Wrecked Magazine
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After his stunning defeat of Justin Pawlak in Seattle, we wanted to sit down and chat with FD Rookie Jeremy Lowe. Here’s our quick 7-question interview with Lowe.
1 – What were your expectations going into your rookie season?
I didn’t really know what to expect. I just went into the season wanting to do the best that I could. I felt like I had a chance to compete with the top FD drivers. It’s been a bit tougher than I expected, but I feel that most of it is due to some mistakes I’ve made as a driver. I think it’s going better now though, especially now that I have a tandem win under my belt.
2 – How did it feel to qualify for top 32 at your first Formula D event in Long Beach?
I was pumped on that! My first event felt pretty good, to qualify at a Formula D event was pretty wild especially my first one. After qualifying, it didn’t really set in that I had made it until Top 32 practice started. Earlier practice just felt like ProAm all over again. My first tandem run in the top 32 practice was against Rhys Millen or someone big like that. That was when it hit me that I was in Formula D, not ProAm anymore. I lost to Ken Gushi in top 32 in Long Beach, I’d rather lose to a big name driver like that than beat myself.
3 – When you saw you were up against Justin Pawlak in Seattle, what were you thinking? Did you think you had a chance?
I always think that I have a chance or I wouldn’t be there. Going into Seattle, after what happened with failing to qualify at a few events, I almost wanted to call it quits. I couldn’t get the car to perform well, I made some mistakes, I was having transmission issues, I was thinking about taking the rest of the season off. Just squeaking into top 32 isn’t much fun, I was ready to be done with it. I got some help and motivation from friends and family, got everything back together and kinda changed my outlook on anything. At that point I realized I had nowhere to go but up. I can’t make myself look any worse, it took a lot of stress off of me. Going up against JTP helped because everyone expected him to win so if he beats me, no big deal. Might as well go 100% and see what happens, I was able to keep myself under control and not make any major mistakes.
4 – During the run, did you feel you had beaten Pawlak? Did your team give you feedback about the run?
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It was a lot of suspense. I was talking to my spotter and he was telling me the whole situation where JTP went off track and so did I. They were trying to determine if I had gone off track because of JTP. I didn’t even realize we had gone off track because of the layout of the course, it’s hard to tell where that out-of-bounds line is especially when following. I actually had a flat tire and I didn’t know what was wrong with my car after my lead run, the car was super wobbly and we were trying to diagnose the problem. I was hoping we wouldn’t go OMT because I thought something was broken. I just wanted the FD official to point at me to end the suspense. Sitting at the finish line almost felt normal, it felt like pro-am all over again because I felt I drove well. I didn’t feel like he flat-out beat me.
5 – You had a pretty big crash against Ryan Tuerck. What happened during the run?
Going into that run, I was a little too pumped. I felt like I had pressure on me again. I went a little bit too aggressive on my run. Tuerck was faster on run-up than JTP was, and watching the rest of the battles, I noticed how fast he was on the bank and I should have talked to my spotter more about that. I probably should have initiated a little sooner, then I would have been fine. I gave him a bit of a gap to start because I wasn’t sure how the bank was going to go. If I made any mistakes on the bank, my car doesn’t have the power to pull out of a major mistake. Right after I initiated, I knew I was probably going to hit the wall. I had been tapping the wall almost every run in the same spot, but I knew this would be harder than normal. I stayed floored hoping I could drive out of it. I tapped the wall with my back end, bounced off the wall, tapped it again, then the next hit brought the front end around. Hitting the front of my car broke the tie rod and ball joint in front, so I didn’t have any steering, and I broke a brake line. All I could do is sit in my car and bounce off the wall. We called 5 minutes, but with the no brakes, I couldn’t continue. We checked it out, but it was just too much to repair. If it was just the front suspension, we probably could have made something work, but with the brake line issue, we didn’t have time to bleed the brakes and it wasn’t safe to run.
6 – How are the repairs coming together?
The original plan was to leave the cars out west in Portland so we wouldn’t have to go back and forth. With my car as bad as it was and Pat Goodin’s car having some issues, we decided to tow the cars back home. We just got back to Florida on Thursday, and we just started taking the car apart over the weekend. I’ve got the front suspension all fixed, we’re about to put the car on the alignment rack to figure out how bad the rest of the car is. I should be able to make it to Vegas without a problem. It’s funny because I wasn’t going to attend Seattle, then I had my best finish of the season so far and now I feel like I need to go to the last few events because people are expecting me to be there. Thanks to my dad and a few other sponsors, I’ll be able to make the rest of the season. At first, I was just going to do three events, then I joined Falken’s contingency program and you had to have 4 events under your belt to qualify so I went to New Jersey. Then I decided to do one more in Seattle to try and finish on a good note instead of on a DNQ, and now I’m doing the whole season.
7 – What kind of advice would you give to any ProAm drivers who are looking to make the jump to FD next season?
I’ve had this outlook for awhile, but take your time. Lots of kids just start driving and immediately build a car for ProAm. FD isn’t anything close to ProAm, it’s not even close. You could win every ProAm event you go to and would still be lucky to make top 32 consistently in Formula D. Take your time, drive as much as you can, build your car as good as you can, and if you do good in ProAm, expect Formula D to be 100 times harder. That’s not even an exaggeration.
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