You Tube interview from 5/12/07 Race at Irwindale Speedway
Watch Travis on You Tube
You Tube interview from August 4, 2007
You Tube interview from October 2007
Late Model Digest November 18, 2009
Toyota Speedway in Irwindale Draws Local Ties
“…I didn’t know it was going to be so fast.."
Jeannie Broussal, Sac Union Gearhead Gal - JeannieB@SacUnion.com
Published: July 10, 2008 The Sacramento Union News
Patrolling New Territory
Irwindale marked the first CWW Series race sponsored by the California Highway Patrol. Heather Hoglund, a public affairs officer with the Glendale CHP’s Southern division, explained why they decided to sponsor the race.
“We’re trying to recruit new officers,” she said. “We’re really pushing hard for a lot of new officers because we’re losing so many to retirement and that type of thing. We thought it would be a good way to get our name out there and sponsor a positive thing—racing on a race track and not out on the street.”
The CHP sponsored No. 85 car was driven by Travis Irving in the NASCAR Whelen All American Series Late Model 100 race, which preceded the CWW Series race. Irving finished ninth.
RacingWest.com June 21, 2008
CHP sponsors #85 Car-Travis Irving
IRWINDALE, California – TOYOTA Speedway at Irwindale announced today a sponsor partnership with the California Highway Patrol (CHP) www.chp.ca.gov which includes title sponsorship of the July 4th California Highway Patrol 200 NASCAR Camping World West Series event. The partnership also provides the law enforcement agency with year around branding presence on the Speedway’s oval track and drag strip, career recruitment and community relations activities and the promoting of safe driving messages during marquee oval track events.
“The California Highway Patrol is very excited about our partnership with TOYOTA Speedway at Irwindale,” said Chief Warren A. Stanley, Southern Division Commander of the California Highway Patrol. “Its events, including the July 4th California Highway Patrol 200, provide CHP with a productive environment to promote community relations, career opportunities and convey a very important safe driving message during one of the busiest holiday weekends on the state’s highways.”
In addition to the TOYOTA Speedway at Irwindale sponsorship program, the California Highway Patrol is also sponsoring the Team Yates No. 28 entry and driver Travis Kvapil in the June 20-22 Toyota / Save Mart 350 NASCAR Sprint Cup event at Infineon Raceway, Sonoma, Calif. It is also sponsoring the No. 85 entry driven by Travis Irving in a select number of Auto Club Late Model NASCAR Whelen All-American races at TOYOTA Speedway at Irwindale.
“TOYOTA Speedway at Irwindale has had a great relationship with the California Highway Patrol since we opened in 1999,” said Bob DeFazio, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of TOYOTA Speedway at Irwindale. “We are honored that our facility and the July 4th NASCAR event are important elements of CHP’s community relations program in Southern California.”
Sam Boyd Stadium — Las Vegas, Nevada — November 12, 2006
As a first-time entrant in the TAG Masters class at the SuperNationals, we fielded a “4 stroke rookie” driver in Travis Irving. Steep learning curve is an understatement.Against an intense field of 37 karts, the 21 year-old Long Beach, California driver showed up with zero time on a TopKart fitted with one of our Biland SA250s. Our owner Brad Linkus adjusted the setup, and Irving vaulted to the #2 grid position. The fastest racers in the U.S. with Parilla, Leopard, Rotax, Sonik, Motori, and ROK engines could only sit back and watch our Biland disappear to the checkered.“The Biland is the best engine package I’ve ever used, and is unbelievably strong and reliable. I’d recommend one to absolutely anyone, even my best friend. But I couldn’t have done this without Brad Linkus’ help, so my Thanks go out to him.”Travis Irving has an enviable on-track record that most karters can’t envision in their dreams. With 3 IKF national championships, 2 SKUSA titles, and 9 California State Championships, this kid is going places—fast. Visit him at www.TravisIrving.com. On behalf of Biland and everyone here at engines4racing, Congratulations, Travis!
North American Importer & Distributor for Aixro - Biland - Oral - TKM - Vampire - More . . .303. 833. 0474Art,Text©EricWunrow.comFor Immediate Release
ekarting News June 14, 2006
Driver News: Travis Irving
This time aboard the factory TopKart Flash, currently owned by Grant Hebner, Travis Irving participated at the LAKC race at CalSpeed in Fontana, CA in the Rotax Masters class. After a strong win at Willow Springs, Irving’s sights were set for another.
“It has been a long time since I have had the opportunity to do this much racing and I am fortunate that Grant and his dad are cool enough to let me do this” said Irving.
With expectations set high, Travis qualified 3rd but then was put to the back of the field after missing the driver’s meeting. This could have been a fatal mistake for Travis but with help of his TopKart chassis, he made his way from the tail end of the field to finish 2nd just behind Mike Mautner, the same Mautner that Irving battled it out with at the Gatorz race.
The main was a close one with Irving taking the lead on the start and with Mautner at his heels the whole time, this left Irving with no room for error. Consistency and chassis preparation allowed Irving to take another win with Mautner never letting up.
“I really miss this kind of competition. Mike (Mautner) really gave me a run for money and I had to be absolutely focused which the TopKart Flash chassis allowed me to do so. With out the help and support of Grand Products, Bridgestone, 2Wild Karting, and Grant Hebner I would not have even been able to enter this race so I definitely owe this win to them for everything the do for me.”
Go Racing Magazine June 6, 2006
Gatorz Eyewear Golden State Karting Cup Event
Orange, CA - Attack of the Intruders
An eventful heat race would see Gatorz Cup czar Andy Seesemann jump from his fifth starting spot to third, as Irving made a real mess of the start, dropping to eighth in his borrowed CRG. It took Seesemann three laps to get past Whitley; all the while, Mautner held his lead to around a half second over Seesemann at the end, with Whitley finishing third. Irving worked his way back to fourth in a scant three laps and held the position until the end.
Travis Irving on his way to the Rotax Masters win, leads Andy Seesemann and Mike Mautner (photo: Sean Buur, www.goracingmagazine.com ) Seesemann jumped Mautner at the start of the Final, with Irving pulling off a similar move on Whitley to move to third. Irving then made short work of Mautner, who fell to third, his worst position of the weekend. It took Irving three laps of sitting on Seesemann to pull off the pass for the lead, which he did on the fifth go-round. He simply sailed off into the distance, but Seesemann fell back into the clutches of Mautner, who was no doubt taunting him under his helmet. Mautner got by Seesemann on the thirteenth lap, but Seesemann was not out of the woods yet, coming under heavy pressure from Whitley. He would succumb to Whitley with five laps remaining in the race, promoting Whitley to the final step of the podium. Irving finished the race five seconds ahead of the battle for second, with Mautner, Whitley, and Seesemann finishing in that order.
ekarting News May 31, 2006
Driver News: Travis Irving - Gatorz
Travis Irving at the 2005 IKF Sprint Grand Nationals
This past weekend, Travis Irving piloted a CRG Havana owned by his customer Gary Pesner and entered the Rotax Masters class at the Gatorz race held at Willow Springs, CA. “He had a spare car completely race ready just sitting there and I didn’t want a perfectly clean and ready car to go to waste.” Travis said as he was getting his stuff on for the morning session.
After a fairly decent qualifying, Travis started fourth for the heat race but got a poor start and ended up ninth by turn three. After lot of hard work he maneuvered to fourth again on the heels of third place but lost the draft and finished a solid fourth in the heat.
“The car was ok but I had to push so hard to get to the front with the way the track was getting greasy it just a tick tight and Rotax motors really don’t like tight cars” stated Travis.
The main event was a completely different story with a good start putting him into third behind Andy Seesemann and Mike Mautner. Andy moved to the lead on lap 2 and Travis squeezed into the second position two laps later and then put all focus on breaking the draft with Andy. He and Andy had a slight lead and after one try on the inside Travis made the pass happen in turn 8 and then proceeded with ease to put together 22 laps within 0.1 of a second which gave him a substantial lead and allowed him to take the checkered.
“I don’t think I have ever driven a car so consistent through the whole race like that. All I had to do was not make a mistake and the car did the rest. It is nice competing where I am not so over the minimum weight. The Gatorz series has done great job making a fun event to come race at and I loved racing with Andy and Mike. Andy has been a long time friend and it was great to race with these guys and look forward to do it again, soon hopefully.”
Travis Irving would like to thank all the people that allowed this to happen:
Gary and Jeff Pesner, Grant Hebner (working on it when I had to work on Jeff’s car), The Weiss Family (for giving me gas), Gatorz and Andy Seesman (for a great series and great racing) Grand Products, Rhod and Wayne @ 2Wild Karting (help and support for everything) and everyone that helped me work and race at the same time.
ekarting News November 21, 2005
Travis Irving Joins IKF Region 7 Sprint Staff
International Kart Federation Region 7 Coordinator Don St. Ours today announced the creation of a new position within the Southwestern Super Series staff. Travis Irving of Corona, CA has accepted the position of Senior Class Advisor to St. Ours.
As a multiple Duffy winner, and a well-known karter in the Region 7 program, Irving knows the class structures and the issues that face those that compete in the Senior classes. It is this knowledge that makes him an important part of the staff structure for one of the largest sprint kart racing series in the United States.
Any senior class competitor or supporter who competes in the Southwestern Super Series can contact Irving with their concerns at RKS85@aol.com
Phoenix , Ariz. , April 4, 2004
Mike Forest Racing
A pair of intensely fought SCCA-sanctioned races on the combined oval/road course at Phoenix International Raceway saw Bobby Oergel's PR1 Motorsports team maintain its dominance in the See Ya Motorhomes Pacific F2000 Series. This time, however, in the absence of gifted youngsters Wade Van Hooser and Joel Miller, who did not meet the SCCA's minimum age requirement of 16, Canadian Mike Forest and American Brad Jaeger stepped up to the plate to claim one victory apiece.
Saturday's opener saw 62-year-old series administrator Les Phillips claim a surprise pole in his newly built Mygale chassis. Jaeger, who had scored his maiden win in the most recent race at Las Vegas, was a scant 0.008s slower in his Van Diemen as the top seven contenders were all blanketed by less than a half-second.
The action began right away as Jaeger used his youthful aggression to good effect by sneaking past Phillips going into Turn One. Behind, there was a virtual traffic jam as third-fastest qualifier Forest found himself ambushed by John Lombardo Jr. and Bruce Binnquist, who both made excellent getaways from fourth and fifth on the grid, respectively.
Jaeger took advantage of his initial jump to put some space between himself and his pursuers in the early laps. Forest , meanwhile, managed to squeeze back into third place at the exit of Turn One and soon began to put pressure on Phillips for second. On lap four, Forest made his move under braking for Turn One.
By now the man on the move was 18-year-old Travis Irving, who was thoroughly enjoying his first car race in over three years and had lost no time at all in getting up to speed in one of Dave Freitas Racing's Van Diemens. Irving had proven fastest of all in testing on Friday, held in wet conditions, only for an electrical gremlin to cost him valuable track time in qualifying which restricted him to an unrepresentative seventh on the grid. Irving actually lost a couple of positions in the first-corner bottleneck but quickly worked his way forward and eventually snuck past Phillips for third.
Irving turned up the wick dramatically in the closing stages and ended up just over one second adrift of Jaeger at the checkered flag in third place.
"Two more laps and we'd have had ‘em," reckoned Irving .
The grid for Race Two on Sunday saw Jaeger on the pole ahead of Binnquist, Irving, Salvo, Forest and Peller – all six separated by less than six-tenths of a second.
The only time Jaeger was seriously challenged was immediately following a brief full-course caution, when Binnquist and Irving simultaneously made a bid for the lead going into Turn One. The trio briefly ran three abreast before settling into their previous order. Binnquist never got quite so close Jaeger again but still finished an excellent second, leaving Irving to fall into the clutches of Forest , who finally made a successful bid for second place coming onto the main straightaway.
"It was still a great weekend," said Irving after finishing fourth. "I had a blast and I have to say thank you to McGuire Builders, Grand Products and Dave Freitas for making this possible for me. I hope I can pull something together and do this again."
Results:
Race 1. Mike Forest (Van Diemen RF03 Zetec), 30 laps in 33m35.879s, 80.898mph; 2. Brad Jaeger (Van Diemen RF02 Zetec), +0.265s; 3. Travis Irving (Van Diemen RF01 Zetec); 4. Les Phillips (Mygale SJ01 Zetec); 5. John Gluckin (Van Diemen RF01 Zetec); 6. John Lombardo Jr. (Van Diemen RF03 Zetec); 7. Mark Peller (Van Diemen RF01 Pinto); 8. Tom Hope (Van Diemen RF98 Pinto); 9. Mike Rodney (Van Diemen RF01 Zetec); 10. Jim Bryant (Van Diemen Pinto); 11. Fiorenzo Tirinnanzi (Van Diemen RF03 Zetec); 12. Al Salvo (Van Diemen RF03 Zetec); 13. Carl Scott (Van Diemen RF96 Pinto); 14.Dwight Rider (Van Diemen RF02 Zetec), 29 laps; 15 Bruce Binnquist (Van Diemen RF03 Zetec), 28 laps; 16 Jeffry Mann (Van Diemen RF98 Pinto), 11 laps, not running; 17. Douglas Da Costa (Van Diemen RF01 Pinto), 8 laps, not running; 18 Gary Peterson (Crossle 71F Pinto), 3 laps, not running. Fastest lap: Forest , 1m00.854s, 89.329mph (establishes record).
Formula Racer-One Stop Formula News
www.formularacer.com/f2000/irv
Published on: 5/16/2003
After capturing his second career Formula Ford 2000 podium, and first of this year, at Sebring last month, PR1 Motorsports' Travis Irving comes to Mosport International Raceway as a favorite to win this weekend's race as well as challenge for the 2002 FF2000 Zetec Championship title.
This weekend's race, the featured support event of the Victoria Day Trans-Am Weekend, marks the third and fourth rounds of the 13-race 2002 Formula Ford 2000 Zetec Championship series. Last month, Irving qualified second and captured his first podium of the year by virtue of finishing third in the season-opening round at the Sebring double-header. He finished seventh in the second race, putting him second in the Greg Moore Rookie of the Year points standings and fourth overall in the Zetec Championship.
"Sebring was a good start to the season for us," said Irving, who is making his first professional race appearance at Mosport this weekend.
...
Irving, 17, of Chino Hills, California, is no stranger to race victories or championship titles. His career began nearly ten years ago on the Southern California kart racing circuit. He captured his first championship in only his second year and began a stellar rise through the karting ranks. His resume includes numerous championships including California State, IKF Grand National and SKUSA titles, including the 2000 SKUSA World Championship Series and the SKUSA World Finals Championship race.
Irving's transition to full-size race cars has proven to be just as successful, as he literally dominated the 2001 Formula Ford Winter Series by winning both events in his first-ever appearance. He also was selected as a finalist for the 2001 Team USA Scholarship.
Mosport: Travis Irving qualifying report Racing series US-FF2000
05-18-02
PR1's Travis Irving seeks Mosport Formula Ford 2000 win.
Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada (May 16, 2002) - After capturing his second career Formula Ford 2000 podium, and first of this year, at Sebring last month, PR1 Motorsports' Travis Irving comes to Mosport International Raceway as a favorite to win this weekend's race as well as challenge for the 2002 FF2000 Zetec Championship title.
This weekend's race, the featured support event of the Victoria Day Trans-Am Weekend, marks the third and fourth rounds of the 13-race 2002 Formula Ford 2000 Zetec Championship series. Last month, Irving qualified second and captured his first podium of the year by virtue of finishing third in the season-opening round at the Sebring double-header. He finished seventh in the second race, putting him second in the Greg Moore Rookie of the Year points standings and fourth overall in the Zetec Championship.
"Sebring was a good start to the season for us," said Irving, who is making his first professional race appearance at Mosport this weekend. "We're hoping for more good things for us this weekend and should be in good shape for both races. We ran the local club race here last weekend, which was my first time at this track. There's a lot of fast, sweeping corners, so there really isn't much room for error. But, I like it. We were on the front row last weekend, and hopefully we can take what we learned and build on it over the next few days."
Irving, 17, of Chino Hills, California, is no stranger to race victories or championship titles. His career began nearly ten years ago on the Southern California kart racing circuit. He captured his first championship in only his second year and began a stellar rise through the karting ranks. His resume includes numerous championships including California State, IKF Grand National and SKUSA titles, including the 2000 SKUSA World Championship Series and the SKUSA World Finals Championship race.
Irving's transition to full-size race cars has proven to be just as successful, as he literally dominated the 2001 Formula Ford Winter Series by winning both events in his first-ever appearance. He also was selected as a finalist for the 2001 Team USA Scholarship.
PR1 Motorsports, based in Fresno, California, is headed by longtime karting stalwart Bobby Oergel. Considered to be one of North America's all-time leading kart racers, Oergel's unique approach to team management centers on driver development and coaching, as well as race car set-up and engineering. PR1's driver-centered program focuses on helping aspiring racers to make the transition from successful karting careers to full-size cars through the use of Van Diemen Formula Ford race cars.
This weekend's FF2000 Zetec Championship schedule begins with the first official practice session at 9:10 am on Friday, May 17, followed by qualifying for the first race at 1:40 pm and qualifying for the second race at 4:50 pm. The first race takes place at 4:45 pm on Saturday, May 18, while the second race is scheduled for Sunday at 10:00am. Both races are 20 laps on Mosport's 2.459-mile road course.
US F2000 June 12, 2001
In his first-ever U.S. F2000 race, Irving drove like a seasoned veteran. At the start, Irving passed Jason LaPoint to move into second place. Following the lap five restart, Irving lost the position to Bell, put stayed in contact with the leaders. As the lead duo began to pull away, Irving, driving the No. 85 Great Central transport/Primus Racing West Van Diemen Ford, held off a hard charging Billy Asaro. At the checkered flag Irving had captured a podium finish in his first-ever start.
“Finishing on the podium in my first pro race is awesome,” said Irving. “My crew chief told me these guys are the best, and to see him so happy after the race is special. Maybe tomorrow I can do even better.”
