Z-Team Racing was established in 2006 as a Father and son’s team. In 2006 both JZ (13 at the time) and Brad (9 at the time) each started their racing careers by attending Flying Ryan’s driving school. JZ made his first appearance in the #08 Junior Outlaw running in the ‘B’ division. He finished a very respectable 5th his first race! Brad made his first appearance in the #7 Tiger Sprint in the ‘C’ division and finished 3rd, a great start!
In 2007, James decided he would rather be a part of the pit crew than drive, so we retired the #08 for the season. Brad won his first 3 races in the Tiger ‘C’ division and was asked by the track to consider moving into the Tiger Sprint ‘B’ division.
Once the track agreed to allow us to bring our points to the division we agreed to move up. Brad and the #7 finished 2nd overall with 5 heat wins and 6 feature wins! We also invested in a new trailer in 2007, we are growing!
2008 was a very busy year for us; we decided to double the schedule and race at two tracks, Route 106 Raceway on Saturday nights and Sugarhill Speedway on Sunday afternoons. Turns out Z-Team Racing did very well with a 2nd place finish for the track championship at Sugarhill Speedway. We won the track championship at Route 106 Racepark!! We also found a driver for the #08 Junior Outlaw! Katelyn Jeski drove the #08 at Sugarhill on Sundays. She ended the season finishing 3rd in the points championship race at Sugarhill.
2009 was another great seaon and very busy season for Z-Team Racing. We ran in two different divisions at many different tracks. Brad drove, the #7 Jr. Outlaw to a Track Championship at Sugarhill Speedway!! We also competed in the Triple Crown Event where we raced at three different tracks, Sugarhill, Rt 106 and Stafford Motor Speedway where we finished a respectable 4th in the points race. As we stated, we were looking at the 2009 season to become familiar with the Jr. Champ Heavy division with Brad driving the #7 Ultramax Jr. Champ kart primarily at Rt 106 Racepark when the schedule permitted. I think the entire Z-Team Racing team were very surprised and pleased at how well we did, considering the steep learning curve in car set-up and faster driving experience. We didn’t compete in the track points race, but always placed respectable timetrial times and placed in the top 5 on many occassions. We also had the opportunity to race the JuniorChamp at Star Speedway which is a 1/2 mile track which was a blast for Brad. We were running against some much more experienced drivers at that track as they mixed the Senior Division with the Junior division and Brad came home with a second place finish!
2010 proved to be a great learning experience and a very exciting season for Z-Team Racing as we experienced our first Allison Legacy touring division season. We learned a lot of valuable lessons and the whole division comradery was a great experience. It is a big step moving from karts to cars, and we feel we did very well considering we had a blown motor to contend with midway through the season. It was very gratifying, getting to know the other team members within the division and how quickly they all came to offer help with everything from set-up tips to loaning us a spare motor so we could continue racing while our motor was rebuilt. We continued to race the # 7 Junior Champ kart this season, and won two championships, the Twin State Speedway Track Championship and the New England Challenge Championship!!
The 2011 season ended with Brad finishing second in the Jr Champ division at Twin State Speedway and winning the New England Challenge series Championship in Jr. Champ division!! We werent very competitive in the Allison legacy division due to motor problems all season, so we are setting our sites on the 2012 season.