Auto racing can be dangerous, but it can also be a thrill ride.
Evagoras Papasavvas focuses on the thrills and the satisfaction of having a good race. The Loveland High School student has been racing for more than half of his life and he can’t imagine his life without it.
“There's not really much that goes through my head, just completely focused on the driving, not really thinking about anything else,” he said. “It’s like peace. It’s like you're not really thinking about anything else except for driving. And a lot of it, it comes naturally. It's by instinct. Most of it is just all focused on the driving and just the speed and everything. It’s a great feeling.”
Papasavvas, who will be a junior at Loveland, competes in the USF 2000 series, which is a feeder series for the NTT IndyCar Series.
Papasavvas competes on some of the same tracks that are used in the nationally televised NTT IndyCar Series, including Indianapolis Speedway.
He competes in the series as part of the Jay Howard Driver Development Academy, a program run by a former IndyCar driver that trains young drivers for a future on the IndyCar circuit.
Papasavvas drives in cars that look similar to the racing vehicles seen on TV, but are lighter and less powerful. And the races are roughly 100 miles, much shorter than a 500-mile race in Indy.
The cars still go about 150 miles per hour.
“The races are shorter and that's one thing that progresses as you go up the ranks,” Papasavvas said.
Papasavvas has won races
Papasavvas has won two races in the USF 2000 series, both on the Mid-Ohio course in Lexington, Ohio. The first came in 2023, and the second was earlier in July.
“Winning my home event two years in a row is very, very good,” he said. “Once you get that win after all the hard work that you have been putting in, it's just such a satisfying feeling. It’s a feeling that I just can't quite put into words.”
He ranks fourth in points on the USF 2000 circuit. The winner of the points title earns a $450,000 scholarship to a higher circuit, the USF Pro 2000 series, which is one step from the IndyCar series.
He finished fourth in the USF 2000 circuit last season, ranking first in top-10 finishes with 16. He ranked sixth in laps led during the season and had six top-three finishes.
A typical weekend on the circuit has two or three races scheduled. Papasavvas will race in Toronto July 19-21, then in Portland, Oregon Aug. 22-25. He will compete in five total races at those sites to give him a chance to win the title.
Auto racing teaches perseverance
Racing has its ups and downs, straightaways and walls to bump into. And no matter how well you drive, you can get knocked out of a race due to things you can’t control, such as mechanical issues or crashes.
Papasavvas has dealt with several of those issues and has learned how to bounce back.
“No matter if it's next season, next year or just the next race that day in a few hours, there's always something to look forward to,” he said. “The best thing to do is look forward to it and just, you know, put that behind you. Forget about it, obviously learn from it, but forget about it and just focus on what's ahead of you.”
How did he start?
Papasavvas started on Go-Karts when he was 8 years old. He began at Full Throttle in Springdale, an indoor facility.
He fell in love with racing and began competing on outdoor tracks in places like Batavia, New Castle, Indiana and Camden, Ohio. In those circuits, he racked up numerous wins and high finishes in the season-long points standings.
When he was 13, he was invited into the Jay Howard program, and spent a year practicing in racecars as he was too young to compete in the series, and racing cars is much different than go-kars.
“The first time that I sat in a go-kart at 8 years old. It was perfect,” he said. “From that moment on, I felt like this is something that I want to do for the rest of my life. And I just had an instant passion for it. My passion keeps growing for it. The older I get, the more mature I get.”
Papasavvas said racing go-carts outdoors was a big step up because the karts race side by side, which trains him for car racing.
“The tracks are pretty wide for the go-karts. We can fit three karts wide pretty comfortably,” he said. “So that was also a big thing, learning how to how to race side by side with people”
Racing is a full-time job
Preparing to race is a full-time job for Papasavvas. He and his family travel around the country. When he’s not competing, he’s often in the stands watching races in person.
He has a racing simulator in his house, a high-tech collection of software and equipment that is programmed with the tracks he competes on. Papasavvas spends a lot of time at the gym for physical training, and he gets specialized training to improve his reflexes and reaction time.
“That's also very important to have very quick reactions and peripheral vision, and just vision in general because of how fast everything's moving in racing,” he said. “So it's very important to have those really quick reactions.”
Papasavvas is a full-time student, too
Papasavvas misses some school time because of his travel, and he is grateful for Loveland administrators and teachers for allowing him to work online when he’s on the road.
“I'm very thankful with Loveland schools that they're very understanding with what I'm doing,” he said. “So very thankful for all of my teachers that I've had in the past. Very thankful for all of them and just the school district in general for being very understanding when it comes to that.”
His father, Nektarios Papasavvas, was born in Cyprus, and the country’s flag is on Evagoras’s car as well as dozens of sponsors.
The family gets a lot of financial and moral support from friends in addition to the sponsors, and has set up a GoFundMe page. They are also working with Cincinnati government for support. There are currently no local racers in the IndyCar series.
“It’s very rewarding, all this work that he does,” Nektarios said. “When he does well on the track, when he gets on the podium, all his hard work is being paid off. Last week, when he won, that was the best feeling in the world. We're there to support him as well as we can.”
Like a 500-mile race, getting to the IndyCar circuit is a marathon, not a sprint. Evagoras and his father say that realistically it will take at least five years for him to qualify for a national IndyCar race.
“We know he’s got the talent to move up to IndyCar,” Nektarios said. “That’s not just us saying it. That’s based on his performance and what we hear out there.”
The hard work is worth it as Evagoras Papasavvas treasures doing what he loves.
“The sensations when you're driving and you're going that speed,” he said. “Growing up, I loved going fast no matter what it was. So, just going those speeds, racing wheel to wheel, the adrenaline is great.”
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