Asian Motor Sports

Delphi Fernandez Racing’s Scott Sharp grew up in Connecticut and now calls Jupiter, Fla., home. The 11-year veteran, who won the first IndyCar Series race at Twin Ring Motegi in 2003 and was runner-up last year, has seen and done just about everything in auto racing. He briefly talks about the weeklong trip:

It’s just a great trip. Growing up, I enjoyed Japanese cuisine. My dad a long time ago was a Datsun dealer. I guess I always figured at some point I’d go to Japan. Certainly back in ‘03 was my first time to go there. Just the outpouring of support we get from the Japanese fans, it’s pretty amazing how knowledgeable they are when we all race in their country one time a year. They’re so enthusiastic. They’re there so early in the morning. It’s tremendous.

Away from the race track, which is at the top of a mountain, social gatherings with principals from sponsors occupy much of his off time.

There’s obviously a large amount of Japanese influence in our series, of course from Honda and Firestone. Certainly on our car, Delphi has a large presence in the Asia/Pacific rim. That’s a real flourishing area of the world for them. Futaba is a Japanese company. It’s always a really important trip for us.

I think when we had the chance to go over there and win for our first time out there, that just got everyone super excited, including myself, but it certainly gives you such great feelings about coming back there. I know all of the sponsors I just mentioned got a lot of great publicity and a lot of talk about our win after that event.Within our company’s ties and our team’s ties, it really creates a lot of buzz every time we come back.