🇺🇸 Jay Horak

Jay Horak holds a Racer Rating of 2,455, placing him in the competitive amateur band; this level describes the front of club racing and entry-level professional series, where drivers are quick, often self-funded, and racing against established professionals rather than with them. Horak's career consists of four seasons in the Pro Mazda Championship between 2013 and 2016, spanning 28 starts across this single-seater feeder series with M1 Racing as his primary team. He recorded no race wins or podium finishes during this period, averaging a finishing position of 13th.[1]

Throughout his time in Pro Mazda, Horak faced a consistent competitive disadvantage against the field. Against his most frequent rivals he compiled losing records across the board; against Garett Grist and Jose Gutiérrez, both FIA Silver graded drivers who competed at a markedly higher level, Horak finished ahead only twice and three times respectively in roughly twenty shared races with each. He showed similar gaps to Kyle Kaiser and Spencer Pigot, both of whom went on to win championships in stronger series, beating them just twice and once respectively despite numerous encounters. While Horak did occasionally finish ahead of notably stronger drivers such as Pato O'Ward, an elite professional now racing at the highest levels, these isolated results did not form a pattern of competitiveness at that level. His most competitive record came against Bobby Eberle, a semi-professional driver rating similarly to himself, though Horak still finished behind Eberle more often than ahead. Horak has been retired since his final Pro Mazda start in 2016.