Leading Open Wheel Development Team Ready to Challenge for FR Americas Championship

2018 Champs Return as Two-Car FR Americas Squad

In 2018, Abel Motorsports was the class of the field, winning the first Formula Regional Americas Championship Powered by Honda.  In 2019, Abel Motorsports earned FR Americas race wins while competing in two major championships.  For 2020, the inaugural series champs return. Two young guns and are poised to contend for this year’s title and the championship IndyLights 2021 scholarship prize.

Two years ago, the Louisville, KY-based team was one of the first to see the potential in the new series.  The team quickly gelled, winning the season’s first 8 rounds and 15 of 17 overall on the way to the series Championship.  A year ago, lead driver Jacob Abel scored his first two professional racing victories at Road Atlanta and finished fourth in the Championship despite missing two race weekends due to other commitments.   

This year young Abel is intent on gathering more wins and contending for the 2020 title.  

“We’re ready to win,” commented the Butler University student.  “With IndyLights suspending its season the grid will be much tougher this year. We’ll have a real measuring stick to go up against, what with new teams and drivers moving to our series. Mid-Ohio is our home track and one of my best tracks, so we can focus on qualifying well and racing up front all weekend.”   

Abel's race weekend at Mid Ohio will close a very busy eight days. Abel was recently nominated to Honda’s HPD GT3 Driver Academy, and has been testing an Acura NSX GT3 Evo at Road Atlanta since Sunday.

His new teammate, 19-year-old Blake Upton of Sammamish, WA, joins Abel Motorsports coming off an 8th-place overall finish in the 2019 FR Americas Championship. 

Upton scored three top-five finishes, one at Road Atlanta and two at Road America, in just his second season of racing cars.   The former kart racer has stayed sharp in his TAG kart during the COVID-19 pause in the 2020 season but is now ready to get down to business.  

“I’m so excited about going racing, and joining Abel Motorsports this season”, said Upton.  “We’re looking forward to having lots of success.  I ran at Mid-Ohio in 2018 in F4 and didn’t really come to grips with it.  But now after our test there in May I feel much more comfortable.  Jacob is a great guy to learn from.  He has so many laps under his belt there.   It’s the team’s home track, Honda’s home track, and it should be a great weekend for us.”

Team Principal Bill Abel is also excited to finally get the 2020 racing season underway.  

“This has been a tough several months for everyone.  We’ve lost some friends due to this pandemic.  Our hearts go out to everyone who’s been affected.  Hopefully our first race back is a sign of things getting back to normalcy.  We are looking forward to going racing at our home track, and we’re hoping for the best as we begin the new season.”

No team in the FR Americas paddock has as much experience in the series as Abel Motorsports. Everyone on the team believes the start of the 2020 Championship also signals the start of a season of success. The opening round of the Championship takes place Saturday morning at 940am ET, with Round 2 taking the green Sunday at 12:05pm.  Live streaming of the FR Americas Championship is available at www.FANRacing.live.