Tristan Jung

Tristan Jung, (born March 12th, 1977 in New York, New York) is a Korean-American racing driver who participated in the Formula 1 Rejects World Race Series. After joining the sport in 2012 for Trueba Racing Team, Jung began his career with a brilliant fifth at the 2012 Bavarian Grand Prix. However, things went downhill from there, and he did not score a point for the remainder of his career. He is also notable for being implicated in a money laundering scandal, which forced Jung out of the sport during the 2013 F1RWRS Season. Jung was also charged with a federal indictment, giving him the the ignominious distinction of being the only F1RWRS driver to be indicted by a grand jury although he was later acquitted. Jung is also the current president of the F1RGP2C, a job he took after his acquittal.

History

Before F1RWRS

Tristan Jung began his racing career in local karting series in and around New York State. After great success, Jung was encouraged to race in junior oval racing. After even more success, Jung joined Skip Barber Racing School and continued his racing career. A diehard racing fan, Jung decided to continue his career in the US F2000 National Championship. He won the championship in 1994 and moved to the Champ Car Atlantic series. After acquitting himself well, Jung moved to Europe where he briefly competed in F3000 before joining the F1 Challenge Championship in 1997. After the series folded in 1999, he moved back to America to drive in CART. He spent ten years in CART/IRL before quitting at the end of the 2009 season. He won the Superleague Formula championship in 2010 but left for Auto GP in 2011. In 2012, he took a drive at Trueba Racing Team.

F1RWRS

Jung joined F1RWRS at the beginning of the 2012 F1RWRS season for Trueba Racing Team, then headed by Giovanni Roda. Jung handily outperformed Roda throughout the entire season; Jung had only five DNPQ's compared to Roda's ten. Jung's only points of his career so far came in his first race in which he scored a 5th place after a stunning drive through the rain at the Norising. This Mark Webber-esque performance put him in the limelight, but Jung was unable to find a new drive for the 2013 season, leaving him down in the dumps with Trueba. During the first part of the 2013 season, Trueba was unable to get past pre-qualifying, leaving Jung on the sidelines. Jung then announced that Trueba Racing Team and American Racing Conglomerate were to merge at the end of the 2013 season. However, Giovanni Roda (owner of Trueba) chose to block the deal, leaving Jung between a rock and a hard place, the hard place being a prison cell. After reporting by 60 Minutes, Jung was revealed to have been involved with a money laundering scandal involving a consortium of music pirating companies and several high-ranking officials of both American Racing Conglomerate and Trueba. Jung then fled to Bangladesh, vacating his seat (which was later filled in by James Davies), and was on the run for several days before he was caught by FBI agents. The career of Tristan Jung is most likely over, however, Jung continues to protest his innocence (claiming he fled because of a planned holiday to get away from the press) and he subsequently pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.

Acquittal

Six months after the charges were brought up, the case was thrown out of court by the judge handling the case on grounds of insufficient evidence. Charges still remain against the executives of ARC and Trueba. Several F1RWRS teams have already expressed interest in Jung's services, although this came to nothing currently. By 2014 Jung was also supposed to take a drive in the F1 Rejects Three-Wheel Extravaganza, driving for Kappa Catfish Racing, a subsidiary division of Jung's new motor racing company, Jung GP, only for the series to be cancelled; instead, he was signed up by Castrol Jones Racing for their Rejects of LFS team. However, he only scored one point during the whole season, and when he failed to raise enough sponsorship to justify his place at the team, manager Sammy Jones replaced him with Connor O'Heagan for the 2015 season.

F1RGP2C Presidency

Through time-travel technology pioneered by Dr. Francesca Rimmer, Jung was able to return to 1994 and become the president of the F1RGP2C. He was joined by several other time-travelers, including Douglas Mann and Ben Fleet. Jung went through the first year of his presidency without incident was reelected by an unanimous margin to a second term, this time for three years. However, the 1995 F1RGP2C season was fraught with controversy. Jung did not stay away from contentious issues and pursued his agenda with great aplomb. When lapped cars got in the way of the leaders, he was quick to fine, disqualify or suspend the offending drivers. He also played a part in the fiasco that surrounded the 1995 F1RGP2C Pacific Grand Prix when he rashly responded to a proposed drivers boycott. Jung suggested to replace the regular drivers who wouldn't compete with Formula Nippon drivers (who were many miles away at Suzuka, having their own race) and banning the teams who did not comply. Jung was lambasted in the media and he apologized for his ridiculous proposal. Later, he participated in the 1995 Duel in the Desert at Phoenix but he was knocked off the track by Kazuhiko Takagi while running in fifth place. The 1996 F1RGP2C season was the most successful season yet in Jung's presidency. He managed to stay out of any contentious issues and revived the old points system for on-track infractions introduced in the 1950 A1 Grand Prix season. Jung also campaigned for greater safety reforms after serious injuries to James Davies and Robert Anderson. Overall, the season was a great success and Jung was kept as president for 1997.

Return to Rejects of LFS

Back in 2015, Jung signed a one-year deal with Tarantino Autosport to drive in the 2015 Rejects of LFS season. The team ran a one-car outfit for their first season.