Kyle Kaiser
Kaiser in 2015
NationalityUnited States American
Born (1996-03-05) March 5, 1996
Santa Clara, California, U.S.
Motorsports career
Debut season2012
Current teamJuncos Racing
Car number32
Former teamsWorld Speed Motorsports
Starts79
Wins6
Poles6
Championship titles
2012
2017
Formula Car Challenge
Indy Lights

Kyle Kaiser (born March 5, 1996) is an American racing driver from Santa Clara, California, and won the 2017 Indy Lights Championship with Juncos Racing. He is also currently enrolled in classes part-time at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California.

Racing career

Karting

From 2003 to 2009, Kaiser competed in the International Kart Federation, in the IKF Regional Race Series, 2-Cycle Sprint Grand Nationals, and the Stars of Karting. In 2008 he claimed his first national championship in the HPV-1 class. In 2009, he won the Infinion Raceway 3 hr Karting Enduro.

Skip Barber

Kaiser joined Skip Barber Racing School's 2009/10 Western Regional Championship, earning second place and Rookie of the Year. In 2011, he returned to the series, earning third place in the championship. That year, he also participated in the Skip Barber Karting Scholarship shootout, earning a partial season scholarship with the race series.[1]

Formula Car Challenge

In 2012, Kaiser competed in the Formula Car Challenge for World Speed Motorsports, in the Pro Mazda and FormulaSPEED classes. He earned the Pro Mazda championship title by winning 8 races, and finishing on the podium in 11 out of the 14 races.[2]

Pro Mazda

He made his professional open wheel racing debut in September 2012 in the Star Mazda Championship at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. For the 2013 season, Kaiser joined World Speed Motorsports to race full-time in the Pro Mazda Championship. He finished seventh in the championship with a best finish of fifth (three times). He returns to the series for 2014, but switched teams to past series champions Juncos Racing. He finished on the podium in the first race of the 2014 Pro Mazda Winterfest. He finished the 2014 season 6th in points, recording four podium finishes and earning his first professional victory at Sonoma Raceway in the season finale.

Indy Lights

For 2015, Kaiser moved up to Indy Lights with juncos racing . He scored two podiums and seven top 5s out of 16 races, finishing sixth in the season standings. In 2016, he claimed two wins and eight podiums in 18 races, which put him third in the final classification. He signed with Juncos Racing for a third Indy Lights season in 2017 and won the Championship to claim the $1 million scholarship to race in IndyCar.

IndyCar

Kaiser announced he would move up to the Verizon IndyCar series with Juncos Racing for four races in 2018.

Kaiser competed in select IndyCar Series events with Juncos between 2018 and 2019. He is best known for knocking two time Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso out of the 2019 Indianapolis 500 by qualifying in the last possible spot on the grid, ending Alonso's joint McLaren/Carlin effort.[3] Kaiser would not compete in either the 2020 IndyCar Series or 2021 IndyCar Series, as Juncos was trying to recoup financial losses brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and would not be able to run their traditional Indianapolis 500 specific program which Kaiser had run in the past.

When Juncos Racing was rebranded as Juncos Hollinger Racing, Kaiser was one of the drivers that Ricardo Juncos and, new team co-owner, Brad Hollinger would consider for their first full-time IndyCar entry, which was due to be entered in the final three rounds of 2021 and from 2022 onward. The team ultimately chose Scuderia Ferrari test driver Callum Ilott for the full-time entry. Juncos however did not rule out bringing Kaiser on for a second car on a part time basis, including for the Indianapolis 500.[4]

Motorsports career results

SCCA National Championship Runoffs

YearTrackCarEngineClassFinishStartStatus
2014Laguna SecaMazda MiataMazdaSpec MiataDSQ2Running

Pro Mazda Championship

Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Rank Points
2013 World Speed Motorsports AUS
8
AUS
6
STP
5
STP
10
IND
7
IOW
10
TOR
5
TOR
5
MOS
8
MOS
6
MOH
6
MOH
8
TRO
10
TRO
13
HOU
8
HOU
8
7th 209
2014 Juncos Racing STP
2
STP
2
BAR
3
BAR
5
IMS
13
IMS
5
LOR
8
HOU
8
HOU
15
MOH
12
MOH
7
MIL
10
SON
1
SON
DSQ
6th 211

Indy Lights

Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Rank Points
2015 Juncos Racing STP
5
STP
5
LBH
12
ALA
8
ALA
12
IMS
12
IMS
6
INDY
5
TOR
3
TOR
9
MIL
9
IOW
4
MDO
4
MDO
11
LAG
2
LAG
10
6th 237
2016 Juncos Racing STP
3
STP
2
PHX
1
ALA
15
ALA
6
IMS
6
IMS
3
INDY
16
RDA
6
RDA
6
IOW
6
TOR
3
TOR
3
MDO
9
MDO
6
WGL
4
LAG
1
LAG
3
3rd 334
2017 Juncos Racing STP
6
STP
4
ALA
2
ALA
2
IMS
3
IMS
1
INDY
9
RDA
3
RDA
2
IOW
5
TOR
1
TOR
1
MDO
12
MDO
12
GMP
4
WGL
7
1st 330

IndyCar Series

(key)

Year Team Chassis No. Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Rank Points Ref
2018 Juncos Racing Dallara DW12 32 Chevrolet STP PHX
21
LBH
16
ALA IMS
19
INDY
29
DET DET TXS ROA IOW TOR MDO POC GTW POR SNM 30th 45 [5]
2019 STP
COA
18
ALA
LBH
IMS
INDY
31
DET
DET
TXS
RDA
TOR
IOW
MDO
POC
GTW
POR
LAG
32nd 22 [6]

* Season still in progress.

Indianapolis 500

Year Chassis Engine Start Finish Team
2018 Dallara Chevrolet 17 29 Juncos Racing
2019 Dallara Chevrolet 33 31 Juncos Racing

Complete WeatherTech SportsCar Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Entrant Class Make Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Rank Points
2019 Juncos Racing DPi Cadillac DPi-V.R Cadillac 5.5 L V8 DAY
8
SEB LBH
7
MDO
9
DET WGL MOS ELK LGA PET 21st 69

References

  1. "Hindman and Estrela Win Big Prizes 2010-2011 Skip Barber Karting Shootout". Archived from the original on 2013-08-09. Retrieved 2013-07-09.
  2. "FCC Alumni Update - the Formula Car Challenge presented by Goodyear is a regional Mazda powered racing series with a NASA National Championship".
  3. Van Tyron, Matthew. "Fernando Alonso bumped from Indy 500 by Kyle Kaiser. Twitter is shocked". IndyStar.com. Indianapolis Star. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  4. Pryson, Mike (3 September 2021). "2020 Formula 2 Runner-Up Callum Ilott to Make IndyCar Debut at Portland". Autoweek. Hearst Autos. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  5. "Kyle Kaiser – 2018 Verizon IndyCar Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved August 1, 2023.
  6. "Kyle Kaiser – 2019 NTT IndyCar Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved August 1, 2023.
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