Lakeland's Chris Fontaine will be in the starting lineup
for Saturday's Lucas Oil 250 USAR Hooters' Pro Cup race at
Lakeland's USA International Speedway.
This will be Fontaine's first race in the series.
Fontaine is just coming off a win last Sunday in the Hoosier AACS series
season opener at Desoto Superspeedway.
This is Fontaine's second year running at Desoto Superspeedway. He
finished out the 2003 AACS season in the top 10 in points, even after
missing a double points race at the beginning of the year.
Chris came from a very competitive family. His father, Denis Fontaine
was a champion sailor in Hobie Cat sailing, and had been a racer and
announcer at Lakeland Dragway in his youth.
At the early age of 6, Chris' dad gave him a go-cart with a corvette
body that Chris would race around his neighborhood. Chris also was very
mechanically inclined, figuring out ways to put engines on bicycles and
other things with wheels.
Chris started playing ice hockey on the Lakeland Ice Warriors youth
hockey team at the age of 12, and honed his team and competitive skills.
"I have wanted to race ever since the beginning," Chris said.
Chris proved himself as a driver when he started racing Mini-Cups at the
age of 16, winning the 1999 MMRA North Florida Region Championship and
the 1999 MMRA National Indoor Championship.
"It was a good starting point. I learned the basics in that,"
Chris said.
In late 1999, Chris moved up to Late Model race cars, running tracks at
New Symrna, Lakeland, Orlando and others in the FASCAR and SARA series.
In March of 2000, Chris got his first win in a Late Model at Orlando
Speedworld.
The experience wet his appetite for racing the larger cars.
"We ran NASCAR All Pro for two years in 2001 and 2002, then we got
our new Crewchief Kevin Ingram," Chris said.
In 2003, Kevin helped Chris bring out his natural abilities as a driver,
ending the 2003 season with 16 top 10's and 11 top 5's out of 35
races. In the AACS series, Chris ended the season 9th in points, and he
finished 13th in the FASCAR Sunbelt Series.
Go to chrisfontaine.com for the latest news and photos, and schedule
updates as they become available.
-cfr-
