Parker Locke takes next step in championship ladder
Fresh off its maiden victory at New Jersey Motorsports Park, Global Racing Group will add two additional cars to its roster for the fourth F3 Americas Powered by Honda event at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia, this weekend (Sept. 21-23), expanding its squad to three drivers. The Seattle-based team took delivery of its third Ligier JS F3 car at the midseason event last weekend.
Global Racing Group’s headline pilot Baltazar Leguizamon of Buenos Aires, Argentina, who’s scored seven podiums and one win for the team so far, will continue to wheel the carbon black No. 9 Motorola car and Benjamin Pedersen of Copenhagen, Denmark, will return to the lineup for the first time since his debut last month. F4 United States Championship Powered by Honda GRG sophomore Parker Locke of San Antonio will make his F3 introduction on the technical 12-turn, 2.54-mile circuit as a trial run for next season.
“We called Parker up to F3 as part of our cross-discipline driver training program,” said Global Racing Group team principal Christian Pedersen. “We would not put him in the car if we did not think he was ready for the challenge. Parker’s been improving each round in F4 and we will use Road Atlanta and NOLA as a benchmark for offseason preparation. Our goal for him this weekend is to start and finish all the rounds and learn to properly control a car with more horsepower.”
In similar fashion to his teammates at PITT Race, Locke will drive the F3 Americas machine for the first time during the four promoter test sessions on Thursday due to the recent delivery of the car.
“Road Atlanta will essentially serve as an in-race test. As a driver I always want to be competitive, but this weekend the focus is really on learning the car,” said Locke. “We competed at Road Atlanta earlier this season with F4 and I’m looking forward to experiencing the difference in the F3 car with higher horsepower on a familiar track.”
The fleet of GRG cars will travel to Road Atlanta for a promoter test day on Thursday and will participate in two official practices on Friday. Qualifying starts on Saturday morning followed by Race 1 in the afternoon. The weekend culminates on Sunday with the final two rounds of racing.
Global Racing Group is accepting driving opportunity inquiries for F3 open seats for COTA. Interested drivers can contact Christian@globalracinggroup.com. For more information on Global Racing Group’s cross-discipline driver training program visit GlobalRacingGroup.com.
Photo by Red Case Photography
