AutoSportRadio.com 2024 Show for August 7th

AutoSportRadio.com 2024 Show for August 7th - Guests; Linus Lunqvist and Jim Leo.
Host Don Kay sits down with Linus Lunqvist and Jim Leo in front of a live audience at Green Street Pub and Eatery in Brownsburg, Indiana for the Fastest Hour in Motorsports.
Linus Lundqvist

Sweden’s Linus Lundqvist is a quadruple single-seater champion, clinching the 2022 INDY NXT championship, the 2020 Formula Regional Americas title, the 2018 BRDC British Formula 3 Championship and the 2016 Formula STCC Nordic crown. In 2024, he will race the #8 American Legion Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES.
From Stockholm, Sweden, Linus won the Formula STCC Nordic single-seater title in 2016, before descending on the UK in 2017 for an attack on the Formula 4 British Championship. Despite suffering a sequence of frustrating technical setbacks, he finished fifth overall in his rookie year, claiming five race wins and 11 podiums. His pace was further underpinned by five pole positions and nine fastest race laps – the most out of all drivers in the series.
2018 saw the success story reverberate in resounding style. The step up to British Formula 3, one of the world’s most esteemed junior single-seater series, emphatically confirmed the potential of a future star. Winning the very first race of his rookie F3 season, victories kept coming aplenty throughout the campaign, culminating in the ultimate reward: the championship title.
Becoming the first Swede since Stefan Johansson in 1980 to win the coveted championship, Linus follows in the wheel tracks of motoring greats such as Jackie Stewart, Ayrton Senna and Mika Häkkinen as champions of British Formula 3.
Adding to his 2018 success, Linus also won the Sunoco Whelen Challenge; one of motorsport’s most valuable prizes worth more than $250 000 in the form of a Rolex 24 At Daytona drive. He duly took up his prize to complete his maiden endurance race during the American 24-hour classic in January 2019, driving a Lamborghini Huracán GT3.
Linus’ main 2019 programme, however, revolved around the increasingly popular Euroformula Open single-seater series, featuring an attractive calendar that took in some of Europe’s top racing venues. Finishing fifth overall, and second among the rookies, it marked another valuable experience.
2020 saw Linus debut on the American single-seater arena, moving across the Atlantic to compete in the Formula Regional Americas championship. Dominating the campaign en route to 15 wins from 17 races, Linus established five new track records and led the way in every single qualifying session of the year.
For 2021, Linus used a Honda scholarship to step up to the INDYCAR-supporting INDY NXT championship (then known as Indy Lights). Winning the first and final races of the season, and again at the famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway in between, he rounded out the campaign third overall and was awarded a maiden INDYCAR test on November 1 with Andretti Autosport.
Linus returned to INDY NXT in 2022 for a fresh title attack, racing for HMD Motorsports with Dale Coyne Racing, and duly clinched the championship in dominant style with five wins, nine podiums and seven pole positions. In doing so, he became the first Swedish driver in history to take home INDYCAR’s leading feeder series.
In August 2023, Linus finally made his NTT INDYCAR SERIES debut for Meyer Shank Racing. After impressing across a total of three late-season races, which included setting two fastest laps, Linus was picked up by championship-winning top team Chip Ganassi Racing on a multi-year contract starting in 2024.

Jim Leo

In 1997, Jim Leo formed PitFit and began working with other teams in the CART series. After a successful ‘97 season, in1998, PacWest Racing’s hired PitFit to train their drivers Mark Blundell and Mauricio Gugelmin as well as a comprehensive team performance program. In 2000, PitFit began working with new Indy Lights PacWest driver Scott Dixon. With a rigid and focused training/nutrition program, PitFit transformed Dixon into a lean winning machine. Down 30 lbs, Dixon won the 2000 Indy Lights title and the rest is history. Six Indycar championships later, Dixon still relies on PitFit for his human performance program.
Jim has been including brain training and now the training is just what is needed with the new Hybrid on being used.