How Andy Got Into Racing

Andy Evans fell in love with the sport of racing when he visited his first Can-Am event in 1963. The 12-year-old boy knew that he had a passion for race cars, but so did many of his peers. Those other boys, however, did not have the devotion that drove Evans to succeed in the sport.

Evans turned to racing as a way of coping with difficulties in life. He has been quoted as saying “when everything was very bad… I turned to racing to keep my sanity.”

Andy Evans got his start in the sport by participating in events throughout the Pacific Northwest, where he lived. During the 1980s he could not afford to take a team with him. Instead, he attended to the details on his own. This often meant long weekends shuttling his race car from town to town, filling out forms, and tinkering with his vehicle.

At first, he saw auto racing as a hobby that energized his life. Over time, however, racing started to become his life. He dedicated himself to perfecting his skills and learning as much as possible about the vehicles that made the sport possible.

Participating in races helped Evans develop his skills on the track. In order to learn more about race cars, though, he had to get under the hood. He did this by creating his first business, Scandia Engineering. The Redmond, WA business catered to car enthusiasts in the region, giving Evans the opportunity to learn more about cars while earning money to pay for his next race.

In 1990, Evans was admitted to the International Motor Sports Association. He had finally become a true professional. This, however, was just the beginning of his adventure. By 1994, he recognized that he could have a more commanding presence in the industry by creating his own team of drivers, so he started Team Scandia. Over the next few years, Team Scandia earned a solid reputation by winning two 12 Hours of Sebring events and fielding seven cars in the 1996 Indianapolis 500.

For Evans, racing is a sport and a business. Without the thrill of competition and the camaraderie of other drivers, racing would not fill an essential part of his life.