Question:

Scott Finkelmeyer

Answer:

Question:

Answer:

Doug,

I also plan on getting into some pretty demanding physical training.

Thanks for the question, hope to see you at the races next year!

AJ Smith has one of the toughest jobs in racing. He is the gearbox guy for all the Playa Del Racing machines. AJ started the year by building and maintaining the gearbox on the PDR Indy Pro Series car, and then took over the much more complex job of the IndyCar Series gearbox at the 91^st running of the Indianapolis 500.

Smith was born October 15, 1967 and has been racing ever since. He started his professional racing career by racing street stocks at local tracks around Indiana. From there he moved to pavement late models and made his way up the ranks of local track racing.

Making his way through each level of racing the old fashioned way, Smith worked on midgets and sprint cars before graduating to Indy cars as a mechanic. AJ has become a specialist in working with gearboxes and he is now recognized as one of the best gearbox mechanics in the business. AJ has worked on the gearboxes of some extremely familiar names in the racing industry, including Al Unser Jr, Christian Fittipaldi, Scott Sharp, Alex Barron, Patrick Carpentier, and Eddie Cheever to name a few.

“I’ve been blessed to work with some incredible drivers, and some incredible mechanics in this business,” said Smith. “Racing is a passion that most people just can’t understand. We work long hours doing some pretty strenuous work, and we just keep coming back for more.”

AJ has taken on a leadership role within the Playa Del Racing organization that includes some management duties since the Indy 500.

“I’ve been with a lot of teams, and worked with a lot of people in this business. Playa Del Racing really is a different environment from any other team I’ve been with. These guys work hard, play hard, and still manage to put together a competitive race car with very little funding. I’m proud to be here, and hopefully we’re going to surprise some people this year.”

Clark Drake will return to the Playa Del Racing as chief mechanic for the second straight year. Drake was born in Los Angeles, Calif., and currently calls South Torrance, Calif. home.

Drake started racing at the age of 14, when he began racing motocross at Ascot. It did not take long to get Drake on four wheels. He began racing go karts on dirt tracks quickly after his experiences in dirt bike racing.

The southern California native first came to Indianapolis in 1981 to work on Dick Ferguson’s machine as a mechanic. Drake wouldn’t return to Indy until 1994, when Larry Curry hired Drake as a mechanic.

“Larry Curry hired me because I was a sprint car guy,” say Drake. “He knew that the sprint car guys would get things done, and get them done right.”

Drake worked on Eddie Cheever’s car that would finish a very respectable 8^th place in 1994.

Clark came to Playa Del Racing for the team’s inaugural Indianapolis 500 in 2005 as a mechanic. In 2006, Drake was promoted to chief mechanic, and will return to his position in 2007.

“I’m very proud to be a part of this team,” says Drake. “These guys have a lot of fun, but we work just as hard as anybody out there. This should be our best year yet.”