The final round of the ARCA Menards Series West at Phoenix Raceway in November saw British driver Alex Sedgwick from Southam, Warwickshire makes his debut in America. After a successful first race weekend in the U.S., Alex focused all his attention on returning to the series in 2021. Now Alex is back to the U.S. to take part in the ARCA Menards Series test on January 15 & 16 at the Daytona International Speedway.
Last year, Alex attended the Daytona 500 as a guest of NASCAR and promised himself he would come back one day to race at the 2.5-mile superspeedway to achieve his dream of racing in NASCAR in the U.S. Having completed two seasons in the NASCAR Euro Series, where Alex raced alongside NASCAR Cup Champion Bobby Labonte, his goal has always been to take the next step in the NASCAR ladder and move “stateside”.
Since the Phoenix race, Alex has been working hard to pull together plans for 2021. Now with the support of NBA 2K 21, the first step has been achieved. Alex will drive the #94 NBA 2K 21 themed car in the test, and it will be the first time he will drive on the legendary Daytona International
Speedway.
Alex was racing the Daytona track earlier this week on the iRacing platform, a platform Alex knows well from running his on-line racing series through his company Vertex. Alex received the call from his manager, Ryan Johnston, on Monday evening in the U.K. who told him to get ready, he may need to fly to the U.S. in a few days to test in Daytona. “It all happened rather quickly,” said Alex.
“One minute I’m racing Daytona on iRacing, and before I know it, I’m boarding a plane at London’s Heathrow Airport heading to America to test on the real track.”
Alex’s trip to the U.S. was an eventful one. Leaving London, Alex was 30 minutes into his flight when the Captain came over the loudspeaker saying they had to turn around because there were technical problems with the plane. Once they were in sight of the airport, they informed the passengers not to be alarmed, but there would be fire trucks and other first responders that would follow the airplane down the runway once they landed and to their gate. Once on the ground, the Captain informed the passengers they had lost power in one of their two engines on the British Airways 787-9. Alex had to wait a few more hours to get out on another plane heading to Miami.
“Coming back to Daytona to drive is a dream come true. Watching the Daytona 500 race with my father last year, we both agreed one day I would come back to race at the superspeedway. Now this dream is one step nearer with the test. A big thank you to NBA 2K 21 and Visual Concepts for giving me this opportunity, and I am sure the start of a great partnership together,” said Alex.
Greg Thomas, President and Co-Founder of Visual Concepts, the creator of NBA 2K 21 said, “We are excited to support Alex in his rise to NASCAR and we are happy to be part of his journey.”
Ryan Johnston of InterPhase Entertainment who manages Alex said, “We are pleased to bring NBA 2K 21 on as a partner with Visual Concepts. This weekend in Daytona will set the stage for Alex moving forward in his racing career. We are focused on having Alex compete in as many ARCA Menards Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series races in 2021 so Alex can move to the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2022.”
After Alex finishes the test, he will drive back to Miami on Monday to board a plane back to London with his fingers crossed, hoping to come back to race at the very same track on February 13th in the ARCA Menards Series season opener, just before the NASCAR Xfinity Series race, and the day before the Daytona 500.
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