Middletown’s Andrew Locke combined a bit of racing luck with a lot of driving talent and support to claim two regional driving titles and rookie of the year honors this year.
Now in his sixth year of racing, Locke, 34, competes in National Auto Sport Association (NASA) Great Lakes and Midwest regional events at such famous permanent road courses as The Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, and Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisc.
With a pair of races on one weekend in each month from April to October across five states, Locke races in the Honda Challenge 2 Division.
He finished first in both HC2 regional point standings and was named NASA’s 2011 Rookie of the Year.
“It’s been an absolutely fantastic season,” Locke said. “The regional awards were extremely great, but being Rookie of the Year, that probably means a little bit more to me because that encompasses not only my division, but the entire organization. That’s a pretty big honor for me.”
Locke, a 1996 Madison High School graduate who owns the Towne Athletic Club in Middletown, piloted his Honda Civic to those nine wins and 14 podium finishes, and set a new track record for his class at Road America.
“I think preparation was the key to this past season,” Locke said. “The cars are relatively easy to work on, but it’s really important to have everything ready and running consistently for each race. I only had two times during the season where I drove the car off the track and into a tire wall, but both times the damage was merely cosmetic. I just had to pop some dents out, and that was it. I feel I was lucky in that respect.”
Similar to Grand American Rolex Series racing, Locke’s Honda Challenge events had cars of varying sizes and speeds racing in different classes on the track all at once. So he had to be focused on the racing action in his rear-view mirror as well as what was ahead of him at all times.
“Anything from Vipers and Corvettes to a full field of Miatas. It’s pretty exciting to be a part of it,” he said. “We race each other hard when we’re on the track, but you develop good friendships with those same drivers around the campfires that night. I love everything about the sport.”
At the NASA National Championships this past September at Mid-Ohio, Locke finished eighth among the nation’s top sports car drivers. He credits his wife Nikole and sons Noah and Logan for their support.
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2851 or jbombatch@coxohio.com.