By Sarah Handy, Staff Writer
Bill McAnally Racing has announced their lineup of young rookies who will compete in the ARCA Menards Series West in 2020.
Those drivers are Giovanni Scelzi, Jesse Love, Gracie Trotter and Holley Hollan. The plan is for all four drivers to run the full schedule in the ARCA Menards Series West, in addition to other select ARCA races.
All four young drivers were part of Toyota’s driver development program.
“We’re very enthusiastic about our lineup of drivers for the 2020 season,” said BMR President Bill McAnally. “We anticipate plenty of excitement from this talented roster of newcomers to the series. We see great potential in each of them.”
18-year old Giovanni Scelzi is the son of four-time NHRA drag racing Champion, Gary Scelzi whom is making his transition to stock cars from open-wheel dirt racing.
A Fresno, California native, who began racing at the age of six is set to drive BMR’s well-known No. 16 NAPA AUTO PARTS / Curb Records Toyota Camry.
In 2019, Scelzi won major sprint car races and midget series events. Scelzi became Knoxville Raceway’s youngest winner with a victory during the All-Star Circuit of Champions race.
In addition, he won his first ever race on pavement when he won in a spec late model at Irwindale Speedway in Southern California.
Jesse Love a Menlo Park, California native who started racing at the age of five will be behind the wheel of the No. 19 NAPA Power Premium Plus Toyota Camry.
In 2019, Love split his time between dirt and asphalt arenas within racing where he competed in the Spears SRL Southwest Tour Series and also racing in the POWRi National Midget League.
Love became the youngest driver to earn a top-five in an SRL race. In addition, he finished in the top-10 in the championship standings of the Southwest Tour and taking the runner-up spot in the rookie points standings.
In POWRi he went on to become the youngest driver with a podium finish in the National Midgets competition as well as the youngest West winner when he won at Kern County Raceway Park in California.
Gracie Trotter, a native of Denver North Carolina who has been racing since the age of eight is slated to be behind the wheel of the No. 99 ENEOS Toyota Camry.
A third-generation racer, in 2019 she began racing a late model for Rev Racing in the NASCAR Drive for Diversity Driver Development Program where she continues to compete.
Holley Hollan a fourth-generation racer who began racing at the age of five and hails from Broken Arrow, California is set to be behind the wheel of the No. 50 JBL / NAPA Filters / NAPA Belts & Hoses Toyota Camry.
For the past two seasons she’s been competing in midget cars and ended up fifth in points in the POWRi Lucas Oil Midget League last season.
It’s important to note that all four of BMR’s drivers will contend for Rookie of the Year honors, as well as the ARCA Series West title in 2020.
BMR has had a wide variety of drivers race for the organization through out the years including Hailie Deegan, Todd Gilliland, Cole Custer, Brendan Gaughan, Derek Kraus and Clint Bowyer.
BMR has won a record nine series championships, in addition to 99 overall victories between the East and West divisions in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series.
In 2020, the NASCAR K&N Pro Series will evolve into the East and West divisions of NASCAR’s ARCA Menards Series.
2020 will also mark the 30th year that NAPA AUTO PARTS has been a part of BMR.
“Words cannot express my gratitude to everyone at NAPA AUTO PARTS for their support for these 30 years,” McAnally said in a team press release. “Our relationship is one of the best in the racing business. Our goal remains the same, to continue winning races and championships and provide NAPA with the best sales tool in this sport.