the studio21 speedway: race news 2023

This year, our racing season started early, in January, with two back-to-back races in Florida. It was on the colder side for Florida but lovely compared to Chicago’s Winter temperatures. In the first race of the year, held at the road course at Homestead-Miami Speedway in South Florida, Bill Styczynski drove Studio21 Architects’ Formula Vee racecar to a second place finish on Saturday and a first place victory on Sunday. Then it was off to Islamorada in the Florida Keys for a bit of architecture work: 

seeing the construction progress at Oceanside Resort. Situated on the Atlantic side of the island, the development’s nine homes were designed in part by Studio21 Architects. Bill met with the future homeowners to customize the homes to fit each person’s needs. Although the trip to the Keys was for work, it’s still Florida, and some mandatory relaxation was had  before heading off to the next race, at the Sebring International Raceway in Central Florida.

​Bill arrived in Sebring a day early to ready his racing vehicle for the raceway’s infamous twelve-hour race on concrete track, formerly runways of a World War II bomber base. This, by far, is the mostjarring track the team races at. The potential to win was met with disappointment in both races; Bill began with a lead on Saturday and spun on cold tires in anticipation of a restart following a full course yellow, recovering to finish in third place. On Sunday, Bill had the lead going into a hairpin corner, only to have a coil wire shake loose from the bumpy concrete course. Just like that—the race was over.

The car was still loaded on the trailer when the opportunity to race at the Circuit of the Americas, in Austin, Texas, arose. Another extremely challenging course, the Circuit of the Americas, more commonly known as COTA, is also one of the stops on the Formula One circuit. At COTA, up against a number of Formula Vee National Champions, issues with the car, and this being Bill’s first visit to the track, his personal results turned out relatively dismal.

Now that we’re up-to-date, Bill will resume the remainder of the season in June, with a race at Pitt Race, in Pennsylvania, for the sixty-year celebration of Formula Vee. Bill and his son, Brian, will both compete in two races that weekend in a Lynx B Vintage FV and a current Formula Vee racing vehicle. On the weekend following the sixty-year celebratory race, Bill will participate in a vintage race at the world-famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Then, it’s off to June ​

Sprints at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. July will be a bit different—a charity endurance karting event on the track at the Autobahn Country Club near Joliet, IL. The charity organization, DuPagePads, holds its annual Drive for 195 karting race to raise money to end homelessness. You can read more about the Drive for 195 event on the next page. 

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written by: bill styczynski

Bill Styczynski is the president of Studio21 Architects, as well as an architect in his own right. Every month, Bill writes an article for the Studio Pages newsletter about design topics that he believes will be informative, helpful reads for all of our clients, established and potential. He also writes regularly about his other passion: racing cars!