Heamin Choi

Heamin Choi (born January 11, 1984) is a Korean race car driver. He is the first Korean driver to race in the American Open Wheel Series (Pro Mazda, USF2000), and the first Korean driver to participate in any race held in the United States. He has won the 2005 BAT Championship (Formula Korea), 2006 Korea GT championship (GT1), and 2013 Super Race GT driver's title. He was also the Samsung Everland scholarship driver through year 2003 to 2005. In 2016, Choi participated in IndyLights.

Early career Choi's racing career started at the age of fifteen with his debut at the 1999 Carman Park Kart Grand Prix. Also in 1999, he entered the team Redstone under Hong Suk Cho, the team director. He finished fourth at his second race. In 2000, he finished second in the Japan New Tokyo Circuit Freshman Kart Race Time Trial. By winning five times in the Korean Kart series, he started gaining attention as a Kart prodigy in the Korean motorsport community. Choi gained more experience in riding kart at various track with different conditions such as wet and street track. However, in early 2001, he was injured on his left rib at the Japanese Kart race which had forced him to temporarily stop kart races with high g-force.

2001–2006

In 2001, Choi joined Hankook Tire's Ventus Motor Sports team, which run formula cars, touring cars, and off-road rallycross cars. He was trained by Myung Mok Lee, who is known as the champion of the Korea Touring Car Championship. In the team, Choi was given the role to test in Formula 1800. In 2002, Choi marked his debut for the pro formula race in Korea, finishing sixth in his first race qualification and sixth in championship. In 2003, Choi was selected as the Samsung Everland Speedway Scholarship driver for the first time and finished fifth at the BAT Championship (Formula 1800). Choi finished 19th in the race, passing nine cars during the race.

2009–2011 In 2009, Choi participated in the Korean Stock Car race and finished 4th. In 2010 he joined the Atlas BX racing team as a touring car driver and finished fourth in the 2010 F1 Korean GP support race.

2012

In 2012, Choi participated in the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship. Choi finished ninth in his second event at St. Petersburg and with his continuous progress, he was ranked sixth in his first qualifying at the Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis.

2013

In 2013, Choi took part in the Formula 3 test with Double R racing in England and in the Super Formula pre-season testing at Fuji Speedway in Japan. However, the sponsor company was in the trouble of operating its race track in Korea which left Choi unable to compete in Super Formula series. Therefore, Choi decided to race in Korean GT championship and achieved Driver's Title.

2014 In 2014, Choi participated in the first Korean Le Mans series and won the race with his Korean stock car.

2015–2016 In 2015, Choi came back to the US to participate in the Indy Lights series. He finished eleventh in his debut event at Laguna Seca. In 2016, Choi participated in all oval races of the season in Indy Lights. He finished in the top-ten at Iowa Speedway and twelfth at Laguna Seca.

Racing record

American open-wheel racing results

U.S. F2000 National Championship

Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Rank Points 2012 Afterburner Autosport SEB16 SEB18 STP10 STP12 LOR15 MOH26 MOH15 ROA12 ROA27 ROA12 BAL BAL VIR VIR 17th 55

Indy Lights Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Rank Points Ref 2015 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports STPSTPLBHALAALAIMSIMSINDYTORTORMILIOWMOHMOHLAG12LAG11 16th 19 2016 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports STP STPPHX16 ALA ALA IMS IMS INDY12 RDA RDA IOW10 TOR TOR MOH MOH WGL LAG15 LAG12 18th 40 2018 Juncos Racing STP STP ALA ALA IMS IMS INDY RDA RDA IOW TOR TOR MOH MOH GTW POR8 POR6 10th 28