Skip Barber Racing School’s Ken Fukuda was awarded the 2023 IMSA Diverse Driver Development Scholarship. The scholarship will provide Ken, a veteran of the Skip Barber Race Team, an instructor with the Skip Barber Racing School, and director of the Skip Barber Race Series, with a full-season prepaid entry in an IMSA-sanctioned series. Ken’s journey to becoming one of the most significant members of the Skip Barber Racing School family is filled with twists and turns. The 36-year-old Bay Area native attended the University of California, Los Angeles, to study international development and became the captain of the school’s Men’s Rowing Team. After graduating, he was selected by the United States Peace Corps to travel to Liberia, the West African nation that had been shattered by a civil war in the early 2000s. While in Liberia, Ken became a teacher and principal at a high school of 600 students and worked with the Liberian government to develop the nation’s curriculum. Still wishing to pursue his dreams of racing, Ken returned to the United States and picked up a litany of jobs to fund his racing career, including work with the United States Department of Veterans Affairs and tutoring. With sponsorship from local businesses in his native Oakland, Ken, with the support of friends, built up a small SCCA operation and found some success. He would take one of the biggest risks of his career when he opted to sell all of his SCCA equipment and most of his personal belongings to fund a move to Germany and a race operation on the Nurburgring. Despite promising results, a long-term program didn’t materialize for Ken and he returned to the United States. Having recognized the effort and sacrifice Ken made in pursuit of his racing career, the Skip Racing School offered him a position as an instructor. Within a year, he was promoted to lead instructor and became the safety car driver for SRO America. With his experience working alongside young adults as a principal and teacher, Ken was a natural fit for the role of Skip Barber Race Series Director, serving as a role model for the young drivers beginning their careers in car racing. Ken further engrained himself into the Skip Barber Racing family when he accepted an offer to join the Skip Barber Race Team as one of our drivers in TC America powered by the Skip Barber Racing School. His first podium in professional racing came one year ago at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in a Honda Civic Type-R. Over the past year, Ken progressed through multiple rounds of interviews for the IMSA Diverse Driver Development Scholarship, oftentimes taking phone calls and meetings from the track as he managed his duties with the Skip Barber Racing School. His dedication and hard work paid off when he was awarded the scholarship two weeks ago. “IMSA and all the partners that are involved in the scholarship are just a testament to how special it is,” Ken said. “I'm overwhelmed and truly gracious. I know my own journey, and I know I belong there. I believe I worked harder than anyone else, and whether that's true or not, I know I did the best I could and know I belong. “I do come from a minority, but my thing is regardless of your background, your ethnicity, your culture, social norms you're raised with, or your funding or your age, it doesn't matter,” he said. “Racing hasn't changed. If you love it enough, you're persistent, you have enough desire, and you continue learning from your mistakes, and you follow the three keywords that every mentor that I've truly, truly respected has said – never give up – anyone can make it,” Ken added. IMSA President John Doonan was on hand at Petit Le Mans to announce the selection of Ken. “Of course, Ken will be running under the Skip Barber banner, another great partner of ours and a trainer of so many of the drivers in and out of the paddock, so we’re excited about that,” Doonan said of the news. Ken hopes to use the scholarship on a racing season in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Grand Sport class or the IMSA VP Sportscar Challenge LMP3 class.