Fan Force United is excited to announce that it will be heading to the streets of Baltimore with Emerson Newton-John behind the wheel of its Firestone Indy Lights machine.

Emerson competed for the team in the Freedom 100 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May, marking his return to the cockpit after more than ten years away from the sport. After a couple of successful tests at which Emerson shook off the rust and was quickly back up to speed, the team headed to Indy with great enthusiasm and optimism. In practice for the Freedom 100, Emerson posted the 6th quickest time, and then backed that up with an 8th place qualifying effort.

Unfortunately, Emerson’s race came to an early end. On that day, action was extremely heavy at the front of the field right away, and within five laps Emerson was caught up in another driver’s accident. As he slowed to avoid cars and crash debris, Emerson was clipped by a following car, sending him spinning towards the warm-up lane and the inside wall. After nearly making it through the melee, his race came to an end against the tire barrier. After a decade-plus absence from the cockpit of a racecar, this was a tremendous disappointment.

Talking about his new opportunity with the team, Emerson had this to say: “Indy was definitely an emotional deal for me. To be back in a car after so long and to be back at Indy of all places was incredible, but to only make it four laps due to being caught out in someone else’s mistake, was a massive blow. We had been so fast in practice and qualified really well. I honestly felt like I had never been away from the sport. At Indy, people only got to see what I was capable of during practice and qualifying, but I didn’t get that chance in the race. I’m definitely looking to change that in Baltimore, and give my boys at FFU a well deserved strong result.”

On returning to Fan Force United, Emerson added, “I’ve really enjoyed working with these guys. It’s a great atmosphere. I feel like they really treat people the right way, especially the fans, which is great to see, and I’m really hoping that I can do a lot more with them as time goes on.”

Team principal Tyce Carlson weighed in with a comment, saying “Emerson impressed us right off the bat. Going into it, we didn’t really know what to expect, but we became believers right away. We were really looking for a great result at Indy, but it didn’t work out the way any of us had hoped. We looked forward to the chance to work with Emerson again, and we’re pretty happy that we’re going to be able to go to Baltimore with him. Emerson has a ton of experience racing road courses, so we’re expecting to have some fun and to get a good result.”