INDIANAPOLIS, August 31, 2012 – Juan Pablo Garcia and his Jeffrey Mark Motorsport team have had a long late summer break since the last Firestone Indy Lights race in Trois-Rivieres, Canada, but Garcia is chomping at the bit to go back to school this weekend at the Grand Prix of Baltimore.“I enjoyed going home to Mexico to spend time with family and friends and do some karting, but I’m really looking forward to getting back in the 76 car,” Garcia said. “I enjoy being home, but I enjoy being in the car much more.”

Garcia attended the inaugural Grand Prix of Baltimore in 2011 as a spectator and is eager to try his hand at the track.

“Last year I could tell that the track would be really fun to drive,” he said. “It’s going to be very important to learn the track as quickly as possible and simultaneously get up to speed.”

After a stretch of races with finishes that Garcia feels are not representative of his team’s potential, he is ready to turn things around in Baltimore.

“The last three races have been difficult because a lot of the problems the team had were out of our hands,” Garcia said. “Baltimore is our last street course of the year, and my engineer, mechanics and the entire team have been working very hard to get ready for this race. They’ve been working on making the car faster and finding a set-up that will do well on this track.”

Juan Pablo Garcia and Jeffrey Mark Motorsport will take to the Streets of Baltimore for qualifications at 11:05 a.m. ET on Saturday. The 35-lap Firestone Indy Lights race at the Grand Prix of Baltimore presented by SRT will take place on Sunday at 12:42 p.m. ET.

Jeffrey Mark Motorsport (JMM) is in the midst of its inaugural Firestone Indy Lights season with driver Juan Pablo Garcia. Jeffrey Mark, owner of JMM, launched his team with the help of IndyCar veteran Bryan Herta. Herta manages the daily operations of JMM and provides guidance to Jeffrey Mark in his first venture into the INDYCAR paddock.


“Working with Bryan Herta Autosport has been a huge advantage for me as I venture into IndyCar racing. I have several other businesses that take up a lot of my time, so having Bryan running the day to day operations of my race team is the perfect set up. The biggest obstacle for a lot of people who want to get into team ownership in racing is that they don’t know where to begin. Bryan and his team have provided me a perfect path to get started and build my team. There’s a big learning curve in racing, which is why I’ve started in Firestone Indy Lights. My goal is to one day have a car in every rung of the Mazda Road to Indy ladder. There will be a point in time where I want to go out on my own, but right now Bryan and I have the perfect partnership.”