Vincenzo Fochesato

Vincenzo Giuseppe Fochesato (born July 5, 1992 in Vicenza, Italy) is an Italian-born, American race car driver from Waterford, Michigan. He is currently a full-time driver in the ARLA Tornado Alley Truck Series, as well as a part-time driver in the National Racing Championship.

He holds dual Italian/American citizenship, but prefers to race under the Italian flag.

Early Career
Fochesato and his family moved from Castelgomberto, Italy to Waterford, Michigan in 1993. His father, Giuseppe Fochesato, had always been casually interested in Formula A, and he took Vincenzo to several races at local short tracks when he was young. Vincenzo showed lots of interest in stock car racing, and when he was 6 years old, his father bought him a kart.

Vincenzo moved up to midget racing at the age of 10 in 2003, where he remained for four years.

In 2007, Giuseppe organized and formed Focus Autosports, and provided Vincenzo with a late model. He attempted his first late model race when he was 14 at the Berlin Raceway in Marne, Michigan. He would finish last in his heat race after triggering a pileup 3 laps in. In his second attempt, he made it to lap 6, but was very slow, and rolled his car over after self-spinning off the backstretch.

It was clear that Vincenzo wasn't ready for full-sized cars yet, and he quickly returned to midget cars, where he ran much better than he had the previous three years. In the meantime, his father decided to drive his late model, and despite only racing for 16 separate weekends (the first 16 of his life), he won 4 A-Mains.

Despite Giuseppe's success, he handed his car back to his son for 2009, although Giuseppe has recently begun to race modifieds whenever he can. Vincenzo showed that he was no longer prone to crashing (although he did use the bumper a little more often than necessary), and late in the year, he scored his first win. Throughout 2010, 2011, and 2012, he eventually learned to race clean, and scored 7 more wins. He also made a few appearances at the Owosso Speedway, Dixie Motor Speedway, and Auto City Speedway (he has finished 2nd at all three tracks). However, he has never won a Berlin Raceway track championship. The closest he has came was 3rd, in 2011, and he backed that up with a 4th place finish in 2012, his final season of regular competition at the track.

2012 - ARLA Debut
Fochesato got his first taste of big league racing when he was 19, in the inaugural Mini Indy 500 at the Indianapolis Raceway Park. The cheaper cost of the ARLA Elite Series' then-new car allowed Focus Autosports to attempt a race, but only one. They chose Indianapolis over Rockford due to a larger starting field and a smaller entry list. Vincenzo and his #37v Lenard Q9 started 26th out of 37 cars in his 75 lap qualifying race, but having to finish in the top 13 to qualify, the odds were not in his favor. However, he surprisingly worked his way up to 7th by the end of the night, easily securing himself a spot in the main event. Vincenzo's Lenard began the big night on the outside of row 15. The first 200 laps were uneventful for Fochesato and his team. They mostly ran in the midfield, and completed the first segment in 23rd place. In Segment 2, however, he began to show a lot more speed. He was in the top 5 for several laps, and was racing competitively with several series regulars. By the time lap 400 came around, Fochesato had fallen to 13th. Since only 25 cars began Segment 3, the inversion of the field put him in 12th for the restart.

And that's when his night took a turn for the worse.

Only 8 laps into the segment, Allie Riggs pushed Bigsby Foote through turns 3 and 4, and sent several cars into the wall, including herself, Foote, and Fochesato. Not long after the restart, Lucas Sweeney got turned into the inside wall on the backstretch by Kiriki Hetsuno after Sweeney hooked the back of the #37v. On lap 431, Dan Richards turned Trey Ashby and himself into the inside wall on the backstretch, and left Fochesato with nowhere to go when they came flying back up the track in turn 3. Fochesato smashed into Ashby, and was also rear-ended by Daniel Leckliter. Fochesato drove his battered car back to the pits, but the damage was far too severe to repair.

The official results scored Fochesato in 15th place, exactly twice as close to the front as his starting position, after completing 431 of the 500 laps.

2013
Despite the results, the exposure that Focus Autosports received from being in a televised ARLA race allowed the team to pick up some more funding, and they are fielding a full-time entry in the ARLA Tornado Alley Truck Series for Vincenzo with backing from the American Taconite Company. He drives a #37 Lycoia Rebel. He is also racing in the National Racing Championship on a part-time schedule.

Away from the national tours, Vincenzo is competing in some club races at the Waterford Hills Road Racing Track in his hometown of Waterford to improve his road racing skills (and in his own interests). He has not raced on a road course since he raced karts. Fochesato also continues to race late models at Berlin whenever his schedule allows him to.

Personality
Fochesato has been described by others as very positive and happy, but more or less in a child-like manner. He is rarely seen angry, and is extremely apologetic for anything he feels he has done wrong. As his father once stated, "The kid will bump someone's car and thinks he's going to hell for it!" He is easily impressed and excited, taking a long time to calm down after accomplishing any minor feat in racing. He often shows lack of self-control, and fell while climbing out of his car after the 2012 Mini Indy 500 qualifying races, and struggled to stand still and talk clearly for his interview.

He is known to be very kind and generous, donating much of what little race winnings he earns to various hospitals and charities, and sometimes organizing local runs/walks as fundraisers.

He has also been known to show severe lack of common sense from time to time (when he first climbed into a late model, he was surprised to learn that stock cars had manual transmissions). Despite this, those close to him know he is good-hearted, and usually cope with said lack of common sense. He is generally well-liked by memebers of his team.

Trivia

 * As a child, Vincenzo was an Alan Foster fan, and prefers to race the #37 because of this.
 * He is not intolerant towards poor driving from other racers. In fact, many would say he is too tolerant.
 * He has an extensive collection of TM Master Cup diecast collectibles, almost taking up an entire wall in the Focus Autosports race shop.
 * He is a fan of the outdoors, and enjoys camping, running, and birdwatching away from the racetrack.