Meet the owner

California native, Gary Peterson, has been racing most of his life. He began his career in stadiums and racing motor cross in the deserts of Arizona, California, Nevada and Baja California, Mexico.

From there he moved up to single seat race cars with Score and raced the infamous Baja 1000 and Baja 500. After a chance meeting with Louie Unser (brother of Al and Bobby Unser), who encouraged Peterson to try his hand at open wheel racing, Peterson joined the Bosch Super Vee Series. After several years racing Super Vee, he made his way to the Pro Atlantics Series, which later became Toyota Atlantics.

After watching many drivers grounded due to lack of funding, Peterson founded one of the nation’s largest fire sprinkler design/installation companies, Automatic Fire Sprinklers, Inc. in order to financially assist him in pursuing his passion for racing. The corporation enabled Peterson to enjoy decades of racing.

Through his various racing connections, he became aware that the Indy Racing League was forming a new ladder series at that time called the Indy Pro Series (now called Firestone Indy Lights/FIL). He was one of the first drivers asked to join the series. During the inaugural season, Peterson was bombarded with sponsorship and driver offers, so he created AFS Racing.

Since retiring as a driver, Peterson has transitioned into a mentoring role. He has a unique eye for upcoming talent with drivers such as Alex Lloyd, Raphael ‘Rafa’ Matos, J.R. Hilderbrand, Charlie Kimball, Martin Plowman, Sebastian Saavedra and his long-time team mate and family friend Arie Luynedyk Jr. all driving for his team, AFS Racing.

Meet the owner

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