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Gentleman, Start Your Engines

Photo from Neil Enerson

Neil Enerson began forming Team E Racing in 2007 and won the Firestone Indy Lights New Team of the Year in 2008.

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By Eric Horchy | The Suncoast News

Published: March 25, 2009

Updated: 03/27/2009 08:22 am

Neil Enerson's roots are in the city with which Indy car racing is synonymous. Beginning last season, he took an opportunity to bring that Indianapolis influence to Odessa.

Growing up around open-wheel racing, Enerson, now a 23-year resident of Odessa, launched Team E Racing in 2007 to compete in the Firestone Indy Lights series. To the lay person, Indy Lights can be viewed as a minor league of sorts to the IndyCar series.

Enerson pumped roughly $1.4 million of his own funds into Team E's start up - their race shop is located on S.R. 54 - and the investment immediately paid dividends in the form of on-track results.

In only its sixth race last season, Team E took the checkered flag at The Milwaukee Mile. Four races later, the No. 17 car went to the Nashville Superspeedway and took second. Mixed in with podium finishes, Team E and former driver Bobby Wilson set the fastest race lap ever for an Indy Lights car at Indianapolis, topping out at 191.466 mph and shattering the previous record by almost 1.5 mph.

The top-notch finishes and accompanying exploits ultimately earned Team E the Firestone Indy Lights New Team of the Year award for 2008.

"It was incredible for a first-year team," Enerson said of last season. "To come into a series as competitive as Indy Lights and be able to compete with the top teams that have been around for years is really gratifying."

Turning concept to reality

The prospects of starting up a racing team and how he would do it had long been a possibility Enerson mulled over and discussed.

Before Team E's 2007 launching, those discussions began to shift toward actions when Enerson met Bobby Wilson, an experienced kart and Indy Lights driver who was tuning karts for Enerson's 12-year-old son, R.C.

"(Wilson) was racing for another sponsor and he wanted me to help him look for other sponsors," Enerson said. "As our discussions went further, we decided to do the team and race for a year and then look for sponsors after that."

With a quality driver onboard, Enerson revved his new project's engines by assembling a "first-class" race crew and purchasing a brand-new car, state-of-the-art car transport and decked-out pit cart equipped with six flat-screen monitors. Despite the lack of a title sponsor, Team E Racing ran the 2008 season and achieved the type of success more established crew's would be thrilled to attain.

New season and future goals

Enerson is now hoping last year's achievements will lead to that key sponsorship to allow Team E back on the road for a full 2009 season that begins with the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on April 2.

"Our goal is to run the entire season and be in the running for the championship," Enerson said. The team has a sponsorship requirement of roughly $750,000-700,000 to complete a 15-race schedule, he estimates.

The team has support from BergHOFF International, a kitchenware supplier that has a store adjacent to Team E's race shop. Even without the one, essential financial sponsorship acquisition coming right away, Team E is still eligible to race at later dates throughout the year and will do so if need be.

A new driver will also be manning the Team E cockpit this season. Belgian-born former Champ Car driver Jan Heylen, 28, plans to take over. Heylen drove in the 2008 24 Hours of Daytona.

Besides this year's impending season, Enerson has a couple other racing-related goals in his sights.

Expansion possible

One is a possible future expansion of Team E to a two-car race team. The other involves seeing a growth in Florida-based Indy Lights and IndyCar series race teams.

The latter endeavor involves talks with the Florida Economic Development Council to pursue tax incentives for basing teams in the state, similar to what is already offered in Indiana.

"To me it makes more sense to base your team down here," Enerson said. "The weather's better year-round and in the offseason there are more tracks to test at and that's when we can be holding events with the cars."

Enerson and the crew of Team E Racing are now busy preparing and testing for the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and hope to be on pit row.

"Between now and then we've really got to put together some sponsorship money for that race," Enerson said of the Grand Prix, adding that the Team E car will be testing later this month on the road course at Sebring International Raceway.

"It's definitely still on the radar. Now we need the sponsors."

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