Twenty-year-old racer Andre Villarreal has joined the
ranks of Future Stars in Racing Driver Training Academy.
After starting his racing career in karting at age 14, he progressed
rapidly, winning the Florida state championship for ICA 100cc karts
with a sixth –place national ranking. This rapid learning curve
brought him to the attention of the Skip Barber organization, earning
a place in their “Sweet 16” 2005 group. “I did well,” reported
Villarreal. “I made it to the top three of the group, then went on to
run the Skip Barber Southern race series.”
With that experience, he moved over to the USAC Ford Focus Midget
class, running four races in 2006, after the car was completed at mid-
season. In his first race out, he qualified fourth before driving to
a sixth-place finish. “It was a pretty good race,” he grinned.
In 2007, he ran the entire Carolina Series of the Ford Focus class,
ending the season fifth in points, with a pole, plus four more top
five starting positions and never starting outside the top ten. His
best finishes for the year were a pair of seconds, at Friendship
Motor Speedway and at Franklin County Speedway. A trio of third-place
finishes was augmented by a fourth place and a quartet of top ten
finishes.
Asked about his racing plans, he replied: “I plan to go where the
most competition is and where the best drivers are. So it’ll probably
be NASCAR. My goal is to be a champion in ‘Cup.”
In making that move, he plans to compete in Late Model Stock Cars for
2008 “and get experience in the heavy cars.” In making the
transition, he will be attending Andy Hillenburg’s FastTrack Racing
School, where the instructors “will be able to tell where I’m at.”
Asked about his career model in racing, he pointed out that Jeff
Gordon would be his pick if he had to make a single choice. He added
that the biggest single influence on his racing career has been Juan
Pablo Montoya, both directly and indirectly. Villarreal explained
that Montoya had taken the time to coach him gently in his early
karting days, teaching him “when to take risks and when not to.”
The Mechanical Engineering student at Florida International
University admits that it is hard to do everything he does, but he’d
“rather have it that way than not have grades at all.” He says that
the physics courses at FIU are some of his favorites and that he
might try out for a sports team at the school if he did not race.
Other favorite activities include jet-skis, motorcycle riding and
paintball games, along with other outdoor sports.
| 
|