Located a few blocks from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Juncos Racing’s new headquarters is the latest chapter in a rags to riches story.

On Jan. 21, the team broke ground on the Juncos Technical Center, a 41,000 square foot facility in Speedway, Ind., which will allow the team to continue its Mazda Road to Indy programs and will also make it easier for the team to expand.

“It’s going to finally allow us to do a lot of more (of the) things that we are doing today,” said Ricardo Juncos, the team’s owner. “The new shop is going to be crucial. From my mind, you have to have something like this to do things properly.”

Coming from a racing family and with a background in engineering, Juncos formed Juncos Racing in 1997 and fielded cars in several single-seater championships in Argentina. In 2001, the economic state of the country took a turn for the worse and the team was forced to sell its equipment.

Juncos decided to relocate his family and team to Miami after visiting a friend who lived in the area in order to get back on his feet.

“It was just a move,” he said. “I had pretty much lost everything in Argentina. Everything we had won from 1995-2001 we just lost. The country kind of collapsed, the economy stopped and I didn’t have (any)  options.”

When Juncos Racing set up shop in Miami, the team switched its focus to karting, which led to the team capturing 19 karting championships over the course of five years. In 2008, the suggestion to move up to cars came from a father of one of Juncos’ drivers, but Juncos had to prove himself that his team could handle the challenge.

“We got together for a 30-minute meeting and I brought my resume and (the customer) said ‘You look like you are the guy so we are going to stay in the team,” Juncos said.

A few of Juncos’ customers bought a few Formula Renault 1500 cars and the team spent a year training drivers to prepare them for a Pro Mazda Championship.

The team joined the Pro Mazda Championship in 2009 and immediately established itself as a contender. Driver Peter Dempsey joined the team midway through the season and propelled the team to third in the team championship on the heels of three wins.

That strong foundation established in 2009 led to better results in 2010 as Conor Daly joined the squad and dominated the season with seven wins and eight poles on the way to the season championship.

“That was a springboard,” Juncos said. “After that we (kept) showing that we just not only won in go-karts, we can also win in open wheel. That made it easier to find the drivers. I felt like the reputation of the team was more solid and now the people really believed that it was not just one championship or one race.”

The team moved to Brownsburg, Ind., in 2012 and started an Indy Lights program. The Lights program ran only ran six races with three drivers sharing the wheel before the team shifted its focus back to Pro Mazda.

After two solid years in Pro Mazda, 2014 got off to a great start as team newcomer Spencer Pigot gave the team an early boost winning the Cooper Tires Winterest Championship and carried that momentum over to the season championship as Pigot claimed six wins on the way to the series title.

Juncos then restarted his Lights program in 2015 and moved up with Pigot as well as Kyle Kaiser to contest the entire championship. Pigot scored both his and the team’s first Lights wins at the doubleheader at Barber Motorsports Park. It only got better from there as Pigot picked up four more wins (Toronto doubleheader and Laguna Seca doubleheader) to claim the series championship.

“Ricardo runs a team very well,” said Pigot, who began his racing career in karts with Juncos Racing. “He’s very motivated to win and that’s what he lives for. He lives for racing.

“Everyone there just loves racing, that’s all they want to do and they love winning. They push everyone, the mechanics, the drivers, the engineers to do their best. The energy from the team stems from Ricardo and his passion for racing.”

With a successful record in Pro Mazda and Indy Lights, a future in the Verizon IndyCar Series is on the agenda. But Juncos admits that there is a lot of work to be done in order to make that next step and do it properly.

“I would do it tomorrow if I can,” he said. “I’m not going to do it if it is not right in my mind. As you know we moved here in the beginning of 2012, I bought an old Indy Lights team and we only did six races and then we stopped for two years because it was not right to do it. When the good opportunity and I feel (it) was the right time, we did and we won the championship.

“Obviously I would like to do it but I don’t want to become crazy about it and make a mistake. I want to step forward, but with solid steps.”