Pro Mazda – Brabham Signs With Andretti Autosport for 2013

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The 2012 Copper Tires Presents the USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda Championship Class champion (that’s a lot of championing!), Matthew “Matty Brabs” Brabham, has signed with Andretti Autosport to drive the #27 machine in the 2013 Cooper Tires Presents the Pro Mazda Championship. In 2012, Brabham raced Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing’s #83 Van Diemen in the USF2000 Championship Class, narrowly beating out his teammate, Spencer Pigot, by only seven points.

2012 was Brabham’s first season of racing in the United States after starting his career back in 2001 racing karts in his home country of Australia. Success came quickly as he transitioned through the various karting ranks, winning his first championship in 2004 taking the New South Wales State Championship. In 2007, he was Rookie of the Year in the Queensland State regional junior kart series, taking the championship in 2008 as well as showing well in other regional series.

Car racing for Matty Brabs started in 2009 racing Formula Fords first in the Formula Ford Fiesta series then in the Australian Formula Ford Championship. 2010 was a struggle with a midpack team, CAMS Rising Stars, but in 2011, Brabham returned to the podium with the top-tier team Sonic Motor Racing Services.

Lesson learned! When he sought to come race in the United States as part of the Mazda Road to Indy program, he signed onto one of the best outfits in USF2000, Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing. That decision placed him in a position to fight for the series championship, a fight he would win. Now, with the Mazda scholarship in hand, Brabham has signed on with another strong team for 2013, Andretti Autosport.

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“I am so excited to be driving for the Andretti Autosport team in the 2013 Pro Mazda Championship. It was fantastic to drive for the team at the Indy test, and get a feel for how they operate. They are really professional and seem like a great bunch of guys to work with. The Pro Mazda had more power than the USF2000 car, so it was lots of fun to drive and gave me a good understanding of what to expect next season.

“I cannot wait to get next year’s season underway. I can’t thank the Mazda Road to Indy Scholarship program enough for giving me the opportunity to move up into this class. Andretti Autosport is really experienced in multiple avenues of racing, and has tremendous resources and knowledge. It is quite an honor to be a part of such a prestigious team.

“I’m really looking forward to progressing through the Mazda Road to Indy ranks, all the way to Indy cars. Driving for Andretti Autosport certainly gives me that chance, now it is up to me to make this opportunity count.”– Matthew Brabham, #27 Andretti Autosport.

Brabham joins fellow USF2000 graduate Shelby Blackstock who drove for Andretti Autosport in USF2000 Championship class last season. It’s great to see the Mazda Road to Indy program working as we all had hoped, offering opportunities for talented young drivers to hone their racecraft and progress upwards through the ladder system on their way to the IZOD IndyCar Series. We wish Brabham the best of luck in 2013 and offer the reminder that the competition will get more and more fierce. Andretti Autosport is a great team, but so are Team Pelfrey, Juncos Racing, and JDC MotorSports!

Learn more about Matthew Brabham on his website, http://matthewbrabham.com/, and follow him on Twitter @MattyBrabs.

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