Yufeng Lou: First Chinese American Race Car Driver to Participate in the US via Indy Racing
Since the age of 13, race car driver Yufeng Lou always had a love for racing. Since the age of 16, he became the youngest ever Sports Car Club of America National Champion. He is a race winner in Lamborghini Super Trofeo, Road to Indy, and FIA Formula and recently became the first Chinese American race car driver to participate in the US via Indy Racing.
Here is our one on one interview.
Tocarra
Eldridge: How are you doing?
Yufeng Lou: Good, how are you?
Tocarra: I'm
doing great. Thanks for taking out the time of your busy schedule to pursue the
interview and we'll go ahead and begin.
Yufeng: Thank
you for having me.
Tocarra: Oh,
you're very welcome! Ok, you were the first Chinese American to participate in
the US via Indy Racing. What type of accomplishment or gratification is that
for you?
Yufeng: It's
really very gratifying because it's not such an easy thing for an Asian
American to do. Historically, Asian Americans really have not had a very strong
foothold in American motorsport. It's been very difficult for us to get in
there because motor sport is very political. To be able to have the
achievements that I've had and get to where I've been is amazing.
Tocarra: Yes,
absolutely. Now, at the age of 13 you started racing cars and also became the
youngest ever sports car club American National Champion at the age of 16. What
inspired you to get behind the wheel and get involved in racing cars?
Yufeng: Well,
since I was a young kid, I used to watch Formula One on TV and I always
thought, how cool would it be if I got to do that one day, you know. It just
was something that I researched when I was quite young. The entry was to start
with professional go-karting. I’ve gave that a shot and I was quite good at it
and we just decided along with my family to pursue a professional career in
that.
Tocarra: Wow,
nice! You also managed your racing car career at the age of 13, what was that
experience like for you at that particular age?
Yufeng: It was
very difficult because racing is very political. And by that I mean it's not
very straightforward, such as a sport where it's just based on your athletic
performance. There are a number of factors in racing, such as the car needs to
work in harmony with you. You need to have the correct setup. Your team that is
working on the car, getting it running and getting it setup needs to do all the
things correctly, because we're chasing 1/10 of a second on the track. That
could really be the difference between 1st and 2nd. A lot of things really need
to come together. I had to learn really how to navigate the political side to
get the right people kind of in my camp. Also, within the team, you have a
number of drivers, and it's not like all the teammates are working together for
one goal. We're all competing against each other at the end of the day on the
racetrack. To be the driver who gets the priority treatment within the team,
meaning – you get the best setup and you get the most attention. To be able to
get on the right teams was very challenging.
Tocarra: You are starting a race car construction company and building a racing resort and you expect to open that in 2023. What inspired the both of these?
Yufeng: For my
race car construction company I have a very good friend by the name of Ricardo
Davila. He happened to be the world’s most experienced race car engineer. When
I took a hiatus from racing back in 2018, we decided together to start the Bespoke Racecar Construction Company
to kind of bring the technologies and methods from the pinnacle motorsport and
make that more available to… let's say an enthusiast or a customer who are
looking for those services to build those high end race cars. For the racing
resort, my home country is China and China has the second most supercars out of
any country in the world. In China we only have 7 race tracks compared to the
hundreds of race tracks that are in the US. I want to create a safe environment
for people to go and drive their cars to the maximum potential without having
to do it by breaking laws or just putting themselves and others in a dangerous
situation.
Tocarra: Yes,
most definitely. So, I'm sure there's a lot that comes with building a
competitive and successful race car. Can you kind of tell us a little bit about
the process? Walk us through it.
Yufeng:
Absolutely! So, to build a competitive race car, it's very technical and detail
oriented. I will try to break it down. First, I would say it is knowing what
kind of competition the car is intended for, or just the general purpose of the
car. Doing the right research, doing the right homework and to understand all
those elements of what can make a race car win sometimes will take years of
research. And then beyond that is to next, find the right team of people to
assemble the race car, because to build a race car you need to have people who
are specialized in fabrication, engineering, or vehicle dynamics, aerodynamics,
the tires, the electronics...there's so many different elements. It's kind of
like building a spaceship. That's what I would say is the most similar. Each
person who wants to really get the most out of the race car really needs to be
specialized in their craft because you can't really have somebody who is going
to be really good at all those things, it's just really not possible with how
complex a race car is. And then it's really about coming up with a game plan of
how to execute on all the prior research, development and assembling of the
race car. Everything has to be perfect, even when you put a bolt in to make
sure the bolt is the correct torque, it’s the correct specs, with when the bolt
goes in the hole, making sure that's it's a perfect fit. Also, getting the
race car out onto the racetrack to start validating the R&D that
you did, maybe through computer simulation, etc. There's always going to be
real world differences compared to what you found on the computer, so the
testing process of getting the car onto the racetrack and developing it further
once it's in a real world situation will get that race car to be eventually
race ready.
Tocarra: Wow!
That’s a process there.
Yufeng: It's a
very complex process.
Tocarra: Well,
yeah, you spoke briefly about safe driving and also car enthusiasts. You're an
advocate for safe driving on the road, how are you promoting this cause to the
car enthusiasts?
Yufeng: A lot of
race tracks are quite challenging and quite intimidating for any person to go
there. In fact, if you know anyone who owns a sports car, it doesn't
necessarily mean that they will know how to go to a racetrack to drive the car.
Just getting into that environment can be quite intimidating. We've created a
race track which is actually intended for not the professional driver, but the
enthusiast driver. It's a very safe environment. It's not intimidating at all.
We create a very comfortable way for people who haven't done it before to go
out onto the racetrack. Because we are allowing them to do that, from my
personal experience, it creates a lot less desire to have to drive quickly out
on the street, putting yourself in danger and putting others in danger.
Tocarra: When it
comes to racing cars, do you have any inspirations or advice for those who are
looking to become as successful as yourself?
Yufeng: Racing
is very expensive and it can look very intimidating at first to get into. Don't
be discouraged by that, because when you actually look into motor sport there
are still a lot of ways for somebody who doesn't necessarily have the financial
backing to get into it and have a go. I think age is not a limit. Even if you
are older and you want to get into it, there are a lot of categories racing
that are designed for somebody who is older to get into and find success.
Tocarra: Great
advice!
Yufeng: Thank
you.
Tocarra: You're
welcome! This has been a very informative interview. Thank you so much for your
time and you enjoy the rest of your day.
Yufeng: You too!
Thank you so much Tocarra!
Visit Yufeng Lou at
https://www.yufengluo.com
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