While many teenagers are working or enjoying the summer at a lake, Andrew Hitchcock is driving at high speeds on tightly configured racetracks around the country.
Hitchcock, 17, just finished his junior year of high school and he has firmly set his sites on moving up the ranks of auto racing.
He has some high-profile drivers supporting his efforts.
Hitchcock started racing toward the end of the pandemic in 2021 at the Northern Nevada Kart Club track in Lemmon Valley, and did well thanks to the mentorship of 12-time national champion Cole Nelson. He soon decided racing is his future.
The only way to get better and faster at racing is through experience, and Hitchcock put in endless laps at the kart track.
"I go over data and video to see how I can improve, and also being able to adapt my driving style on the track because conditions can change every session," he said. "It might get hotter or colder, parts of the track might get more slippery."
He said physical conditioning off the track is also important to help avoid mental and muscle fatigue.
"You have to make really fast decisions and smart, calculated decisions to keep yourself in the race safely," he said.
Getting started
In 2022, he moved up to regional and national level racing. He raced the IKF Grand Nationals that year and led much of the race, but finished second. That was held at the Northern Nevada Kart Club track near Lemmon Valley.
He won the Northern Nevada Kart Club season title in 2023 and his regional and national rankings placed him as a top driver in North America.
He also raced in the CKNA (Cup Karts North America) Grand Nationals in 2023 in Indiana, the second-largest karting race in North America. He plans to race in that again this October.
He said almost all professional race car drivers get their start in karts.
"That's where you build up all the skills," he said.
Karts sit about an inch off the ground and can reach speeds up to 60 mph.
In 2023, he moved up to the Senior LO206 Class and raced in Indiana, North Carolina and Texas, and this year decided to move to big cars, which meant learning Formula 4 racing at the Skip Barber Racing School at Laguna Seca in Northern California and at Sebring International Raceway in Florida, where he earned his competition license.
He raced in two events in the Skip Barber F4 series season opener at Sebring in March and was competitive in both.
Hitchcock has since moved to a new team, Megapixel Management, where he will have a dedicated manager, Brent Brush, who has more than 30 years of experience in Indy, NASCAR, and International Motor Sports Association.
Hitchcock is also learning from Buddy Rice, an Indy 500 champion who has a driver development team. He is training with Rice's team monthly in Phoenix this summer and is developing a plan to transition to a professional racing career.
The danger
His mother, Jill Hitchcock, said Andrew has always been drawn to dangerous pursuits.
"He likes to push the limits," she said. "He probably scared me the most snow skiing, it was never just a nice, calm family outing, he was always doing something crazy."
She said auto racing is not as frightening for her as watching him ski, since the cars have safety features and he is buckled in.
The future
Hitchcock plans to be a professional driver, racing one of the many road series whether it be NTT Indy, IMSA GT, LMP Endurance racing, or F1 if the opportunity presents itself, but he is on the road to Indy.
He attended Reno High, but moved to the online school North Star Academy so he has more time to devote to his passion.
North Star Academy is an online school which allows him to keep up his studies while traveling around the country. He has a 4.0 GPA.
This article originally appeared on Reno Gazette Journal: Reno teen moving up the ranks as he sets sights on professional auto racing career
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