| West Palm Racer Joins Roush Racing's Lucky 25 | By Jack Smith - KARNAC.com
 This week one lucky West Palm Beach dirt racer, turned asphalt phenom, by the name of Jeff Choquette will welcome the Discovery Channel into his home and garage for a few days. This is the beginning of an adventure that could possibly lead to some very big things for this 18 year old rising star.
Todd Kluever, last year's Roush Racing Gong Show winner, is currently 15th in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, the reward for winning the competition. Kluever in a recent interview said, "I always said that last year was hard enough, but this year is going to be harder. Not only are there so many applicants, but also because of the publicity with the Discovery Channel coming on board, there's going to be so many quality contestants there".
Jeff Choquette received the call on July 5 from Roush Racing, informing him of his selection to the elite final 25, out of over 1600 applicants, who will compete for the spot on the Roush team.
Yes, the yearly competition that has landed the likes of Kurt Busch, is getting even harder. Those final 25 chosen by Jack Roush, his crew chiefs and drivers are going to compete for a fully sponsored ride in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series with legendary racer and team owner Jack Roush.
Choquette has gotten a lot of attention from Florida fans since he started winning Super Late Model races. But Jeff has been at the front of the pack, on matter what kind of racing he has been involved in. Born dec. 22 1986 Jeff Choquette would seem almost seem destined to be a top notch racer. After all his grandfather, Jack Choquette, was the 1954 NASCAR Modified Champion and raced at Daytona, on the beach with the likes of Fireball Roberts.
For Jeff it all began when he 8 years old, with his dad and him taking a trip to Hobe Sound, a community just north of their West Palm Beach home, and buying Jeff his first racing machine, a Go-Kart.
 He raced Go-Karts for 4 years, then his dad got him into a mini stock at Thundercross, a dirt track in Central Florida, that is now closed. He won the Jr Mini Stock division title in 2000, his first year in the division.
Next year he moved up to the adult mini stocks and at the age of 13 and won that championship as well. It was during this time Jeff's dad bought a dirt late model and they "practiced in it for a solid year before he would let me race in it, he didn't want to send me out there with grown men and have me crash them or do this or that," Jeff explained.
"Ever since I was in Go-Karts, I was always the youngest one in the class, everything I have raced I have always been the youngest one," Choquette said. This was a trend that was going to continue for a while.
Now 14 years old, Choquette started racing with the Thundercross dirt late model, where success would keep driving the team to new heights. The first year, though a success was a little sketchy at times. "I was always the one who tried to win it on the first lap, try to go to the front right away." Jeff says bluntly. He finished the 2002 year with second place in the points standings.
Choquette then went over to East Bay and raced with their Late Models, "When I first went to East Bay I was terrible, I was bad, no better than a 10th place car." This was about the time the team hooked up with Ron Arrowood, who Jeff gives credit to his success.
"The majority of our success goes to my crew", he said.
"If I didn't have Bob Schick, Johnny Tye, my dad, Ron Arrowood and everybody who works on my car, the money that my dad and and Ron Arrowood puts into it, if I didn't have them you wouldn't even know me, I wouldn't be talking to you right now," Choquette stated matter of factly.
On November 11, 2002 at age 14 Jeff Choquette got his first win at East Bay raceway in the Late Models. He held off serious East Bay veterans Keith Nosbsich, Donnie Tanner, David Schmauss, and Bobby Alexander, Jr. to notch the win.
Winter came and with it the East Bay Raceway Park Winternationals and one of the biggest Dirt Late Model shows in the country. In February 2003, the most unlikely race team, sporting a 15 year old driver, set the second fastest qualifying time out of 86 of the nations' best late model cars. Choquette finished second, ahead of Jimmy Mars, in his qualifying heat race and then blew the engine after the race and had to withdraw.
But the youngster got the attention of the promoters as the next night, he was the promoters choice provisional and after starting 27th, finished 7th picking up the ADVANCE AUTO PARTS Hard Charger Award.
Choquette raced at East Bay most of 2003, dealt with a broken wrist he got while racing at Thundercross, spending nine months with a huge cast. In Feb. 2004 back to the East Bay Winternationals, again making the cut several times and getting an 8th place finish on one of the races.
CHOQUETTE MOVES TO ASPHALT RACING
"Thundercross was always tacky, hooked up fast, with tracks like that on dirt you drive sideways, and when a track starts getting all dusted off, starts getting glazed over and black, the straighter you keep the car, the faster you are going to go." Choquette explained.
"I had grown up three or four years driving sideways, that's just how I knew how to drive," he said.
So Jeff's dad decided to buy an asphalt car in order to get Jeff to be able to drive straighter off the turns on dirt tracks that weren't as tacky as he was used to at Thundercross. It turned out to be Shane Sawyer's car that was going to be machine that would teach Choquette how to drive straight.
This is the same car the youngster eventually would go on take to the Winners Circle in biggest asphalt Florida race of them all, the Florida Governors Cup 200 in 2004.
After doing some testing in the car, and confident after racing against the best dirt drivers in the entire country, the Choquette team started looking for a place to race.
Orlando was picked because of a low car count in their Super Late Model weekly racing. "We had heard at the time they only had five or six cars, then we show up there is nineteen cars and Dicky Anderson is in the field." He started 5th, got involved in a few scrapes and was sent to the rear a few times, and eventually ended up 4th. Not bad for a start, but he was about to get on a roll, few racers ever experience.
Next on the asphalt and the learning to drive straight adventure was DeSoto Speedway. "One night I was back in the pack behind Jimmy Cope, this is how I first learned to pass on asphalt. I followed him all the way up the through the field and we went to the front, it was pretty cool," Jeff details with excitement this learning experience from the one of Florida top veteran drivers.
Jeff's first win in an asphalt shortly after when on Nov 13, 2004 in DeSoto Speedway's Twin 75 lap features, he ended up running 3rd in the first race and winning the second one.
New Smyrna Speedway owner Robert Hart with Jeff Choquette with Governors Cup
The next week he blew everyone away by winning the 39th Annual Governors Cup at New Smyrna Speedway. He won the 200 lap race at the half-monster by grabbing the lead with three laps to go and had to hold off Jacob Warren, Jimmy Cope, Mike Franklin and Mike Cope in a green, white, checker finish. Thousands of race fans were stunned by the aggressive performance of the seventeen year old kid nobody had ever heard of, at least in Florida asphalt circles.
After the big Governors Cup race in late November, perhaps many race fans in the Sunshine had forgotten about the youngster from West Palm. If they did he reminded them in January 2005, when is even more stunning fashion he took home the first place trophy for the Riverfest 300, another tough as nails race at New Smyrna, dreaded by some of Florida better drivers.
Choquette set fast time, started up front, got into a mess trying to pass Anderson off turn four, all of which resulted in Choquette looking at the race from the rear of the field. By lap 70 Choquette was once again tailgating Anderson's number 84 and soon passed him and went onto to win easily.
In February he won the Pete Orr Memorial, taking the lead with 4 laps left from fellow Florida finalist in the Gong Show, Travis Kittleson and also Mike Garvey, now spending his time racing in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup.
Since then the team sponsored by Progressive Racing Engines, C&C Motors and Ron Arrowood has been in contention for every late model show they have appeared in.
When asked about going back to race dirt tracks he said,"I want to, actually I told the guys that own East Bay, I told them I would like to go back and refresh my skills." There is a strong possibility that Jeff will go back to East Bay later this year for some races when that track starts having more Late Model racing.
Usually when asked about favorite driver role model the younger drivers have big name stars they look to. In the case of Jeff Choquette he has Mike Fritts, Florida Sunbelt Super Late Model racer, as a model, "I like how he races, I like how he handles himself, he doesn't try to win the race in the first ten laps, he tries to win the race in the last ten laps".
Jeff is home schooled and works a lot in the garage and helps the team work on the car during the week, trying to learn as much as he can from the crew members.
Running the water with his friends on his Jet Ski is Jeff's favorite activity outside of racing, and a little bit of racing happens there too. But Jeff is clearly all about driving a race car, "If I could go racing somewhere I would rather do that than ride my Jet Ski."
Jeff says he is not nervous about the competition of the Gong Show other than the fact that he may have to race on tracks such as Concord that he is not familiar with, and the other drivers may have a edge over him. He is a fierce competitor, that certainly comes through, but at the same time he is has pleasant, polite and easy-going style about him, as it is with all the Choquette family we have met.
Besides the Roush deal, Jeff plans "to race the Sunbelt Series races, some more DeSoto races and keep what I'm doing, if I don't get picked for the truck ride".
As for the chances of getting the ride, as last year's winner Todd Kluever said "this year is going to be harder".
But even appearing on the show could bring huge rewards for drivers that present their racing talents and public appearances well. In an interview Roush Racing's Geoff Smith alluded to the fact that Roush is actually exposing a lot of talent to their competitors.
He said "...the outcome is such that, by the time we get down to the last six, every single one of those people are going to be capable of driving a race car successfully in competition. So we're going to wind up making some opportunities for some of these people to go elsewhere, and we'll be helping the other owners actually, because the publicity that these finalists will get will make the other race team owners search for sponsorship a little easier as well."
That is a good thing too, because Jack Roush himself has stated, “The turnout has been unprecedented, there is a tremendous amount of talent out there and now it is our job to select the best 25 drivers to audition." Which means being second best could end being just as good as winning, without as much pressure as the winner is certain to have.
Example being Kurt Busch, the 2000 Gong Show winner, won 4 races and the Truck Series Rookie of the Year title that season. Last year he won the coveted NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Championship for Roush Racing. So a driver is expected to succeed in a big way if able to be the last racer standing at the end of the Gong Show, being televised for Discovery Channel, the nations most watched cable channel.
After what we have seen in a short time of Jeff Choquette, we certainly would not discount his chances of success in this adventure one bit.
Have an opinion on this story? Post a message on our Message Board!
<news@karnac.org>or send a letter to the editor!
|
