Scott Andrew Speed is an American race car driver
born on 24 January 1983 in Manteca, California.
Formerly a driver for the Scuderia Toro Rosso F1
team, he made his Formula One race debut at the 2006
Bahrain Grand Prix. He made his debut on an oval
track and in American stock car racing in the ARCA
RE/MAX Series on 5th October 2007, qualifying and
finishing in 7th position. He was the first American
Formula One driver since Eddie Cheever in 1989.
Speed's career started at the age of 10 in karting,
his stint there lasting from 1993 until 2001,
winning the SKUSA Super Pro Title for JM Racing
driving a Tony Kart Swedetech Honda in 2000. He also
won the 2002 Rock Island GP in 125cc Shifter Karts.
He moved up to Formula series in 2001, competing in
US Formula Russell and becoming champion. He drove
in both the US Barber Formula Dodge and US Star
Mazda Series followed in 2002, although he failed to
win either title, and in 2003 the American drove for
the ADR team in British Formula Three after winning
the Red Bull Driver Search programme. During that
year he fell ill with ulcerative colitis, a form of
inflammatory bowel disease, and was forced to return
to the United States for treatment.
2004 saw two championship titles for Speed, though,
with him first winning in Formula Renault 2000
Eurocup and later German Formula Renault. This was
despite his worsening colitis, for which Speed faced
major surgery. His performances resulted in a drive
in the inaugural season of GP2 Series for 2005, as
number two for the iSport team to Can Artam. Speed
was later promoted to first driver for the team, and
ended the season third place in the driver
championship standings behind Nico Rosberg and
Heikki Kovalainen.
At the end of 2005, Speed drove the first three
races of the new A1 Grand Prix series for A1 Team
USA, achieving a best result of fourth in the
Feature Race of the 2005-06 A1 Grand Prix of
Nations, Portugal, held at the Autódromo do Estoril.
