Andersen Racing announced today that Julianna Gonzalez and Scott Willard will join Terrick Mansur in Andersen Racing entries for the 2007 Hankook Tires Formula Ford 2000 series.
In addition, veteran chief engineer Ian Macpherson has been hired to oversee the F2000 crew’s operations at the track under the title of F2000 technical director. He will work with team owner Dan Andersen and F2000 team manager Mike Foschi to help ensure the success of the team’s F2000 program.
Andersen Racing plans to field a total of four cars in the F2000 series, and expects to announce the name of the fourth driver soon.
The Fairfield, N.J. -based team offers a unique, three-tiered approach to train future Indy Racing League and Champ Car stars. In addition to the Hankook F2000 series, it will field multiple entries in the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear and the Indy Pro Series in 2007.
Gonzalez, a native of Medellin, Columbia, was one of the youngest drivers competing in the Cooper Tires F2000 series last year but she still finished tenth in the national point standings at the age of 15.
She started racing karts at 11. After earning the shifter 80cc national championship in Mexico in 2004 she turned her attention to cars and enrolled in the Russell Racing School, successfully completing both its basic and advanced courses. Last year was her first full season in car racing, and she learned a great deal. Although the tracks and the cars were new to her she was in the top-10 in all but one of the last five races of the year. Her best finish was seventh in the second half of the doubleheader at Exhibition Place in Toronto in July.
Willard, 60, of Weston, Conn., has run SCCA Formula Continental national events for many years, four of which were with Andersen Racing. He’s moving up to the Pro F2000 series this year. He owns and runs a business development services firm called BroadReach Partners in Stamford, Conn., which will be advertised on his race car.
Willard captured the SCCA Northeast division Formula Ford championship twice, winning in excess of 20 races, prior to moving into the Formula Continental division in 1999.
Willard has raced at all the tracks the series will visit this year except for Burke Lakefront in Cleveland. He’s especially looking forward to the races at Road Atlanta and Watkins Glen.
Directing the crew’s efforts will be Macpherson, who has been involved in racing since the early eighties, primarily in various SCCA divisions, Star Mazda, and Formula BMW. Macpherson, of Montreal, was an engineer for Velocity Motorsports in the Star Mazda series most recently. Others may remember that he won the 1992 SCCA Formula Atlantic national championship with Chris Fahan.
“I’ve known Dan for 10 or 15 years; mostly because we were racing against his son, Mike, ” Macpherson said. “Now I have an opportunity to work with both Dan and Mike this year. Mike will assist with some of the engineering duties and he’ll be a driver coach as his schedule permits.
“I’ve also raced against Scott Willard for years, and now I get to work with him as well, ” he added. “I’m looking forward to the new season and the start of testing in about a month. It’s a great opportunity to work with people I’ve competed against in the past, as well as the chance to work with promising rookies too. ”
