LINDENHURST, NY. (August 13th, 2013) After a promising debut in the F2000 Championship Series two weeks earlier, Jose Armida looked to build upon that this past weekend with the Group-A Racing team. Although the race results may not show it, Armida made great progress along with displaying great race craft.

The weekend started with Thursday testing. The Group-A Racing team & Armida were looking to take full advantage of the 4 hours of track time to develop new pieces on the car & get Jose more experience. Sadly, just as Jose was getting in the car the clouds opened up. With the weather looking clear for the rest of the weekend everybody decided to not go out, to not risk the car.

Friday morning presented the first opportunity on track for the F2000 competitors. Jose picked up where he left off two weeks ago ending the session in 10^th. But with that position, he had closed the gap between his time & the leaders. Just after lunch time was the second practice session of the day. Unfortunately, on the opening flying lap Armida caught a puncture in his left rear tire causing him to hit the tire wall in the keyhole. This put a big whole into the program in terms of development of the setup and gaining Jose the very precious seat time.

Going into Saturday Group-A Racing & Jose were behind the eight ball since they had missed 50% of the practice time with the puncture the day before. Despite that, Jose put in his best qualifying position to qualify 10^th for the first race of the weekend. In the race Armida was moving up through the field until coming upon a slow WISCO Car driven by Mosconi. The two went into a hard battle for the 8^th position. Jose tried the outside pass multiple times with Mosconi being very ‘defensive.’ On the second to last lap it looked to be that Armida had finally cleared Mosconi on the outside in turn four. Sadly, Mosconi slid wide on the exit of the turn making contact with his left front to Armida’s right rear. This sent Jose into the air and spinning into the grass.

The Group-A Racing team got the car back together again from the contact for Jose to get back out the next morning for qualifying for the second race of the weekend. However, with changing track conditions Jose struggled with the balance of the car and could only manage 13^th. Jose & the team had an extensive debrief at the end of the session using data acquisition, video & good communication to come up with the proper changes to make the car better for the race.

The changes worked and Jose was displaying tremendous race craft again. He got a great start to gain positions and continued to move forward throughout the race. Jose would get as high as 7^th before running into a problem with oil on the track from a lap car. This caused him to fall back a bit & yet again not get the result he deserved in the race with uncontrollable bad luck.

“It was a good weekend overall, we had some issues out of  our hands, the Group-A Racing team worked very hard along the weekend and that was one of the keys to make the great progress we made. I want to thank everyone who was involved for the great job!” said Jose Armida

“Jose did a tremendous job this weekend.” Commented team owner Joe Scarallo Sr. “He has had a lot of bad luck with the puncture and other issues. The thing that really impressed me is how he put a bad situation that happened behind him immediately and moved up to continue to improve. He never let any of the uncontrollable drama effect him, which is not an easy thing to do. To top it off, he passed alot of cars here, and showed very good resilience in being passed in the races. He continues to improve with more experience and I hope we can continue to put programs together for him.”

For more information on testing & race opportunities with Group-A Racing you can contact them via GroupARacing@aol.com or (631) 974-4379, along with visit their website www.GroupARacing.net. You can see the races from Jose’s car on their YouTube channel www.YouTube.com/GroupARacing

“It was a great weekend for me” said Jose Armida “I learned a lot about the car, track and also diferent conditios. The team did a really great job with the car, specially after the crash. I want to thank everyone who was involved. We hope to be back soon as we can and fight for the firsts places.”

Group-A Racing is happy to announce the signing of 19 year-old Mexican driver Jose Armida for the next rounds of the F2000 Championship Series at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

Armida comes from a wide variety of experience. He got his start, like most race car drivers in the karting ranks, where he is a Mexican National Champion in Enduro Karts. After that he made the move up to Mexican Formula Vee Championship, where he won that championship in his sophomore season. Next he moved into the Skip Barber Race Series, capturing the Rookie of the Year honors. Most recently he has been competing on Formula Car Challenge in the Formula Speed 2.0 class. He was able to capture his first win in that series recently at Thunderhill Raceway last month.

The race weekend in Ohio will be the debut for the young driver in both the F2000 Championship Series, and at the very technical Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Armida and Group-A Racing join the F2000 Championship Series in the fifth weekend of the overall championship. The weekend is the first for the smaller Buck Eye Championship, which is a championship within the main championship for the two Mid-Ohio weekends. Armida will be driving one of Group-A Racing Van Diemen Zetec cars most recently piloted by Brazilian Gustavo Rizzo and Jamaican Collin Daley.

“We hope to have a good weekend, I know it’s a new car and a new track but I am sure that with this team we can fight for good results & learn a lot during the weekend.” said Armida.

“We are very excited to be working with Jose at Mid-Ohio” said team owner Joe Scarallo Sr. “We have been working with him for a while now to try and put something together for him to compete with us in the F2000 Championship Series, and it has finally come together last minute to race at Mid Ohio. He has had some good success in the past, but certainly this will be a step up in the type of car, track and competition in terms of difficulty. But we are going to supply him great private coaching, engineering and everything he needs to be improving all weekend, and hopefully end it with two good results.”

Lindenhurst, NY – Group-A Racing is happy to announce an in house prize package to reward its F2000 Championship Series drivers. Through partnerships of GroupAWheels.com & Vredestein Tires the team will award any of their drivers that win the championship with them, a free Formula Atlantic test.

This is just one more thing that shows the dedication and desire of the Group-A Racing organization has for developing young talent. With this, the team becomes the only team in the F2000 Championship Series to have its own prize package to reward its drivers for their contribution to the team. This reward was strategically picked due to it will continue to help the driver become more prepared for the next season.

“We are all about developing drivers. We look to make them better drivers on and off the track and now with this program we are able to help them, to make the next step up the ladder with this prize. The Atlantic Championship Series is the next step up after the F2000 Championship Series, so it’s a great opportunity for the driver to test the equipment. Even if they do not choose Formula Atlantic, the test will be a great opportunity for the driver to get experience in a car with a lot more horsepower and downforce.” Commented team owner Joe Scarallo Sr.

Group-A Racing originally came back to F2000 competition in 2009 with two rookie drivers (Jonathan Scarallo & Collin Alexander) straight out of the Bertil Roos Racing School. It was a great year yet again for Group-A developing two young talents, scoring top-10 and top-five results all year long. They have continued to do the same with similar type of drivers along with international drivers making the transition from karts to cars. The organization is currently planning a 2 car championship effort with its 2 Van Diemen Zetecs which is the package that has won every single F2000 Championship Series race except for one.

Drivers interested in testing and racing with Group-A Racing are invited to contact them via GroupARacing@aol.com or (631) 974-4379.

Group-A Racing is happy to announce the signing of young Brazilian talent Gustavo Rizzo for the last two races of the F2000 Championship Series at Summit Point & Watkins Glen International.  Gustavo will drive the #21 PGR/Sat Log/GroupAWheels.com Van Diemen Zetec.

Gustavo Rizzo is a young driver from Brazil that competed in the first 5 weekends of the F2000 Championship Series last year as a rookie. He did a very nice job of coming up to speed with unknown tracks and cars to the international driver. With that he was consistently running in the top 10 at tracks he had never seen before.

The season for Gustavo sadly came to an abrupt end last year when he got injured in a crash at the F2000 Championship Series races at Mosport. The injury has kept him out of a car until now when he will get in a Group-A Racing prepared Van Diemen Zetec at Summit Point for the F2000 Championship Series.

“We are really excited to welcome Gustavo to the team. He did a nice job in the car last year and he is a very pleasant person to have around out of the car as well. With our proven expertise in developing younger drivers we are sure we can help him end the season on a great note.”

Group-A Racing has a 1 seat still available for drivers that are interested in participating in the final two double header race weekends in the F2000 Championship Series. Along with that they have testing opportunities for drivers to get there a taste of the F2000 machinery. Interested parties can contact Group-A Racing via (631) 957-3901 or GroupARacing@aol.com.

LONG ISLAND, N.Y. (July 19, 2012) – Young Jamaican driver Collin Daley continued his driver development program with Group-A Racing this past weekend in one of their F2000 Championship Series/USF2000 Cars. The test took place on the NJMP Lightning Course, which is where Daley first got in a F2000 race car five weeks ago.

The Group-A Racing team was able to make use of the data they collected from the one-day test with Daley five weeks earlier to help bring a baseline set-up. The team did a great job with the baseline and had to do very minimal changes all weekend.

The test took place during a FRCCA (Formula Race Car Club of America) race weekend. Group-A Racing and Daley were able to capture a clean sweep. Daley captured both poles and both race wins. He was also able to break the SCCA track record and the FRCCA track record for the NJMP Lightning course, as well to add to his progression so far during this program.

Group-A Racing was also able to give some help to the local FRCCA races, one including Christian Pedersen. After spending a few minutes going over in-car footage and coaching from Group-A Racing driver coach Jonathan Scarallo, the young driver was able to drop his lap time by a whopping 1.6 second the first session out after receiving the coaching.

“We were impressed with how fast Collin was able to go. He did a great job and did not put the car in danger at all even during the sessions in the rain. We are very happy with his progression and happy to be able to help him. The crew did a fantastic job preparing the car mechanically and with the setup. The car was basically on rails all weekend, plus it was great for us to be able to freely help some of the other FRCCA competitors such as Christian Pedersen,” said Group-A Racing team owner Joe Scarallo Sr.

Daley is backed by Madison Financial Group/MSI. It is headed by Horace Madison, a long-time Business Manager from the US. Clients have included OutKast, Usher, DMX, Eve, Ma$e, Arian Foster and Glen “Big Baby” Davis. Current clients include Lil Wayne/Young Money, Meek Mill, Torion; and Reema Major. Plus there are “local” Caribbean clients such as Jamaican film writer/Director Cess Silvera, Singer/Actor from Barbados Kirk Brown, and Jamaican music producer JonFX. MSI in conjunction with Gina Ford of G2 Marketing handles the Management and Marketing responsibilities for CJ. Additionally MSI is starting to work closely with Carole Beckford of Beckford & Associates, to expand their presence in the Caribbean, especially Jamaica.

For more information on other race and testing opportunities you can contact Group-A Racing via GroupARacing@aol.com or (631) 957-3901, along with following them on Twitter @GroupARacing. Race fans can also see in-car footage from Group-A Racing activities at http://www.Youtube.com/GroupARacing

Young Jamaican driver Collin Daley got to make his pro debut this past weekend after a few days of testing. The 15 year old driver gathered two top 10 finishes with the Group-A Racing eam in the F2000 Championship Series.

The weekend started off with two practice sessions on Friday in temperatures around 100 degrees. Due to the track having all the rubber washed away from the rain the night before and the extreme heat, the track conditions were very much less than ideal for the teams and drivers to deal with. Daley would be 7^th in the first session and 6^th in the second, giving a good show of potential for the next day in qualifying and the first race.

The Group-A Racing team would make some minor adjustments to the car for Daley but was conscious the track would be much different the next morning and did not want to go too far.

That night a very dangerous storm came through the south Jersey area with very high winds and hard rain destroying thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment for the teams with many tents being destroyed. But with that it would wash away all the rubber from the track yet again. Even with that Collin Daley would put in a really solid effort to place his MSI Investment, Group-A Racing car in 7^th giving him a nice starting position for his first race in cars.

In the race Collin showed very good race craft battling it out with serious veterans trading positions back and forth not giving anything up to anybody. He would start to develop a bit of an understeer that as the laps continued it would get worse for him. Even with that Daley would bring it home for a top 10 finish in his pro racing debut.

On Sunday for race two Collin would start 10^th based upon fastest race laps the day before. The race would instantly go yellow due to many incidents on the track on the first lap. The yellow would drag out for a long time due to cars being scattered all along the race track. This left the drivers with just a handful of green flag laps once it was all cleaned up. Collin would yet again mix it up with the regulars and come home with another top-10 result.

“All-in-all the weekend would have to be called a success.” said team owner Joe Scarallo Sr “This was Collins first race weekend in cars and he did a really good job. He showed really good race craft and some good pace over the weekend. He is straight out of karts and as he gets more experience he will continue to move up the time sheets even more.”

Daley is backed by Madison Financial Group/MSI. It is headed by Horace Madison, a long-time Business Manager from the US. Clients have included OutKast, Usher, DMX, Eve, Ma$e, Arian Foster and Glen “Big Baby” Davis. Current clients include Lil Wayne/Young Money, Meek Mill, Torion; and Reema Major. Plus there are “local” Caribbean clients such as Jamaican film writer/Director Cess Silvera, Singer/Actor from Barbados Kirk Brown, and Jamaican music producer JonFX. MSI in conjunction with Gina Ford of G2 Marketing handles the Management and Marketing responsibilities for CJ. Additionally MSI is starting to work closely with Carole Beckford of Beckford & Associates, to expand their presence in the Caribbean, especially Jamaica.

Collin Daley will now continue his development with Group-A Racing at more test days and regional race events. For more information on other race and testing opportunities you can contact Group-A Racing via GroupARacing@aol.com or  (631) 957-3901, along with following them on Twitter @GroupARacing. Race fans can also see in-car footage from Group-A Racing activities at http://www.Youtube.com/GroupARacing