Meet The IAC: Juncos Hollinger Racing
Juncos Hollinger Racing, a championship-winning racing team, provides vehicle assembly, service, and maintenance for the Dallara AV-21 racecars. Working closely with the IAC university teams throughout the racecar assembly process, Juncos has also been a strong mentor to the IAC teams, providing counsel and advice. Current and former Juncos Hollinger Racing drivers are supporting the participating IAC team competitors with first-hand knowledge of their on-track experiences with the Dallara AV-21.
Born into the Argentinian racing culture, Ricardo Juncos, founder and president, began working as a mechanic anywhere he got the chance — often as a pastime with friends, working on their racecars.
While committed to learning the car and its mechanics, his true goal was to be a driver. This commitment and dedication paid off when Ricardo began racing in the Formula Renault Series at 22 years old. Ricard established Juncos Racing in 1997 in Argentina, moved to Miami, FL in 2001 and this year merged to create Juncos Hollinger Racing at their home in Speedway, Indiana. He is both an engineer and a driver and his advice to the IAC team has been very valuable. Ricardo Juncos spoke with The Leaderboard about the work his team is providing to the university teams and why he was compelled to support the IAC.
Why did Juncos Hollinger Racing want to participate in the IAC?
Juncos Hollinger Racing decided to participate in the IAC because at the beginning of 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, we decided to also open an esports team for Juncos-Hollinger Racing. My mind started to turn in the direction of new technologies in motorsports because I used to be more traditional in the sport. It was a new way to apply massive technology because nothing like this has been done before, and I like to be a pioneer of sorts in the field, especially something like this. I heard about the project without knowing too many details about what we would get into, but today we are delighted to be involved. I felt this was the right opportunity for me to jump into. Now we are lucky to be a part of something exceptional.
Describe what Juncos Hollinger Racing is providing and why this is important for the competition?
Juncos Hollinger Racing is building 10 identical cars that are 100% the same. We make sure everyone will be racing with the same equipment, even if the parts are brand new. For example, the gearboxes, we open each one up, check the standards, and make sure each gearbox is the same as the others. We choose a setup and weight for the Dallara AV-21 racecars and make sure the 10 cars participating in the race will have it the same way. We want to make sure this competition is as fair as possible for each university. The only difference is the software that the students are creating.
We can contribute a lot of experience from the Indy Lights Series. Our team started racing in 2015, and has won two championships since. The other three years, we have been extremely close to winning the championship. We understand the Dallara racecar from the inside out. I also think we have a nice shop near the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where the IAC competition will take place in October. I think we can give a lot, not only car-wise but convenience- and logistic-wise. We also take care of the track activities since we transport the racecars to the track, supply mechanic service, and assist in running any on-track activity in a series director manner.
What advice would you give to participating teams?
We are treating each IAC racecar as if it were a commercial car that would have a human driver in it. I think each university will have to think of it in the same way. It can be really eye-opening to realize that they need to think how a true driver would think and what a human would do with driving the car to better program their software. While these university teams may not have racing experience, they are extremely smart and talented students, so we can give them advice in many different ways. It is also a tremendous experience for these students. The more we can keep doing this, the more we, as Juncos Hollinger Racing, can learn about the technology, and the more the students will learn about racecars with drivers.