Arie Luyendyk Jr. (; born September 18, 1981) is a Dutch-born American auto racing driver and son of two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Arie Luyendyk. He has competed mostly in North America where his father lives and made his career. Luyendyk is best known for competing in the Indy Lights Series where he finished 2nd, 3rd and 4th in the Championship over a number of years. He was named a test-driver in A1 Grand Prix alongside Jeroen Bleekemolen for A1 Team The Netherlands starting the 2007-08 season.
Luyendyk has competed in various sports-car series competing in the 12 Hours of Sebring and the 24 Hours of Daytona.
He was a contestant on ABC's dating competition The Bachelorette season 8 in 2012, where he placed first runner-up, and stars in the 22nd season of its companion show The Bachelor, which premiered on January 1, 2018.
Video Arie Luyendyk Jr.
Early life
Luyendyk was born in The Netherlands, to Arie and Mieke Luyendyk. At age 3, he immigrated with his family, including sister Maida, to the United States and settled in Brookfield, Wisconsin. Luyendyk has two younger twin brothers, Alec and Luca.
Maps Arie Luyendyk Jr.
Career
Luyendyk began racing karts in 1992, and moved to Sports Car Club of America club Formula Ford competition six years later at the age of 16. He raced in a number of American junior formulae, notching wins in the Skip Barber Formula Dodge series and top five finishes the U.S. Formula Ford 2000 Championship. In 2001, Luyendyk finished third in the Formula Continental class at the SCCA National Championship Runoffs as well as winning the SCCA Southern Pacific divisional title on the strength of four wins in that same class.
He competed full-time in the first three seasons of the Indy Racing League's Indy Pro Series (now known as Firestone Indy Lights), beginning in 2002. In his Firestone Indy Lights career, Luyendyk has 1 victory, four pole positions and 24 top-5 finishes. Luyendyk finished second in the Firestone Indy Lights Championship in 2002, third in 2004, and fourth in 2008.
In 2005, Luyendyk attempted to make his IndyCar Series debut by qualifying for the 2005 Indianapolis 500 in a car owned by Curb-Agajanian/Beck Motorsports. However, with limited track time and a car that never handled properly, Luyendyk's qualifying speed of 215.039 mph (346.072 km/h) was close to 2 mph (3.2 km/h) slower than the next slowest qualifier at the time. A. J. Foyt hired driver Felipe Giaffone to qualify a third car for him, and Giaffone's 217.645 mph (350.266 km/h) four-lap average bumped Luyendyk from the field.
Luyendyk did qualify for the 2006 Indianapolis 500 in a car owned by his father and backed by cheapcaribbean.com and Blue Star Jets. The team had limited practice time due to a second week engine program. However, his first race in the more powerful cars ended early due to handling issues, with Luyendyk finishing 54 laps out of 200 and ending in 28th place in the field of 33.
In the 2007-08 A1 Grand Prix season, Luyendyk drove for A1 Team Netherlands in the A1 Grand Prix World Cup of Motorsport as the team's "rookie driver". His best result was a fifth place training time at Round 5 held in Taupo, New Zealand. He has returned to the Firestone Indy Lights Series to race for AGR-AFS Racing as the teammate to Raphael Matos. He captured his first series win in the final race of the 2008 season at Chicagoland Speedway by passing Matos on a late race restart. Luyendyk would finish the 2008 season fourth in the Championship, recording five podium finishes.
In 2010 he returned part-time to Indy Lights and drove in the Freedom 100 for Andersen Racing and three other oval races for Alliance Motorsports. His best finish was seventh at Chicagoland.
In 2013 Luyendyk made the switch to off-road racing in the Stadium Super Trucks series, finishing seventh in points. In his partial season Luyendyk notched a heat win and three 4th-place finishes in seven starts.
Luyendyk finished the season driving in the Traxxas TORC Series with Aero Motorsports backed by Ethika and Cooper Tires. In Luyendyk's TORC debut he finished fourth at Crandon International Off-Road Raceway driving in the Pro Light class. On November 18, 2013 Luyendyk completed a test with Dale Coyne Racing in the DW12 IndyCar. Luyendyk ran 138 laps.
Outside racing
In 2009, Luyendyk became the driver analyst for Versus broadcasts of Indy Lights races. In 2012 Luyendyk returned to the booth, commentating the Indy Lights races for the NBC Sports Network. He appeared as himself in season nine of Hell's Kitchen. The chefs visited the Grand Prix of Long Beach in which Luyendyk was participating.
Luyendyk placed second on the eighth season of the reality show The Bachelorette, starring Emily Maynard.
Luyendyk appeared in the first episode of the 17th season of The Bachelor. Luyendyk also competed on Wipeout: Summer Episode 7: "Bachelors vs. Bachelorettes", where he was eliminated early.
Luyendyk currently works as a real estate broker for RE/MAX in Scottsdale, Arizona.
In 2017, it was announced that Luyendyk would appear in 2018 as the 22nd Bachelor.
Racing record
SCCA National Championship Runoffs
American open-wheel racing
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)
Indy Lights
IndyCar
Indianapolis 500
Complete A1 Grand Prix results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
References
External links
- Official website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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