Alexander Searle is already on the right track, literally and figuratively, to achieving his dream career. The South Plantation High School honor student began his quest to get into the extremely competitive field of auto racing. The over-zealous sophomore suited up and started his engine on the infamous Indianapolis Motor Speedway this past summer.
Most boys love playing with cars when they are little. Some may even say they want to be a race car driver when they “grow up”, and over time lose interest and desire something else. But, Searle has never outgrown his choice career of becoming a race car driver.
“From the time he could walk, there wasn’t a photograph of him without a car in his hands,” exclaimed his stepfather Rick Strunck. “Now, at the age of 14, he has taken that dream to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to test his skills against some of the best kart drivers in the United States, England, Australia, and New Zealand.”
The weekend in Indiana drew over 350 drivers, and Searle was racing in the Briggs 206 Junior Class where he fought his way to a 5th place finish qualifying on the first day. He parlayed that result into a 2nd place finish in the heat race on the following day, coming in just .087 of a second behind the leader. The final 14-lap race ended with Searle crossing the finish line in 3rd place; .364 of a second behind the lead kart. This was not the position he was striving for, but certainly one which proved he is becoming a driver to be watched after only 9 months of competitive racing.
“When I was three years old, I went to Homestead Miami Speedway with my dad. The F1 cars were out on track and when they came out of the last corner, you could hear the roar of the V12 engines as they got closer. My dad thought I was going to be scared as the engines were very loud and it seemed like the whole world was echoing. The thing was, I wasn’t scared. In fact, I was mesmerized, and I knew that racing was what I wanted to do,” exclaimed Searle.
In the past year, Searle has raced on tracks in Homestead, Inverness, Ocala and Jacksonville, Florida, as well as tracks in North Carolina and Chicago, Illinois and now Indianapolis, Indiana. He was also chosen to be a factory driver for MGM Chassis and he has just been selected as one of thirty go-kart drivers from around the world to participate in the “2018 Cooper Tires Karting Scholarship Shootout” in December.
Despite all the traveling, the conscientious student manages to maintain a grade point average of 3.5 which will certainly get him to the finish line.