Indy on Monday and well on Monday night the fun had already started with a few of the drivers and I going to a go kart track called Fast Times. We had a great time. Lots of bumps and bruises but a ton of fun. On Tuesday Just had a relaxing day and went out and had some fun with some of the drivers then got to go downtown that evening and see the beautiful town of Indy.

Wed came along and well it was the first day at the track, it was also community day and we had an autograph signing session which was a lot of fun seeing everyone out there enjoying the day and getting to drive a lap of the Indy racetrack. Thursday was soon here and we were on track at 9 am after our drivers briefing at 8. In the first session we were developing our race setup and well it was going quite well. The car felt really good. In the second session in the afternoon we were working on our Qualifying setup but it didn't go how we thought it would so we cut the session short and just tried our best at what we thought would be quick in the qualifying. When qualifying came we felt pretty confident but it didn't seem to work when we did our lap times.

We qualified 19th with my teammates right in front and behind me. We were all a little disappointed but we knew we had to have a good race setup for race day. The team worked very hard over night getting the cars ready to win and well the noon hour came quickly and the cars were ready. My teammates and I had planned to work together to get to the front as we knew we had great cars. The fans were all there. There were so many of them there must have been 100,000 + at the race and well we put on a great race for them. I worked my way up to 9th then had to pit under yellow due to us having the front shock cover coming off, so then I started again from the back and started working my way up through the field when my radio suddenly started screeching and cutting in and out and I wasn't able to hear my spotter. I was asking the team what to do and well they were told I had to come in to change the radio. I came in under the next yellow and we changed out the radio but lost a lap. I was very disappointed as I know we could have been on the podium no question and maybe even have won the race.

I went back out though and started at the back of the field and raced my way up to the top 4 but was a lap down so I ended up finishing the race in 12th. The team did their best and well we just had some unlucky surprises. Now it was onto the big race the 500. It was my first time at the race and well I was amazed. So many people there. It was a great day and I really enjoyed my first 500. Was cool to see Helio Win the race and climb the fence with all the crowd cheering him on. Now I am back home and heading out to Milwaukee soon.


Kansas diary
Friday:
Left my house at 8:30 in the morning to catch a flight out to Kansas and get ready for the race weekend. I arrived in Kansas at 12:15 and then me and a few of the guys from the team went to the track to see everyone and get a couple things ready for Sat. After we were finished at the track we went to the Kansas Royals Baseball game with the group of guys from Allied building products one of our sponsors. The game was pretty exciting.

Sat:
Left the hotel at 6:45 and headed to the track and I was very excited about my first oval race. We had a drivers meeting at 8 and then our first practice was at 9. During the first practice I did 56 laps just learning how the car handled in traffic and how we would setup the car for the race. Then in our next practice which was split into 2 groups we focused on our qualifying set-up in which we tried finding gaps where I could do 2 laps on my own without traffic. In the end I was quite happy to be as quick as we were on our own as I ended up doing the same time on 79 lap old tires as I did in qualifying. Which leads me into qualifying in which I picked first drive out. Which is 99% of the time a disadvantage in which we found out it was. With the setup though we were still a little to tight overall and needed to free up the car a little more for qualifying. I ended up 15th for the start of the race.
Sun:
Well we woke up to the news saying there had been 2 tornadoes within 10 miles of the track and well it had rained all night with flash flood warnings. But by the time we got outside the sky was clearing and looking better. When we got to the track the jet dryers were out on the track already trying to dry the track. We ended up starting the race at 10am due to the chance of rain coming in later on in the day.
At the start of the race we dropped back a few places and well by the 3rd lap had gained back 3 plus 2 more positions but then the first yellow came out. We went back green about 8 laps later and then I lost a couple places before the next yellow only about 5 laps later. Then on the next restart I was able to move forward 4 places and start closing in and lapping faster than the leaders at that time but then another yellow came out. On the last restart and laps after that I was able to progress up to 7th which was a lot of fun driving around the outside of some guys and timing every pass. The race ended under yellow but I feel given the race would have stayed green we would have been able to get onto the podium. I am very excited about going onto Indianapolis in the points lead.

Photoshoot!
Exciting day today. I went down to Ft. Lauderdale for a photoshoot. I have never done one before and really looked forward to this.We left the house at 7:15 in the morning to go down and we arrived about 10:00 am ready to start shooting. When we got there I had plenty of outfits ready to be shot in and started straight away. We started out in a local cafe/bar which was really upscale and very well decorated. After that we strolled down the river where TSDG is located and got some really cool photos. We then headed into the studio where I changed again about another 3 times and started having some fun with the photos. After shooting for about 3 hours we went to lunch at a local Asian food restaurant which was really delicious. We then decided to move on over to the beach and start taking some shot's in the ocean and well that was a really fun experience. All in all the day was really fun and enjoyed working with the photographer and just experiencing such an unique time. I can't wait to see how all the photos turned out. Hope everyone likes them and well feel free to upload any photos of yours of me from the track.

Sebring Atlantics : Third Place Finish
Last day of the race week. Got to the racetrack and was very excited and pumped to start. We had our driver's briefing for the race and then went on to the race. Let's just say not as happy as I thought I would have been.

We finished 3rd after having clutch issues in which I called through to the team as soon as it happened and then was talking to my team about some little handling problems I was having and then about the big crash that happened. After the race we had the podium ceremonies, interviews with the press, and then off to sign autographs for the ten's of thousand's of spectators. It was a great audience and a great atmosphere.

All in all it was a good day got to sit down and talk with Bobby Rahal and Mario Theissen, which was a great experience.

Well hope everyone enjoyed the diary of the weekend of racing and be sure to stop back for life diary days and then the next race weekend.

Provisional Pole
What a great day!

Another early start at 6:00 am we again headed off from my house to Sebring in the dark, ready for a fun and good day. When we got to the track it was already packed with people trying to get their spots for their motor homes and tents ready for the big day on Sat. First we were talked to by the stewards in our drivers briefing which is always a blast. Yeah Right - but it is always good to remind you of everything that you are expected to do and any little new things going on at the track. After this we headed of for our first practice session of the day where we were still fighting with bumps on the track and the handling of the car. We ended up 7th but kinda disappointed. So we set off back to the its where I got changed out of the hot sweaty suit and into some regular clothes, after which I did my report of how the car was.

During our 6 hour break I just decided to walk around and look at some corners and relax as I was tired after being up both mornings quite early. Now it was time for Qualifying in which I was very relaxed about as I thought we can only improve from what we did in the morning. so I set off to the pits and got ready to get in the car and sat on the wall waiting for the car to come to our pit box. I jumped in the car with 3 min to go to the green flag and well we were kinda rushed but it was ok. So I set off to qualify and well it ended up well as I qualified on provisional pole. With a 1-2 with my teammate. The Genoa guys did a great job with everything and we then had a few laughs.

Well just got home and replying to some emails and enjoying sitting< down watching some TV. Off to bed hopefully by 10 and I get to lay in tomorrow til about 8. feww :)

Early Start at Sebring
JS: What an early morning start today at 5:30am. After wake up early headed off into the dark for our hour and half drive to Sebring.

After arriving at the track I went to the driver's meeting for the promoter test day which started at 8:30 for half an hour.

At 8:35 I was on track driving back in a race car after such a long time. Was very nice to get back into one and reacquainted with everything. We got straight down to business and were the fastest at the beginning of the session but were not able to improve from there due to some problem the team heard coming from my car. With this noise there they decided to pull me in and stop. During the time in between the 2 sessions today we changed out the engine and well that allowed us to focus on our setup for this week's race.

We got down to business again at 4 this evening and with old tires was able to run within a second of the fastest on the track. I was very happy with our progress and how everything played out. After a hard day working I headed back home and am studying my track map now where I can improve and go faster. Now onto day 2 of the race week and onto qualifying 1 tomorrow evening.