Daniel Berry is an 18-year-old Aerospace Engineering student from Jackson, Mississippi competing in the 2019 F4 United States Championship with the Jay Howard’s Driver Development (JHDD) Team. He has been racing for Jay Howard since 2016, competing in high performance go-karts at the regional and national levels. After successful testing in F4 in 2017, it was evident that he has the talent and work ethic to potentially excel in Formula 4 and beyond.

Daniel’s journey into racing began with his love of engineering. He became fascinated by the engineering in Formula 1 cars and at the age of 15 began exploring job openings and internships with the F1 teams. He found that they required engineering degrees as well as “motorsports experience.” He was already taking every advanced math and science class he could in preparation for studying engineering in college, but the opportunities for motorsports experience in his home of Jackson, Mississippi were limited. Eventually he found the karting program at NOLA Motorsports Park in New Orleans, LA where he scheduled a coaching session with Indy Car driver, Jay Howard. As the coaching session progressed, Jay began asking Daniel where he had raced previously, convinced, based on observing Daniel’s driving skill, that he was an experienced driver. When Daniel finally told him that he had never been in a kart before, Jay was dumbfounded. He said that Daniel was by far the best beginner he had ever seen. Apparently, the boy had some talent for this racing.

Over the next year and a half, Daniel began racing karts, first at the club level and later competing in regional and national events. He progressed rapidly but it was tough to beat racers with 10-15 years of experience. He did, however, become friends with some of the top karting racers in the country with whom he has spent many hours racing cars on simulators. Several of these racers had recently transitioned to Formula 4 and being familiar with his performance in simulators, suggested that Daniel would do well in F4. Furthermore, since most F4 drivers are also new to cars, Daniel would not have the experience disadvantage that he faced in karting; he would be on the same level as everyone else.

So, in late 2017, with encouragement from his coach, Jay Howard, Daniel went to Homestead-Miami Speedway for two days of Formula 4 testing. His performance exceeded everyone’s expectations. As Jay Howard put it afterward, “You can’t get in a car for the first time and drive like that without some real talent.”

With his plans for an engineering degree still firmly in view, Daniel is also pursuing a potential racing career as well. Daniel said, “If I really do have a God-given talent for racing, I have an obligation to develop it and see how far I can go with it… which is nice because I really do enjoy it.”

Daniel is currently seeking sponsors to help cover the significant costs of the upcoming 2020 F4 United States Championship season with various advertising packages and other promotional considerations tailored to the level of sponsorship.