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

Newton-John competed for the team in the Freedom 100 at 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 he 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 sixth quickest time, and then backed that up with an eighth place qualifying effort.    

Unfortunately, his 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 Newton-John was caught up in another driver’s accident.  As he slowed to avoid cars and crash debris, he 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.

“Indy was definitely an emotional deal for me," Newton-John said. "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.

“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.”

The Firestone Indy Lights race at the second annual Baltimore Grand Prix will take place on September 2nd at noon (ET). With experience and hope from Indianapolis, team principal Tyce Carlson is confident that Fan Force United and Newton-John will be able to compete with the best in their return to the series.

“Emerson impressed us right off the bat," Carlson said. "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.”

Keep up with the team at www.facebook.com/fanforceunited and on Twitter @FanForceUnited.