ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Coming off a championship-winning campaign in his rookie season in the USF2000 National Class, Norwegian racer Henrik Furuseth will step up to the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered By Mazda Championship Class with PRL Motorsports for 2013. The mere 16-year old won seven races en route to the National Class title last year, making it an amazing first year of competition on U.S. soil.

”I am so happy about joining PRL Motorsports for the season,” said Furuseth. "I had a great year last year and I really want to build on that momentum with the PRL guys. We’ve already done some good tests and now it’s time to see where we are compared to the competition.”

Having raced wheel-to-wheel against Furuseth last year, team owner Patrick Linn quickly realized what a talented teenager he was trying to fight. 

“It’s definitely better having Henrik on my team than racing against him," a laughing Linn commented. “He was always very impressive last year and I am happy we have him on the team. He’ll have an extremely competitive teammate in Michael Epps, so I’m hoping for a good year for the team as a whole.”

“I am very thankful for this fantastic opportunity with PRL and I can’t wait to get the season started," added an excited Furuseth. "I couldn’t have done it without the help of my sponsors Palfinger, Akrene Mek, Felgimport, MOMO and Junior Team Norway, so I definitely want to show my appreciation for what they are doing.” 

The USF2000 calendar sees races across a big variety of tracks, most of which will be on INDYCAR and American Le Mans Series weekends. As the first official step on the Mazda Road to Indy, the goal of USF2000 is to prepare the future champions of the IZOD IndyCar Series. The 14-race series will kick off this weekend at the legendary Sebring International Raceway, with the next stop on the calendar the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg next weekend. Among other high-class events throughout the year, a race on the ‘Night Before the Indy 500’ bill at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis is seen as possibly the most prestigious.

You can read more about Furuseth on www.FurusethMotorsport.no. Follow Furuseth on Facebook (Facebook.com/HenrikFurusethRacing) and Twitter (Twitter.com/HenrikFuruseth).