Arie Luyendyk Jr.

Arie Luyendyk Jr.
Arie Luyendyk Jr.
Nationality	Dutch
Born	(1981-09-18) 18 September 1981 Den Bosch
Related to	Arie Luyendyk (father)
Firestone Indy Lights Series
Years active	2002–2008, 2010
Teams	Luyendyk Racing Sam Schmidt Motorsports Brian Stewart Racing Guthrie Racing AGR-AFS Racing Andersen Racing Alliance Motorsports
Starts	66
Wins	1
Poles	4
Best finish	2nd in 2002
Previous series
2007–2008 2006 2001	A1 Grand Prix (rookie driver) IndyCar Series SCCA Formula Continental
Medal record Representing  United States Summer X Games 2015 Austin Stadium Super Trucks

Arie Luyendyk Jr. (born 18 September 1981, 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands) is an auto racing driver and son of two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Arie Luyendyk and resides in Scottsdale, Arizona. Despite his European birth, the most of his adult racing career has taken place 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.^[1]

Luyendyk has competed in various sports-car series competing in the 12 Hours of Sebring and the 24 Hours of Daytona. More recently he was seen on ABC's The Bachelorette season 8, where he placed first runner-up and is represented by BRANDed, and on Wipeout: Summer Episode 7: "Bachelors vs. Bachelorettes".

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 4 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. He was voted IPS "Most Popular Driver" four years in a row from 2003-06. Luyendyk finished second in the Firestone Indy Lights Championship in 2002, third in 2004, and fourth in 2008.

Luyendyk driving an Indy Lights car on the Streets of St. Petersburg in 2005

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 scoring a 28th-place finish.

Luyendyk practicing for the 2008 Firestone Freedom 100

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 5 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.

Pro Light TORC truck at Crandon

In 2013 Luyendyk made the switch to off-road racing in the Stadium Super Trucks series,^[2] finishing seventh in points. In his partial season Luyendyk notched a heat win and three 4th-place finishes in 7 starts.

Luyendyk finished out 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 18 November 2013 Luyendyk completed a test with Dale Coyne Racing in the DW12 IndyCar. Luyendyk ran 138 laps and planned to compete in the IndyCar Series in 2014.

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 Long Beach Grand Prix in which Luyendyk was participating.

Luyendyk placed second on the eighth season of the reality show The Bachelorette in which he was trying to win the heart of bachelorette, Emily Maynard. Maynard sent Luyendyk home early during the season finale before accepting a proposal from one of Luyendyk's friends, Jef Holm.

Luyendyk appeared in the first episode of the seventeenth season of The Bachelor when he visited "Bachelor Pad" after having a talk with fellow Bachelorette competitor and friend Sean Lowe prior to meeting with that season's contestants. Luyendyk also competed on Wipeout: Summer Episode 7: "Bachelors vs. Bachelorettes", but was eliminated early.

Racing record

SCCA National Championship Runoffs

American open-wheel racing

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Indy Lights

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Rank	Points
2002	Luyendyk Racing	KAN 10	NSH 2	MIS 2	KTY 6	STL 2	CHI 2	TXS 7										2nd	236
2003	Sinden Racing	HMS 4	PHX 10	INDY 15	PPIR 3	KAN 12	NSH 9	MIS 11	STL 3	KTY 4	CHI 4	FON 10	TXS 13					7th	299
2004	Sam Schmidt Motorsports	HMS 9	PHX 2	INDY 3	KAN 7	NSH 11	MIL 9	MIS 8										3rd	330
	AFS Racing								KTY 4	PPIR 5	CHI 4	FON 14	TXS 4
2005	AFS Racing	HMS	PHX 4	STP 5	INDY										FON 6			11th	228
	Brian Stewart Racing					TXS 10	IMS 6	NSH 8	MIL 7	KTY 10	PPIR 10	SNM	CHI	WGL
2006	AFS Racing	HMS 4	STP1 DNS	STP2	INDY	WGL 11	IMS	NSH 11	MIL	KTY	SNM1	SNM2	CHI 6					15th	105
2007	Guthrie Racing	HMS	STP1	STP2	INDY	MIL	IMS1	IMS2	IOW	WGL1 17	WGL2 22	NSH	MDO	KTY	SNM1	SNM2	CHI	35th	21
2008	AGR-AFS Racing	HMS 4	STP1 6	STP2 22	KAN 3	INDY 14	MIL 8	IOW 2	WGL1 7	WGL2 7	NSH 3	MDO1 8	MDO2 11	KTY 3	SNM1 17	SNM2 16	CHI 1	4th	428
2010	Andersen Racing	STP	ALA	LBH	INDY 14	IOW	WGL	TOR	EDM	MDO	SNM							17th	82
	Alliance Motorsports											CHI 7	KTY 9	HMS 12

IndyCar

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Rank	Points
2005	CURB/Agajanian/Beck Motorsports	HMS	PHX	STP	MOT	INDY DNQ	TXS	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIL	MIS	KTY	PPIR	SNM	CHI	WGL	FON	NC	–
2006	Luyendyk Racing	HMS	STP	MOT	INDY 28	WGL	TXS	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIL	MIS	KTY	SNM	CHI				36th	10

Indianapolis 500

Complete A1 Grand Prix results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Arie Luyendyk, Jr..

• Official website
• Arie Luyendyk Jr. on Facebook
• Arie Luyendyk Jr. on Twitter