Biography

BACKGROUND

Jeff Westphal started his racing career with no prior experience when he got hired at a local indoor go-cart track in 2004. From impressing the staff at that facility, his boss sponsored him in the 2004 Redbull® Driver Search Runoffs. Jeff made the semi finals at Infinion Raceway in Sonoma, California, and finished 26th out of 125 participants, most of whom had already been competitively go-karting for years. Although the RedBull door closed, Jeff saw that he had potential in racing with a little more seat time and experience.

The two options were to go-kart nationally or to get into a race car series, and due to Jeff being 18 at the time, the car route looked more beneficial with his age being in the upper end of the spectrum for go-karts.

He got his schooling done at Laguna Seca with Skip Barber Racing Schools in Salinas, California in late 2005. He raced one regional race at Laguna with Skip Barber and scored one second and one third place finish for his car racing debut, only to then race the entire 2006 season with Jim Russell Racing School of Infineon Raceway.

Jeff’s rookie season, he finished 14 out of his 17 races in the top 5 with Russell. He recorded four 3rd place finishes, one second place finish, and two 1st place finishes with three poll positions in qualifying and one track record during the season, all amounting to a 3rd place overall in the championship.

In 2007 Jeff competed in the Pacific F2000 Championship with the former Team GFRO. He had a stellar opening year in his first professional series with one pole position, five thirds, and two seconds putting him third overall. Jeff then got in touch with Opak Racing, the North American pipeline to Spoon Sports, where he was one of 5 hand selected drivers to pilot the new 2008 Right Hand Drive Civic Type R in the grueling 25 Hours of Thunderhill.

2008, Jeff has just finished racing in the Pacific F2000 championship with the reigning champions PR1 Motorsports. He was successful in keeping the Championship in house this year by way of 9 wins (breaking the previous record of in 12 races. He also scored 8 pole positions and 8 fastest laps with two being new records in the F2000 car. “This was a monster year, it came together pretty much as well as i could’ve hoped with only minor set backs. I really want to thank my team and all my sponsors this year for making this year possible.” He is also planning on a couple of US Touring Car races with the Spoon Sports/Opak Racing camp, as well as some driving instruction with the Jim Russell Racing School based out of Infineon Raceway.