Brook Johnston

Brook Thomas Johnston (born 26 August 1987 in San Clemente, California) is an American open wheel auto-racing driver. He has been a driver for the Sauber Red Bull Racing team, as well as driving for Ferrari of North America in the GT class, Super National Racing and Two Wild Racing from 2000-2008. Johnston has won two International Karting Federation (IKF) Championships, a World Karting Association Championship (WKA), competed in the Indy Pro Amateur Series and Toyota Atlantics-R Series for a season, and will be testing for Formula One's Scuderia Torro Rosso program for the 2009-2010 season.

History

Born in Southern California, Johnston started in the sport of auto racing at the age of seven. Residing in Laguna Beach, California, Johnston was involved in many forms of athletics growing up including snowboarding, skateboarding, surfing, baseball and soccer. Johnston began kart racing in 1995 where he attended the Apex Karting School in Perris, California. In 1996 he competed and won his first club kart race in Perris and entered the club season series winning the local championship in the 100cc Yamaha Sportsman class. After competing for two years in the Tri-C club series from 1997 to 1998,Johnston had won three club titles in the 100cc Yamaha Sportsman Classes and 100cc HPV class gaining several sponsorships and driving for Two Wild Kart Racing of Irvine, California.

In 2000, Johnston became an official instructor at the Danny McKeever School of Driving,which instructed celebrities once a year for the Toyota Celebrity race at the Long Beach Grand Prix in Long Beach, California. During this time, Johnston had branched out of motorsports and grabbed several local sponsorships including Doheny Board Shop and Airwalk becoming a sponsored snowboarder in 2001 and 2002. He competed in several local snowboard competitions, marking a best second place finish at Mammoth Mountain's Unbound Amateur Competition in 2002. While attending school at Dana Hills High School in Dana Point, California in 2001, Johnston continued racing where he won two International Karting Federation (IKF) Titles in 2001 and 2002 in the 100cc HPV4 class along with a Shifter Kart USA 250cc Moto championship.Johnston also became Captain of his high school's cross country and track and field teams in 2004 where he led the program to a second place finish at the Division 1 CIF California State Cross Country Competition and marked a seasons best 15:52 race time in the three mile. Through 2003 and 2004 he competed in the World Karting Association (WKA) where he won the 125cc Moto Class, bringing him a ride with Toyota Atlantics-R series team Super National Racing for the 2004 season.

In 2005 Johnston decided to attend the University of California at Santa Cruz in Santa Cruz, California, where he currently resides studying Business Management Economics. During this time he joined Ferrari of North America competing in the GT Sports Car series in 2005 and 2006 placing second in the championship. In the summer of 2006 Johnston tested for the Indy Pro Amateur Series at California Speedway in Fontana, California, joining a privately based team to continue out the season and finish first in the points. In 2007 he was asked to test for the Formula BMW Americas program of which he entered in the Red Bull American drivers search and ran several GT races for BMW of North America. By 2008 Johnston was offered a test ride for the newly started Formula BMW International program for Team Sauber Red Bull Racing and has currently finished first in the Formula BMW International Championship points standings. Johnston is expected to test for Formula One Team Scuderia Torro Rosso and Red Bull Racing’s program this year for the 2009 and 2010 seasons. Johnston is also the recipient of the 2008 ESPN Extreme Rookie Athlete of the Year Award which was announced in June of 2008. The American nephew is also notably linked to Englishmen Lord Thomas Johnston Baron of Penzance, England.

auber Red Bull Racing

With the foundation of a brand new open wheel junior series, theFormula BMW International series was created based on up moving into Formula One and the F3000 series while being introduced to its first season in 2008. The Formula BMW International program brings together some of the top drivers representing each country in their nations Formula BMW program for a twelve race series in the North American, European and South and Central American continents. Sauber Red Bull Racing formed in 2007 in hopes of promoting a larger scale form of recruitment into Red Bull's Formula One program in hopes of getting some of the worlds best talent to move up the ladder. With the partnership of Peter Sauber and Dietrich Mateschitz at Red Bull, the multi-million dollar Sauber Red Bull Racing operation holds the worlds largest Formula BMW budget and operations which is based in San Jose, California.

Sauber Red Bull Racing, headed by previous Formula One Jaguar manager Mark Spire, brought Johnston on board along with teammate Matt Jaskel in hopes of creating a strong American racing team for contention in the 2008 series. Round 1 of the series was held at Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California, giving Johnston the a first pole and win in the series. He placed second at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and fourth place at the Phoenix International Speedway, with a win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway to solidify the final round of the American tour. Round 5 was held in Monte Carlo, Monaco, to kick off the first race of the European tour giving Johnston another strong win and further lead in the championship points standings. Going into Round 6 at Italy's famous Monza circuit, Johnston was involved in a large accident during a practice session, receiving serious injuries and putting him out of contention for Round 6. Round 7 brought him back into contention in Nurburg, Germany, where he placed first and took the pole during qualifying. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil held Round 8 of the series where Johnston battled a tough field and accident finishing in 13th place. After taking a strong win during Round 9 at the Interlagos Circuit in Sao Paulo, Brazil and a win at the Formula BMW International Finals in Valencia, Spain, Johnston finished in first place in the Championship standings taking the Formula BMW International World Championship.

Rankings

References

*Team Sauber Red Bull Racing [http://sauberredbullracing.mfbiz.com/Sauber-Red-Bull-Racings-Brook-Johnston&id=1307872] "biographical news"
*Extreme Sports magazine Writer Tom Dorris "interview and life story"
*ESPN Interview/ Bio of Brook Johnston

External links

* [http://bleacherreport.com/articles/39516-brook-johnston-makes-a-strong-comeback-to-win-in-germany] Brook Johnston Makes A Strong Comeback To Win In Germany
* [http://www.topix.com/forum/formula1/red-bull/T2Q3F2CT9IA7KC7U4] Scuderia Torro Rosso Announces Brook Johnston For Formula One Test
* [http://bleacherreport.com/articles/30973-sauber-red-bull-racings-american-dream-driver-brook-johnston] American Dream Driver Brook Johnston
* [http://bleacherreport.com/articles/31971-sauber-red-bulls-american-duo-sweep-the-streets-of-monte-carlo] American Duo Sweep The Streets of Monte Carlo
* [http://www.topix.com/forum/formula1/red-bull/T30CP27NBABJ9BQE3] Brook Johnston Wins In Monaco
* [http://www.motorsportforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=128260] Brook Johnston: Formula One Move
* [http://www.starpulse.com/forum/index.php/topic,40729.msg1028101.html] Could This Be The End Of The Line For Brook Johnston
* [http://www.newszoom.com/search/latest/sauber/news/] Sauber Red Bull BMW News
* [http://www.starpulse.com/forum/index.php?topic=40572.0] Formula BMW Star Brook Johnston Is An Idol To Young Kids
* [http://www.speedtv.com/forums/viewthread/261961/] Formula BMW International Tours Monte Carlo
* [http://racing-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?p=318527] Mishap at Phoenix International Speedway
* [http://bleacherreport.com/articles/32629-possible-moves-for-the-2009-formula-one-season] Possible Moves In Formula One For The 2009 Season
* [http://bleacherreport.com/articles/39299-brook-johnston-cole-collier-duel-in-qualifying-at-germanys-nurburgring] Brook Johnston and Cole Collier Duel At The Nurburgring
* [http://bleacherreport.com/articles/35716-cole-collier-wins-at-monza-to-close-the-gap-on-brook-johnstons-lead] Cole Collier Wins at Monza Closing The Gap On Brook Johnston's Lead
*Sauber Red Bull Racing Team, 2008 Press Release