Mark Hotchkis (born April 17, 1969) is an American former racing driver from

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. I ...

Racing career

After graduating from the

Bob Bondurant Robert L. Bondurant (April 27, 1933 – November 12, 2021) was an American racecar driver who raced for the Shelby American, Ferrari, and Eagle teams. Bondurant was one of the most famous drivers to emerge from the Southern California road raci ...

School of High Performance Driving and the Elf-Winfield School first in class Hotchkis started competitive racing in

karting Kart racing or karting is a road racing variant of motorsport with open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on f ...

in 1993. Hotchkis made his auto racing debut in 1993. In the regional Formula Dodge championships. Hotchkis won the Rookie of the Year title in the Western and Midwestern championships. The driver from Pasadena captured another five wins in the Eastern championship. For 1994 Hotchkis graduated into the

Barber Saab Pro Series The Barber Dodge Pro Series was a professional open-wheel auto racing series from 1986 to 2003. It was one of the first professional spec series for open-wheel racecars in North America. The races were primarily on road and street courses in Nor ...

. In his first race at Bicentennial Park in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

Hotchkiss finished eleventh. Near the end of the season with three rounds to go Hotchkis was placed third in the championship. As Hotchkis won both races at

Road America Road America is a motorsport road course located near Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, United States on Wisconsin Highway 67. It has hosted races since the 1950s and currently hosts races in the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series, WeatherTech SportsCar Champ ...

and placed second in the season finale at

Phoenix International Raceway Phoenix Raceway is a 1-mile, low-banked tri-oval race track located in Avondale, Arizona, near Phoenix. The motorsport track opened in 1964 and currently hosts two NASCAR race weekends annually including the final championship race since 2020. P ...

the American beat

Juan Pablo Montoya Juan Pablo Montoya Roldán (; born September 20, 1975) is a Colombian racing driver. He won the International F3000 championship in 1998, the CART FedEx Championship Series in 1999 in his debut year in the series, and the IMSA WeatherTech S ...

for the second place in the standings. The following year Hotchkis moved into

Indy Lights Indy NXT, previously Indy Lights, is an American developmental automobile racing series sanctioned by IndyCar, currently known as Firestone Indy NXT Series for sponsorship reasons. Indy Lights is the highest step on the Road to Indy, a program ...

, finishing 7th in points. He captured his first win the following year from the pole at the

Milwaukee Mile The Milwaukee Mile is a oval race track in the central United States, located on the grounds of the Wisconsin State Fair Park in West Allis, Wisconsin, a suburb west of Milwaukee. Its grandstand and bleachers seats approximately 37,000 spectator ...

and finished a career best 5th in points. He drove for Team Green in 1997 but failed to win and again finished 7th in points. He competed part-time in 1998 and won his final Indy Lights race, the season finale at

California Speedway Auto Club Speedway, originally opened as California Speedway, is a , low-banked, D-shaped oval superspeedway in unincorporated San Bernardino County, California, near Fontana. It has hosted NASCAR racing annually since 1997. It was also previ ...

Personal life

Hotchkis is an alumnus of

Chapman University Chapman University is a private research university in Orange, California. It encompasses ten schools and colleges, including Fowler School of Engineering, Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, Fowler School of Law, and Schmid College of Scie ...

where he studied legal studies. Hotchkis is now involved with his brother John's company, Hotchkis Sport Suspension, which designs and markets high performance suspension systems for classic

muscle car Muscle car is a description according to ''Merriam-Webster Dictionary'' that came to use in 1966 for "a group of American-made two-door sports coupes with powerful engines designed for high-performance driving." The '' Britannica Dictionary'' ...

s. Mark and John also own a classic

Porsche 962 The Porsche 962 (also known as the 962C in its Group C form) is a sports-prototype racing car built by Porsche as a replacement for the 956 and designed mainly to comply with IMSA's GTP regulations, although it would later compete in the Europ ...

race car that they campaign in various vintage races.Hotchkis featured on Adam Carolla Show
Hotchkis Sport Suspension PR, September 8, 2009, Retrieved 2010-01-02 He is married with two children.

Racing record

American open-wheel racing results

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Indy Lights

SCCA National Championship Runoffs

References

External links

*
Mark Hotchkis Indy Lights results
at ChampCarStats.com 1969 births Indy Lights drivers Living people 24 Hours of Daytona drivers Rolex Sports Car Series drivers Sportspeople from Pasadena, California Racing drivers from California Barber Pro Series drivers SCCA National Championship Runoffs winners {{US-autoracing-bio-stub Andretti Autosport drivers