An Unpredictable future : Scott Tucker and Bouchut

The world of motor racing is ruthless competition-flying all around a track with dozens of other vehicles and one miscalculation can send a car for the pit, or uglier, in a devastating, competition-ending and fiery accident. Regardless of the fact within the track it’s every single driver for themselves, stunning things can occur when talents collide not in a race condition, but in collaborative relationships which provide the building blocks for racing teams to take off.

One collaboration is the pair of Scott Tucker and Christophe Bouchut. Their partnership first was that of trainer and student, as Bouchut was perhaps the most outstanding endurance racers across the globe as soon as Tucker, when he was Forty-four, took the competition wheel the first time in 2006. In the past, Tucker was chairman and CEO of Westfund, a private equity firm, but had always harbored a desire for auto racing. Once the chance arose for him to drive competitively, Tucker was an unlikely success story, but he performed in a fashion that are only able to provoke the label “he’s a natural.” He began within the Ferrari Challenge before testing the area with Porsche Super Cup, IMSA Lites and Rolex Series GT competitions. Sooner or later, he put together Level 5 Motorsports and in 2008 moved into Grand-Am prototype contests, where Bouchut joined forces with him.

The mix of Bouchut and Tucker, with the addition of Luis Diaz this current year, has supplied wonderful results in the ALMS and ILMC up to now. A number of podium finishes and a few victories are evidence that not only is Tucker adding compelling, steady skill to his team, but he himself is also advancing. But as competition heats up for the end of the 2011 season with just ILMC and ALMS championships left go, it’s not wacky to think about if competitors could heat up within the Level 5 team as Tucker’s skill level carries on improvement.

Just before he joined Tucker, Bouchut won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1993 and has also won the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. Aside from that, he has won three Porsche Carrera Cup France championships, three FIA GT titles and a FFSA GT championship. He is the only triple FIA GT champion in history. His long-lasting career made him a perfect mentor for Tucker, who needed to stuff yrs of expertise into as few years as possible to get him in control, so to say, with other drivers in his class.

The 2 made four starts with Level 5 Motorsports in the 2008 Rolex series, including the Rolex 24 at Daytona. After some time, Level 5 was a frequent attendee of Rolex races, driving a Daytona model. Tucker maintained his Ferrari Challenge entries and won 10 races in 2009. Of which year, he also won the SCCA Touring 1 Class National Championship, his first national title.

After, Level 5 Motorsports attained momentum, taking third place in the Rolex 24 in 2010 with Tucker, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Lucas Luhr and Richard Westrbrook driving. Finally, they made the turn to the American Le Mans Series, something Tucker had always aspired to participate in. In the new Le Mans Prototype Challenge class, gentleman drivers were allowed to drive 2 cars in the exact same race, with the scoring driver in the highest place vehicle. Tucker and Bouchut saw a chance for success in the brand new class.

Tucker was talented, but Bouchut had the speed and command that merely one with his experience could bring to the track. With just one objective of winning as many races as they could get into, Bouchut and Tucker fell into a good agreement for Level 5, with Bouchut serving as head driver and Tucker holding his own while he also completed practice rounds. Level 5 won five class competitions and took the class title in the LMP Challenge category and was bumped up to LMP2.

At the beginning of 2011, Level 5 was joined by Luis Diaz, who had enough LMP2 experience and made an excellent supplement to the Tucker-Bouchut formula. The team has had an awfully successful year so far, with the Petit Le Mans and Intercontinental Le Mans Cup in China being essentially the only things left on the calendar of a year that included a wide range of podium finishes and wins at Imola and other major ALMS races.

But as Level 5 Motorsports progresses, so does Scott Tucker, and eventually, the dynamic couple of Tucker-Bouchut could separate. Tucker told Speed TV in 2010 that he and Bouchut would consult each other on which races they would enter in together. He said they prefer championships that don’t pit two qualified drivers against the other person; they get too competitive in that setting, he said. Even though any parting would undoubtedly be with good standing on both sides, the continued success of Tucker begs the question of where he’ll go next, who he’ll take with him, and how the Level 5 Motorsports team will advance from its burgeoning success.

Scott Tucker, a five-time national driving champion Scott Tucker .