Kyle Gimple earned six victories and 11 podium finishes in the 2010 Skip Barber Western Regional Series, but the championship battle came down to the final round and a three-way tie, for the 18 year-old of Reno, Nev. Gimple prevailed; he dominated the final round and shattered the track record in the series final round at Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway to win the 2010 Western Regional Skip Barber Championship title.
“Winning the Skip Barber Western Regional Series championship is a great accomplishment for me,” Gimple commented on his title. “I've always wanted to win a championship and have been so close many times. I finished in third place last year at Skip Barber and won the Rookie of the Year award. It's incredible that I was able to win the championship in only my second season at Skip Barber.”
Similar to most young racers, Gimple started his career at the age of eight, racing go-karts. He just completed his final year of karting competition, finishing second in the nation in the Rotax Series Championship. Gimple has worked closely with veteran racer Davy Jones, who coached Gimple through the transition from karts to cars and feels confident about Gimple's future in racing.
“I am pleased that Kyle has taken this step into the Ford Mustang Challenge,” said Jones. He has shown his ability to adapt to different racecars quickly and has proven to be very competitive. He is driving for a team that has also proven to win races and championships at all levels of racing.”
Kyle has turned his focus, for now, to closed-top cars. He will compete in the remainder of the Ford Mustang Challenge Series, driving the No. 81 Autowerks car for ICY Racing, beginning this weekend at the Bosch Engineering 250 at Virginia International Raceway.
“I wasn't sure what my next step should be to advance my racing career. After looking at it (the series), and with Davy's encouragement, I realized there are a lot of opportunities for further advancement in the series,” he said. “It was very important for me to win the Skip Barber Championship, so I needed to stay focused on that. Now that we've wrapped that up successfully, I am really excited to begin my professional racing career in the Ford Mustang Challenge Series!”