Ayrton Houk Racing

What. A. Weekend.

The Battle on the Bricks at my home track, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, was one for the books!

Thursday kicked things off at the IMSA Street Fest in downtown Speedway. It was awesome seeing so many fans come out, stop by the CSM Motorsport number 3 car, grab some stickers, koozies and temporary tattoos, and get a chance to win a pair of my autographed gloves. Thanks to everyone who came out to say hi!

Friday was all about getting reacquainted with the Aston Martin. Coming from a USF2000 car, learning to adapt to a much heavier car with very different braking points and handling characteristics was a challenge, but Practice 2 showed a lot of progress. Huge credit to the entire CSM crew for working late into Friday night to get the car ready for qualifying.

Saturday didn’t start exactly how we wanted. A shifting issue during qualifying put us P23, but we knew we had a fast car.

When the green flag dropped to start the race, I put my head down, stuck to the team’s strategy and started working through the field.

I had made it up to P11 at about the 45 minute mark. Shortly after that, a yellow flag came out and the leaders started coming into the pits. The CSM team made the call to keep me out on track for a few more laps. The goal was to stretch our fuel mileage and try to make the race on just one pit stop, while most of the field would likely need two.

As the leaders came into the pits, that strategy moved me all the way to the front of the field.

I suddenly found myself leading an IMSA race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

I was running at the front of the field at my home track, in an Aston Martin GT4, with the No. 3 CSM car showing at the top of the timing screens. Watching the replay later and hearing the commentators talk about the hometown kid leading at Indy was something I’ll never forget. It was a pretty surreal moment and one I’ll always be grateful to have experienced.

Leading the field at the restart, I was able to maintain position for a bit then due to tire deg, I got shuffled back to about P5. We stayed out for a couple more laps then I ducked into pit lane for our driver swap.

My co-driver, Ismaeel Ellahi, did a great job trying to work his way back through the field and was making progress when a tire puncture unfortunately dropped us back and required another pit stop. The good news is that he was able to finish the race bring the car home clean, which is always important.

I’m incredibly proud of this CSM Motorsport team and grateful for everything they put into this weekend.

And honestly, seeing so many friends, family, partners and fans at the track, especially all of you wearing my gear, meant more than I can say. Thank you for showing up and making my home race so special.

This weekend was even more meaningful because of our collaboration with Purdue University’s Daniels School of Business. I’m incredibly proud to represent the school where I’m studying Finance, and we have some really cool race-related content coming soon. Boiler Up!

Thank you to my team, my family, my friends, my partners and every single person who supported us this weekend. The hometown love was overwhelming and very much appreciated! Next IMSA stop: Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta on October 3. Let’s go! 🏁

For any young racer from Indiana, the dream is to win the Indianapolis 500.

Hometown: McCordsville, IN

School: Purdue University West Lafayette, IN

Competencies:

Lucas Oil School Car

Formula Ford 1600

Kenyon Midget

Allstar Midget

Formula 1000

USF2000

Pavement Sprint Car

Porsche 718 Cayman GT4