PHOENIX, Ariz. (May 27, 2021) – Arizona’s own Casey Buckman is ready to race. The 25-year-old just traveled more than 1600 miles to get behind the wheel of C-Buck Motorsports black and orange #74 Silver Crown Race Car for one hundred wild action-packed laps of racing. The 19th running of the Sumar Classic in Terre Haute, Indiana takes place Thursday night, and replaces the legendary Hoosier 100, one of the longest running and beloved races held leading up to the Indianapolis 500.
USAC Silver Crown Racing, a popular series that has withstood the test of time, can play a sizable role in launching professional drivers into the spotlight potentially furthering opportunities for talented racecar drivers. Buckman hopes to be one of those drivers.
Considered a veteran in the industry and racing since the young age of 13, Buckman showed immediate talent his first year and wheeled his way to more than 60 feature wins across five states, breaking track records and earning the title of the Western Grand Nationals before moving on to winged sprint cars at just 17 years old.
Despite being the youngest driver in the Lucas Oil Southwest Arizona Sprint Car Series, Buckman was immediately competitive with consistent top ten finishes, multiple top five runs, was named Rookie of the Year, and claimed his first feature event win all before graduating with honors from Chandler High School.
This young man has also seen tremendous success in his adult career, racking up over sixty feature wins in outdoor go kart competitions, dozens of top ten and top five runs as well as several podium finishes before setting his sights on the infamous USAC Silver Crown National Series.
Running at select races and on a limited budget in 2020, his most notable finish in the USAC Silver Crown Series was just last year at the Final Hoosier 100. Underfunded and out motored, Buckman wheeled his car to an 11th place finish after starting in the 24th position.
“Casey has incredible natural talent” said Jerry Griffin, AZ franchisee owner of Firehouse Subs, one of Buckman’s strongest supporters and team sponsor.
“His ability to race competitively, even when he’s in older equipment is impressive to watch and we are excited to see him finally get his chance to run a national open wheel series like Silver Crown.”
A graduate of GCU, studying under Collangelo School of Business, Buckman is not only the driver, but the co-founder of C-Buck Motorsports and has just recently accepted a job as Track & Facility Manager at the Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park, a 400-acre motorsports facility about 15 minutes southeast of Phoenix.
Committed to continuing to “race for a reason”, Buckman co-founded Racing for Charities, a newly formed Arizona non-profit that will work directly with other non-profits to help provide increased visibility and fundraising opportunities with the C-Buck team.
Recently signed on as one of those partners is Team RFC. Racers for Christ is a national non-profit organization that serves the emotional and spiritual needs of drivers and their teams while traveling the race circuit. This dedicated organization was hard hit when the majority of 2020 racing events were cancelled due to the pandemic.
“Historically, the race community is extremely generous.” said Buckman. “ We are truly honored to team up with Team RFC this season and are happy to announce that the C-Buck Motorsports Team will be donating a percentage of our sponsorship dollars to RFC this season to kick start the fund-raising efforts.”
Buckman, loading the car and heading to the track today is grateful. “We would not be here in Indiana, if our amazing partners of small business owners hadn’t stepped up their support of the team this year.”
“Our most sincere thanks to our partners, The Race Shack Safety Store, Rock Knocker, Sutton Signs, Crystal Springs Car Wash, ACS, the Sutpen’s Hundred and Firehouse Subs. “They made it possible for the team to commit to the series and for us to be racing tonight.”
Following tonight’s race, Buckman plans to compete in all dirt USAC Silver Crown Races scheduled for the remainder of the year and hopefully secure enough sponsorship to run the remaining asphalt races as well.
For more about Buckman follow C-Buck Motorsports on Facebook or visit cbuckmotorsports.com and tune in and stream the race live on floracing.com
To support our non-profit efforts and donate directly to Racers for Christ, please visit teamrfc.org.
