By Clay Crouch ’18

While most high schoolers are sitting at home playing Fortnite, Staples’ Spencer Brockman ’18 is honing his skills on his racing simulator. He is unlike your typical teenager and does not play a high school sport. Instead, he races cars.

Spencer’s father, Michael Brockman, was a professional racecar driver for many years. “I grew up around the sport and would watch my dad race as a young kid,” Brockman said. “I played normal sports as a kid like lacrosse and baseball, but something drew me to the sport of racing.”

When Brockman was eight, his dad introduced him to go-karts. This was where he grew his love for the sport and decided it was what he wanted to do. At the age of nine, he started racing go-karts competitively and was a stand out on the track.

At age 15 Brockman graduated to full-sized race cars and began his climb to the professional circuit. While the go-karts were fast, they could not come close to the high speeds he reaches today. “Getting into full-size race cars was a lot different than go-Karts,” Brockman said. “I was getting into more serious levels of the sport.”

Currently, Brockman is racing in the Formula 3, which is a couple levels lower than Formula 1. “Hopefully in the next few years I’ll be racing full time in Europe,” Brockman said. “I want to climb the ladder and eventually race in either Indycar or Formula 1, which are the top racing leagues in the world.”

Brockman is optimistic in his future and will not be attending college in the fall so he can pursue his career. He will be solely devoted to racing and will be training constantly both on and off the track.