Olentangy Liberty senior Seth Lucas excels on the race track
POWELL, Ohio (WCMH) — At 17 years old, Powell native Seth Lucas is making a name for himself on the race track.
Even before he was legally allowed to drive, the Olentangy Liberty senior was tearing up tracks all across North America.
He started racing go-karts at 12 years old and within 5 years upgraded to GT3 sports cars worth $300,000. He has seven podium finishes so far this season, but his racing career nearly ended just as it was getting started.
"I actually remember I was going to stop racing cause I spun out one time [racing go-karts] and I was terrified," Lucas said. "I told my dad I don't want to do this anymore."
But his dad Chris, who was once an IndyCar crew chief, encouraged his son to keep going.
"Five years later, we're racing GT3 … I definitely think we're ahead of schedule."
Lucas made his sports car debut in 2020 and was named the GT America Rookie of the Year in 2022. Now, he's racing in the Fanatec GT3 World Challenge America.
"I was very scared the first race, racing against all the fast people," Lucas said. "They're going to be a lot more aggressive, but once I got that first one out of the way I was like, 'Okay. It's not terrible. I can definitely work with this.'"
His seven top-three finishes prove just that in his first season with MDK Motorsports, which was launched two years ago by Mark Kvamme who co-founded the venture capital firm Drive Capital. The team's 16,000-square-foot headquarters is located in Etna Township in Licking County.
"We've built 23 companies in central Ohio, so I was very familiar with what could be done here," Kvamme said. "Also the racing heritage with the Rahal family, the Shanks and many, many others, so Columbus is the place to build a race team."
It's also the place to invest in local drivers like Seth Lucas.
"Seth has a passion for the sport, so he wants to show up and work hard," said Megan Kvamme, CEO of MDK Motorsports. [He] has a heart of gratitude and those are the kind of people we want on our team."
The opportunity, combined with Seth's ambition, makes chasing his racing dreams possible.
"It's a big thing to me to be able to pursue my goals and my dreams and it's so crazy to be doing it at such a high level at a young age," Lucas said. "Also I've been super blessed with all the racing team support and then my dad also. I've just had a lot of support."