Latest racing prodigy residing in Lake Country

Jan. 21—Jake Garcia will have to wait a year before he can officially take part in the top weekend of auto racing. There's a little technicality involving his date of birth and NASCAR rules about who can burn rubber around a certain length of track.

The other 22 races of the Craftsman Truck Series in 2023 ... get ready for a new contender.

Taking high-speed vehicles around various tracks since the age of 5, Jake Garcia, 17 when the calendar turned to 2023, has a taste of what it's like in the big leagues. He now has a full-time ride in NASCAR's third series with MHR (McAnally Hilgemann Racing) in the Chevrolet Silverado truck #35.

What Garcia's going to miss is the NextEra Energy 250 Feb. 17 at the Daytona International Speedway, which will be televised on FS1. But March 3 is a much more special day. Not only does he turn 18, but he will be fully eligible for the Victoria's Voice Foundation 200 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, also on FS1 with coverage beginning at 9 p.m. eastern time.

From there, Garcia will go to Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 18, and the season includes other legendary tracks like Bristol, Martinsville, Darlington, Charlotte and Pocono.

A native of Gwinnett County, Garcia now resides in the Cuscowilla community in northern Putnam County and attends Athens Academy. Yes, he will be mixing in completing his senior year with the racing schedule, something he's grown used to for quite a few years.

"I got into full size stock cars when I was 13," said Garcia during a telephone interview with The Union-Recorder. "I raced short track stock cars for a while. Last year, I had the opportunity to run a few truck series races for Bill McAnally and the Hilgemanns. This year I have the opportunity to run full time."

Going back to 2019, Garcia won two Pro Late Model races on dirt tracks. In 2020, he was the Rookie of the Year for the Southern Super Series with three Pro Late Model wins in Montgomery. Over the last two years, Garcia won the Southern Super Series Championship, the youngest ever to do sowith nine more wins, and he made five Camping World Truck Series starts on short tracks. (The truck series title sponsor went from Camping World to Craftsman in 2023).

"When I was little, I really liked watching NASCAR races, playing with Hot Wheels cars," said Garcia. "My dad bought me a go-kart, and we raced it. I ended up being good and got good opportunities with really great sponsors."

Must have the sponsors, for that's his own Name, Image, Likeness deal.

Garcia's first competitive racing experiences were in USAC quarter midgets, which is a go-kart with a roll cage. He spent a year with full size midget cars at the age of 12. The full size ones race on 3/8 tracks and reach speeds of 110 miles per hour.

"That's a pretty good jump in speed from go-karts," said Garcia. "I raced those just to get acclimated to the speed differences. I started racing Pro and Super Late Models. That's when you're racing real big cars on bigger tracks."

NASCAR has its main Cup series, the Xfinity Series and then the Craftsman Trucks. Garcia said he was happy to get the opportunity with the Trucks and MHR.

"It's a dream to race a full season of something NASCAR," he said. "You're racing on the biggest ovals in America. We'll race on mile and a half tracks, two and a half mile tracks. It's really high speed. Before trucks, the biggest thing I raced on was three quarters of a mile. There'll be some short track races in the Truck series this year. There's a little less of a learning curve with those. The bigger superspeedways is what I'm going to have to focus on this year."

The age rule affecting Garcia at Daytona is that one must be 18 to race on anything over one mile and a quarter. The March 3 race in Las Vegas will be his first on the mile and a half track.

"It will be a big learning curve," said Garcia. "I think we only get 20 minutes of practice. I've never been on something that big before. I'm going to have to get my feet wet in those 20 minutes. That way I can perform well in qualifying."

While most of Garcia's success has been in the southeastern United States (Georgia and Alabama in particular), he has gone all over the country in his career.

"I've been to I think 40 states, most of those are because of my racing career," he said. "It's good to see America. Sometimes you get to spend an extra day or two where you're at to see some of the things that are around."

Back at home, maybe the student body of Athens Academy is getting a lesson in the life of a serious auto racer. He said fellow students say they are excited about the chance to watch him race on television; they already watched his five starts in 2022.

"It's always good to have support from your classmates," said Garcia. "Everybody has something they do, football, soccer, basketball. Mine's just being a race car driver.

"I've got to meet a lot of the superstars of the sport. It's good to use those guys when they're available, get some advice. They are the best of the best, so getting all the support you can from them is very important."

With all of this time behind the wheel of a mean machine, it would seem Garcia's knowledge of the ins and outs of a racing engine is pretty high.

"They don't let me touch them," he said. "We have engineers. The shop's located in Statesville, North Carolina. Obviously, as a driver, you have to be knowledgeable on how a car works. If something breaks, you have to tell the people in the pits what's going on so they can get ready to fix it. But I don't work on them a whole lot."

Garcia has a traveling road crew of six to seven who handle the pre-race work, and the pit crew is a different cast of tire changers and gas pumpers who have 15 seconds to get it all done.

"They are really good athletes," said Garcia about that pit crew. "They do a good job of getting me in and out of pit row in a quick time.

"A lot of people don't realize how hard it is to drive the cars. It's not bad for one lap, but when you are in races of 300 to 400 laps, it gets to wearing on you. It's really hot. You are in the race suit, and temperatures climb in excess of 140 degrees. You lose quite a bit of weight. You have to be very hydrated beforehand to keep physically able and at the same time stay mentally sharp."

Garcia, again, is very pleased to be on the Craftsman Truck Series. But he knows there's the much more viewed NASCAR Cup Series. How does he get there? One thing he pointed out as important is winning. With that will come support and backing and trust, trust in him with the wheel of a car.

Fame will also come with being a NASCAR winner, but he feels Jake Garcia will not be changed by it.

"I still have to finish out high school, graduate in May," he said. "It's definitely a big-time commitment."