Ligier JS F4 Owner-Driver Drew Szuch Paves the Way for Young Motorsports Professionals, Including Himself

Published by Eddie Fuhrer on July 8, 2024

Drew Szuch will be the first to admit that most suburban garages don’t contain Formula 4 cars.

Yet, inside of the one at his family’s home in St. Charles, Illinois – 40 miles west of Chicago – the 18-year-old finds himself hard at work. 

As the only owner-driver in the Ligier JS F4 Series, a nationally-touring series that runs cars from the previous generation of the Formula 4 United States Championship, Szuch is an outlier among much larger teams such as Crosslink Kiwi Motorsport and JENSEN. 

Despite this, Szuch has utilized his race team as a chance for himself and other young people to gain experience in the motorsports industry, while also pulling out unexpected results on the track.

In only his first season in open-wheel racing, Szuch and his single-car team found themselves seventh in the drivers championship at the midway point of the season. Remarkably, he’s within striking distance of a top-five finish in the championship, which would be the best ever for a single-car team in F4 US/JS F4 history.

Photo credit: Dyno Tested Photography

“We’re punching above our weight class,” Szuch said, being interviewed in his family’s garage with his car in the background. “I think we’re progressing upwards, which is always good.”

If there’s anything Drew Szuch learned before the long-time karter made the switch to open-wheel racing, it’s the challenges that come with running a small team. Last season, he accustomed himself to the series by volunteering with Bacon Racing, another single-car team from last season which is not too different from what Szuch started.

Bacon Racing captivated the F4 United States grid last year when their lone driver, Bacon Zelenka, drove his bright green car with a bald eagle on the front bodywork to impressive results, including a podium at New Jersey Motorsports Park last July. Zelenka eventually earned the championship’s most-improved driver award after finishing 12th.

Zelenka and Szuch are two of the most acquainted competitors on the F4 grid, having raced together on the midwest karting circuit for years going back to when Szuch started karting with support of his dad Mike at age 13. Szuch followed Zelenka’s trajectory in 2024 and took all the knowledge about running a small team he could into his own journey this year.

“When (Bacon) made the switch into F4, it was pretty impressive,” Szuch said. “I have a lot of respect for him because of that. And now, we’re sharing the grid together. It’s a bit surreal to see how far we’ve come.”

Szuch and Zelenka battle wheel-to-wheel in a series where both of them have found success in 2024. Zelenka, having moved up to powerhouse Crosslink Kiwi Motorsport, is within 20 points of the championship lead after winning two races so far. 

Drew Szuch (pictured) works on his Szuch Racing Ligier JS F4 car. Szuch is in his first season of open-wheel racing as both a driver and a team owner.

Szuch, a first-generation racer, has been inching toward his first podium as well with two fourth-place finishes.

“We have a lot of potential but we need to start executing more consistently,” Szuch said. “And we really (need to) get those results that we know we’re capable of.”

The next Ligier JS F4 race is in two weeks at New Jersey Motorsports Park. Szuch estimates that between race weekends, he puts 100-150 hours into working on the car. Those hours are often in evenings and weekends for Szuch, who balances his racing career with full-time work in the race shop at Team Stradale in Joliet, around a two-hour round trip from home.

He’s also balancing that work with college classes. Szuch is a student at the recently split Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, completing a business degree from the Indiana side and a motorsports engineering certificate from Purdue.

Not only is he completing classes in school, that’s also where he’s pulling his staff.

“One of the main things we love to do at our team is help other people get themselves immersed in the industry,” Szuch said. “All of our engineers and mechanics are graduates from IUPUI.”

That includes his head engineer, Keaton Jens, who graduated from IUPUI this past year. Jens and Szuch were neighbors in high school, having got to know each other through school well before Jens was announced to have joined the team in June.

What Szuch Racing has given Jens and fellow IUPUI grad Brennan Holcombe, who also works for the team, is a pathway to grab hands-on experience in the motorsports world. Jens has taken a job recently working for Honda’s operations in the IndyCar Series while Holcombe has been able to gain experience working for AJ Foyt Racing.

“I’m trying to recruit people to help me out who have a lot of experience and have a lot to teach me,” Szuch said. “I feel like a student around them, and we’re all young. We’re all just dipping our toes in the motorsports industry. We’ve got nothing to lose.”

Szuch Racing and their bright orange livery are hard to miss on the track. Racing alongside teams many times their size, they fight through the pack and manage to remain competitive in most races. The highlight of the season might be at Road America, where Szuch was on pole for the final race.

At the end of the day however, motorsports is expensive. Drew Szuch knows this. And like many drivers at this level, the amount of money gained from sponsorships, if any, is often unsustainable. Such is the case for Szuch Racing.

“I don’t know where we’re heading,” Szuch said, referring to the financial future of his team. “Even from race weekend to race weekend, that’s kind of a question mark.”

Szuch continues to push on, even in the wake of the harsh reality money sometimes brings to motorsport. Trying to keep not only his racing team afloat for himself, but also for everyone involved as well including sponsors who have been around since his karting days like Team Concept Printing.

It’s a dream he’ll continue to chase, out of his love for the sport.

“I only have one shot,” Szuch said. “I’ve known for a long time that working in the racing industry, driving and being in motorsports has been my life goal. So, I owe it to myself and to all the people who have supported me along the way to give it everything no matter what. And that’s what I’m doing, every single day.”

Check out the original article written by Eddie Fuhrer here.