As youngsters growing up in England, Jay Howard, Alex Lloyd and Scott Mansell developed a passion for auto racing by watching Formula One.

All three drivers enjoyed success in their homeland as they established their racing careers and aspired to drive in the prestigious Formula One circuit. All three, however, have seen their career paths take them to America where on July 1 they’ll compete in the Indy Pro Series™ Liberty Challenge at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway – one of the support events for Formula One’s United States Grand Prix.

“Coming from Europe, that’s what we see. We get doused in Formula One,” said Mansell, a 20-year-old Birmingham native who will drive the No. 9 Michael Crawford Motorsports entry. “We don’t really see any IndyCar, so that’s people’s ambition in Europe is to get to Formula One.”

All three started out in go-karts. Mansell won a club championship at age 10. Lloyd, a Manchester native, won the British Open championship at age 14. Howard, from Basildon, won 21 consecutive races in junior karting before capturing three British Open titles.

They then advanced into “formula” cars in continued pursuit of the dream.

Howard, the Indy Pro Series point leader after five of 12 rounds, won the United Kingdom Formula Ford Zetec championship and the UK Renault 2000 Winter Series championship in 2003, earning Rising Star honors from the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC).

Lloyd finished second in Formula Renault in 2003 and earned McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year honors – an award previously won by F1 driver Jenson Button and IndyCar Series driver Dario Franchitti among others.

Mansell competed in EuroBOSS events, becoming the youngest driver (17) to race an F1 car.

Despite their credentials, all three soured on the pursuit of a Formula One ride as the end-all goal.

“At one point that was my goal, but now I’m being more realistic,” Mansell said. “Formula One is very political, and to get to the stage where you can get chosen for Formula One, a season of GP2 or the like, is just stupidly expensive. So someone in my position, we can’t afford to put ourselves in that kind of range to even be considered for Formula One.”

Howard, 25, was the first of the three to venture across the Atlantic and compete in the U.S. He won his debut race in a Formula Ford Zetec at Infineon Raceway in 2004 and came back to win the series championship in 2005, breaking IndyCar Series standout Dan Wheldon’s record with nine wins.

“I’ve always wanted to come here, and basically everyone in England, it was just, money, money, money, money,” Howard said. ‘How much money have you got?’ And that’s it. They weren’t interested in anything else. For someone like myself, if you don’t come from a wealthy background, you’ve got no hope of moving up.

“I want to win the Indy 500 and win the (IndyCar Series) championship and be more successful than my fellow, rival countryman Dan Wheldon.”

Lloyd is in his first season in the U.S. after competing in a handful on Italian F3 events in 2005.

“I think the atmosphere in America racing is far superior to the European atmosphere,” said Lloyd, who drives the No. 26 Automatic Fire Sprinklers, Inc. car. “It’s equally professional, but also people have fun with it which tends to be missed in Europe. IndyCars are great. It was always something I used to look at - Formula One as an aim, but now having traveled around a bit and having experienced a few more of the other top championships, I’m changing toward IndyCar.”

Despite a shift in career goals, all three are looking forward to being part of the F1 event.

“It’s a fantastic opportunity to be here in front of the F1 guys. The two races at Indianapolis are fantastic,” said Howard, who finished second in the Freedom 100 on the oval at Indianapolis prior to the Indianapolis 500. “Running with the Indy 500 and with F1, can’t ask for much better.”

Said Lloyd: “I raced Monaco in the Renault World Series in the beginning of last year supporting F1. That was great. That was a great experience. To be honest, supporting the 500 definitely equaled that, if not better. Monaco is great, but when you see the crowd and stuff for the 500, there’s nothing really around to match that.

“It will be good to race with Formula One here. Having raced with the IndyCar Series for the year, to race with Formula One as well is a really good thing for the Indy Pro Series.”

Practice and qualifying for the Liberty Challenge are June 30.