SONOMA — With a name like Speed, he was destined to drive a car for a living.

Manteca native Scott Speed began karting in 1993 and nabbed his first national title two years later. A natural on the track, Speed made the transition to open-wheel cars in 2000 with the Jim Russell Racing Schools at Infineon Raceway.

Speed won the inaugural Jim Russell/RACER trophy and a free season of racing for the following year.

After a stellar rookie season, Speed was picked up by the people with the Red Bull Formula One Drivers Search at the ripe age of 19.

He is now three races into his rookie season as a Formula One driver for Toro Rosso Scuderia, becoming the first American to drive in the circuit since Michael Andretti in 1993.

“He took off like wildfire,” Kjell Kallman, vice president and general manager of Russell Racing Schools, said in a press conference on Wednesday about how far Speed has come in such a short time.

Speed has finished 13th, 16th and ninth in the first three races of the Formula One 2006 season.

His best finish was Sunday in the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. Speed originally placed eighth, which would have given him his first point, but he was penalized 25 seconds for overtaking David Coulthard under a yellow flag. The call dropped him to ninth place.

“To almost grab a point last weekend was almost like a victory,” Speed said about his performance in Australia.

The impression many fans had at the beginning of the race season was that Red Bull Racing had four drivers: Speed, Coulthard, Klien Christian and Vitantonio Liuzzi.

But actually Coulthard and Christian race for Red Bull Racing while Speed and Liuzzi drive for Toro Rosso Scuderia, which is partially supported by Red Bull.

Toro Rosso Scuderia receives backing by Red Bull, just not at the level of Red Bull Racing. Speed and Coulthard are just as much rivals as any other driver on the track, perhaps even more so.

There aren’t any exact parallels in American racing with team sponsorship — in the NASCAR Nextel Cup circuit, Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon both race for Hendrick Motorsports, therefore helping one another in the garage and in strategy on the track.

This is not the case with the two teams Red Bull sponsors.

Unlike NASCAR, Formula One’s fans are all over the world, dominating everywhere except the United States.

“Formula One comes to America once a year,” Speed said about the July 2 race at Indianapolis. “I think that is the fact that’s going to limit the exposure here. Formula One’s not big in America to the major public. For any driver growing up, it’s a dream to make it to Formula One. It was a dream of mine as a kid. Fortunately I’m living it now.”

Speed adds that despite the lack of support from the United States, it is huge in every other country.

“It’s crazy,” Speed said. “It’s many times more (than NASCAR in the states). The fans in Europe and all over the world are awesome. That’s what drives the sport.”

Racing Formula One cars is much different, and much harder, than anything Speed’s experienced.

He feels fortunate, especially as an American, to be where he’s at and to have the opportunity to drive his dream. He now lives in Austria, which is where Red Bull is headquartered.

Adapting to the European way of life has been a struggle for Speed, but he’s taken a liking to it — though he did admit he was thrilled to get American fast food when he made it back to California this week.

“It’s very, very nice to get back here on my home ground,” Speed said. “Formula One is a very different life for someone who grew up in Manteca in karting. To change my lifestyle was a very big deal. If it wasn’t for Red Bull and their support I wouldn’t have been able to do it.”

A problem Americans have faced in the past with racing overseas is the lack of experience on the tracks. Speed’s only been to 75 percent of the tracks, but has always had a knack for adapting to new tracks quickly — a skill he picked up racing karts at Infineon.

In his debut in the season’s first race in Bahrain, Speed was nervous to get behind the wheel. He wasn’t completely comfortable in the car, and even after three races he still isn’t there yet.

“It takes a long time to get used to it. It’s so much quicker in the corners and braking than any other can I’ve driven, like an IRL or Champ Car. In Formula One, the racing is so much different. It’s much more complicated and technically advanced. It’s a lot more different than I thought it would be.”

In his rookie season with the Formula Russell Schools in 2001, Speed won the championship with 15 podium finishes. He had 10 wins, four second-place finishes and one third-place finish.

He was fourth in the Jim Russell Triple-Crown Pro Series the next year before he was sidelined in 2003 with a chronic intestinal disease he has since recovered from.

The next year he won the Formula Renault German and Eurocup Championship and tested with the Red Bull Cheever IRL team.

Last year he was third in the GP2 FIA championship, finishing with 67.5 points.

Speed is thankful for the support he’s received from Russell Racing Schools and credits much of his success to Infineon Raceway.

“Infineon for me is a where I learned to drive a race car,” Speed said. “I karted here and made the transition from them to cars.”

The Formula One season consists on 18 races in 18 different countries.