Archives for Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course – Pro Mazda – Race #2

Posted by  on Saturday, May 14th 2016     

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Pato O’Ward continued his season domination in the second of two Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires races at the 2.439-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, to complete a weekend sweep.

The 17-year-old native of Monterrey, Mexico has now won five of six races this year, even as he remains on a weekend-to-weekend schedule. But given his incredible start, he seems poised to continue as the year rolls on.

O’Ward entered the day’s action with a 31-point lead on Team Pelfrey teammate Aaron Telitz, having gained 19 points on Friday alone with a flag-to-flag win from pole and Telitz finishing seventh and outside the top two for the first time this year. Grist entered third in points, a further 33 points behind Telitz.

Here was the starting grid for the 40-minute race two.

Rank Car Driver Time
1 80 Pato O’Ward 01:22.9964
2 82 Aaron Telitz 01:23.3873
3 23 Will Owen 01:23.7072
4 5 Garett Grist 01:23.9052
5 0 Jake Parsons 01:23.9388
6 2 Nico Jamin 01:24.0146
7 31 Nicolas Dapero 01:24.0735
8 3 Jake Eidson 01:24.2401
9 13 Bobby Eberle 01:25.0023
10 57 Bob Kaminsky 01:26.5003
11 37 Jay Horak 01:26.6685
12 44 Kevin Davis 01:26.8966

Off the start, Telitz tried to put his No. 82 Rice Lake Weighing Systems alongside or close to O’Ward in the No. 80 Gap Guard/Topo Chico-backed entry, but was unable to complete a move through the opening turns. Telitz then fell into the clutches of the Juncos Racing pair of Will Owen and Garett Grist, while O’Ward got away.

At the end of the first lap O’Ward led Telitz by 1.5485 seconds, with Owen leading the quartet of Juncos entries from third to sixth.

On Lap 2, O’Ward had a 2.9736-second lead. Grist fell from fourth to sixth behind his other teammates, Nicolas Dapero and Jake Parsons.

Grist got back around Parsons on Lap 3 and Dapero by Lap 6, while up front O’Ward had extended his lead on Telitz to 4.4687 seconds.

At Lap 10, O’Ward led Telitz by just over 4.5 seconds with Owen and Grist third and fourth and Nico Jamin having got around the other two Juncos entries and up to fifth.

The order stabilized from there throughout the 12-car field with O’Ward leading Telitz, Owen, Grist and Jamin in the top five ahead of Parsons, Jake Eidson and Dapero.

The Team Pelfrey pair extended the gap over the Juncos drivers to double digits, with Owen again in a race of his own behind them, and Owen clear of Grist and Jamin, which became the best battle on the racetrack.

Telitz was able to progressively gain a few tenths on O’Ward but couldn’t drop the number below the 4-second mark.

By Lap 27, O’Ward’s gap was north of five seconds to 5.0011 over Telitz.

He took the white flag after completing Lap 28 with a gap of 4.9657 seconds, and took the checkered flag 4.7056 seconds clear of Telitz, following a second successive 29-lap, caution-free race.

Owen secured his second podium finish in as many days in third in the No. 23 AMR Juncos car.

A final lap change of position occurred for fourth with Jamin able to pass Grist, and score his best result since ending fourth in St. Petersburg round two.

Jamin’s final lap of 1:24.1944 was more than 1.2 seconds clear of Grist in that lap, as the Frenchman, in his Soul Red No. 2 Mazda for Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing entry, got around the Canadian.

Bobby Eberle of JDC Motorsports took his second National class win in as many days.

O’Ward, who endured a tough weekend on the IMS road course last year, was euphoric on the cold Saturday morning in speaking to Rob Howden on the podium.

“I was really motivated when I came here,” he said. “We had a really bad weekend last year, I wanted to do a good job and give back something to the team for all the hard work they’ve given me. It showed.

“We had amazing rhythm, and had a great setup that hit the sweet spot. I was a bit nervous, and started on sticker Cooper Tires. It was going to be different than qualifying. I got into the groove, and started keeping consistent lap times. We also got the pole and fastest lap; I can’t ask for anything else. We got the perfect weekend.”

Unofficial results are below following the latest O’Ward victory.

P No Name Laps
1 80 Pato O’Ward 29
2 82 Aaron Telitz 29
3 23 Will Owen 29
4 2 Nico Jamin 29
5 5 Garett Grist 29
6 00 Jake Parsons 29
7 3 Jake Eidson 29
8 31 Nicolas Dapero 29
9 13 Bobby Eberle 29
10 44 Kevin Davis 29
11 57 Bob Kaminsky 28
12 37 Jay Horak 28

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O’Ward Continues His Pro Mazda Mastery in Race One at Indianapolis

Posted by  on Saturday, May 14th 2016     

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Patricio “Pato” O’Ward is on a roll. The Mexican teenager might still be competing on a race-by-race basis in the Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires due to budgetary concerns, but he continued his impressive start to the season for Team Pelfrey by scoring a clear victory this afternoon at the…

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Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course – Pro Mazda – Race #1

Posted by  on Friday, May 13th 2016     

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The 17-year-old Mexican sophomore Pato O’Ward continued his domination of the early season in the Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires season, with his fourth win in five races to open the 2016 campaign and extend his points lead.

The driver of the No. 80 Gap Guard/Topo Chico supported entry for Team Pelfrey scored the pole by several tenths, led flag-to-flag in the 29-lap, 40-minute, caution-free race, and captured the win by 6.8509 seconds.

Not bad for a driver who has been on a weekend-to-weekend commitment with the team, having only been confirmed for St. Pete and Barber initially and then extended into the full month of May earlier this week.

O’Ward’s likely closest challenger, teammate Aaron Telitz in the No. 82 Rice Lake Weighing Systems entry, got caught out in the opening lap skirmish following a battle with Will Owen in the No. 23 AMR entry for Juncos Racing.

By Turn 7 Telitz ventured off course, with another car also off in the background. After starting second, the Wisconsin driver fell to 10th and without a yellow flag, would struggle to recoup the lost time.

From there, O’Ward was able to put on a clinic by gapping the field anywhere from three to five tenths of a second per lap.

He had a lead of 1.538 seconds after the first lap, 2.2757 by Lap 2, 3.5649 by Lap 5, 5.2047 by Lap 10 and 7.6606 by Lap 17.

With Telitz out of the fray, Owen made it into second early after a pass of him and ran a solo race from there, with no issues from behind him either.

Australian rookie Jake Parsons in the No. 00 Smart Mind Institute car for Juncos also made it up a spot, from fourth to third, and was able to maintain his pace over more experienced teammate Garett Grist in his No. 5 Lander Property Management/Mac Tools/Blacklist Lifestyle entry for Juncos for the rest of the race.

O’Ward had a 7.2961-second gap to Owen on Lap 28 and received the white flag. He took the checkered flag a lap later at a slightly reduced gap of 6.8509 seconds.

Parsons made it home in third for his first career podium with Grist fourth and Nico Jamin in fifth. Jake Eidson was sixth and Telitz made it back to seventh, a spot ahead of the fourth Juncos car, driven by Nicolas Dapero.

Bobby Eberle took the National class win in ninth, now driving for JDC Motorsports in his No. 13 car.

Post-race, O’Ward admitted it was harder than it looked. He tried to conserve his Cooper Tires over the course of the race to ensure he had enough tires left for a restart if needed.

Owen said he’s driving better this year than he did last year, but admitted he had nothing for O’Ward on this afternoon. He braked better than Telitz into Turn 7 and that was enough to secure the position, another podium at a track where he has a past Pro Mazda podium and a USF2000 win.

Parsons was thankful to secure his first podium and said managing his brakes was the toughest part of his race.

Unofficial results are below with the second race of the weekend set for 10:20 a.m. on Saturday morning.

P No Name Laps
1 80 Pato O’Ward 29
2 23 Will Owen 29
3 00 Jake Parsons 29
4 5 Garett Grist 29
5 2 Nico Jamin 29
6 3 Jake Eidson 29
7 82 Aaron Telitz 29
8 31 Nicolas Dapero 29
9 13 Bobby Eberle 29
10 57 Bob Kaminsky 29
11 37 Jay Horak 28
12 44 Kevin Davis 16

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Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course – USF2000, Pro Mazda Qualifying & Notes

Posted by  on Friday, May 13th 2016     

Qualifying sessions for the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda and Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires are in the books early Friday morning at the 2.439-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. The Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires qualifying occurs from 12 to 12:45 p.m.

Before we get to those session recaps, a quick note of thanks to some of the rock stars of the Mazda Road to Indy paddock.

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Mazda Road to Indy Gives Thanks to Holmatro Safety Team

AndersenEvent

Following Thursday’s track activity and despite heavy storms which blew through the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, most of the Mazda Road to Indy field – plus a number of other Verizon IndyCar Series luminaries and Mazda Road to Indy graduates – all gathered for an informal, casual but deserved honoring of the Holmatro Safety Team at the Andersen Promotions hospitality.

The Holmatro Safety Team not only serves IndyCar but the entire Mazda Road to Indy at all its events, and the presence of the team led by Mike Yates is invaluable.

“They are the people that have your back,” Dan Andersen said during the event.

Andersen noted how stressful and difficult this work can be on the crew, most who have regular day jobs and add this work to their plate.

The site here is particularly poignant since the Holmatro crew’s work was the first step to saving James Hinchcliffe’s life after his devastating accident in practice last year, before Hinchcliffe was transported to IU Health Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis. Although Hinchcliffe was unable to attend Thursday night, he has paid tribute to the crew in numerous ways already this season.

Among the IndyCar notables besides the Mazda Road to Indy drivers in attendance were past Indy Lights champions Bryan Herta and Townsend Bell, Indy Lights and USF2000 graduate Charlie Kimball and a host of others. More than 100 people were estimated in attendance.

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USF2000 Qualifying

USF2000 logo

The morning’s USF2000 qualifying ahead of the Cooper Tires USF2000 Grand Prix of Indianapolis Powered by Mazda was hectic, fast and chaotic and the drama didn’t end until after the checkered flag.

Early runs on the green track, since it rained heavily since the series was last on track, forecast that Nico Jamin’s 1:26.1799 track record would be broken. Additionally, temperatures were pretty cool at just 55 degrees ambient.

Victor Franzoni of ArmsUp Motorsports was first up on cold tires to post the provisional pole time, with a 1:26.4516 in the No. 9 car.

But times would drop throughout the remainder of the 30-minute session. Australian Luke Gabin continued his weekend pace with a 1:26.3965 in the No. 91 JAY Motorsports entry to supplant Franzoni, and then Gabin’s countryman Jordan Lloyd topped Gabin’s time with a 1:26.2219 in the No. 21 Pabst Racing car to ascend into the provisional pole.

It was Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing’s Parker Thompson though, the series points leader in Cape’s No. 2 entry, who was first to break Jamin’s track record time with a new record of 1:26.1738.

That stood for maybe a minute at best before another of the trio of talented Australians, Thompson’s Cape teammate Anthony Martin in the No. 8 car, clocked a 1:26.1053 lap.

Gabin then came through to post an even quicker lap, the first 1:25 lap, at a 1:25.9602 time.

But the time proved too good to be true for Gabin and JAY Motorsports, with word from Race Control after the end of the session that Gabin had blown the checkered flag, and would thus lose his times.

Gabin was one of three drivers, along with Team Pelfrey’s TJ Fischer and ArmsUp Motorsports’ Max Hanratty, who had all their lap times invalidated in the session per Race Director Scot Elkins.

That promoted Martin back to his second straight pole position, having also started on pole in Round 4 at Barber Motorsports Park.

However it marks the first time the native of Kalgoorlie qualified on pole in a qualifying session, rather than having his second best time from a session set the grid for race two of the weekend.

Thompson was second ahead of Lloyd, Franzoni and Yufeng Luo, who led Thursday’s combined practice times with his best lap in first practice.

The first 30-minute race of the weekend takes place at 1 p.m. this afternoon, and with Gabin’s penalty, he’ll be hungry to advance through the field.

Qualifying times are below:

P No Name FTime Diff Laps
1 8 Anthony Martin 1:26.105 0.000 14
2 2 Parker Thompson 1:26.174 0.0685 14
3 21 Jordan Lloyd 1:26.222 0.1166 17
4 9 Victor Franzoni 1:26.372 0.2670 16
5 23 Yufeng Luo 1:26.506 0.4008 14
6 22 Garth Rickards 1:26.543 0.4375 18
7 3 Nikita Lastochkin 1:26.768 0.6629 14
8 92 Cameron Das 1:26.833 0.7278 11
9 34 Lucas Kohl 1:26.947 0.8415 18
10 33 Ayla Agren 1:26.977 0.8717 18
11 5 Austin McCusker 1:26.988 0.8823 14
12 81 Jordan Cane 1:27.014 0.9084 18
13 18 Dakota Dickerson 1:27.041 0.9362 16
14 80 Robert Megennis 1:27.295 1.1896 17
15 72 Tazio Ottis 1:27.518 1.4123 17
16 77 Sam Chastain 1:28.012 1.9067 12
17 20 Clint McMahan 1:28.447 2.3417 16
18 19 Michai Stephens 1:28.805 2.6998 14
19 12 Eric Filgueiras 1:29.037 2.9318 7
20 11 Robert Armington 1:29.702 3.5968 16
21 7 Dale VandenBush 1:30.119 4.0133 12
22 44 Charles Finelli 1:30.469 4.3642 16
23 15 Brenden Puderbach 1:31.418 5.3127 14
24 6 Max Hanratty No Time — 17
25 82 TJ Fischer No Time — 16
26 91 Luke Gabin No Time — 13

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Pro Mazda Qualifying

Pro Mazda Logo

While the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda qualifying was nuts, the Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires qualifying later Friday morning under sunny but cool skies (59 degrees ambient) was all but decided early.

Series points leader Pato O’Ward, in the No. 80 Gap Guard entry for Team Pelfrey, secured his third pole position in five rounds.

O’Ward’s early flier of 1:22.8800 was more than four tenths clear of teammate Aaron Telitz in the No. 82 Rice Lake Weighing Systems entry.

It was also a new track record by more than a tenth, ahead of Spencer Pigot’s best time of 1:22.9623, set in 2014.

O’Ward ran his laps in the opening 15 minutes of the 30-minute session and could afford to sit on his time for the remainder of the session.

Juncos Racing completed the top six with all four of its cars, with Will Owen, Jake Parsons, Garett Grist and Nicolas Dapero all six tenths or more behind.

The Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing teammates, Nico Jamin and Jake Eidson, were a further ways back in seventh and eighth.

The first race for Pro Mazda takes place at 1:55 p.m., following the first USF2000 race of the weekend.

Qualifying times are below:

P No Name FTime Diff Laps
1 80 Pato O’Ward 1:22.880 0.000 7
2 82 Aaron Telitz 1:23.306 0.4264 8
3 23 Will Owen 1:23.525 0.6451 15
4 00 Jake Parsons 1:23.766 0.8862 18
5 5 Garett Grist 1:23.781 0.9010 16
6 31 Nicolas Dapero 1:23.933 1.0533 17
7 2 Nico Jamin 1:23.961 1.0810 12
8 3 Jake Eidson 1:24.214 1.3343 16
9 13 Bobby Eberle 1:24.978 2.0982 19
10 44 Kevin Davis 1:26.830 3.9497 18
11 37 Jay Horak 1:27.042 4.1619 8
12 57 Bob Kaminsky 1:27.454 4.5735 14

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category: Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda, Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires, Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course – USF2000, Pro Mazda, Indy Lights Second Practice & Notes

Posted by  on Thursday, May 12th 2016     

Second practice reports and notes from the Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis weekend, which features all three rungs of the Mazda Road to Indy, are below. The second Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires session was truncated due to heavy rain at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.

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USF2000 logo

The second Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda 30-minute practice session witnessed slightly warmer and more overcast temperatures, and slower times.

ArmsUp Motorsports’ Victor Franzoni topped the timesheets in the No. 9 entry with a best time of 1:27.6366 around the 2.439-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.

The best time was more than eight tenths of a second off Yufeng Luo’s Thursday morning leading time, with a 1:26.8246 in his No. 23 Pabst Racing entry standing as the best time of the day in the series.

Within practice two, Franzoni edged Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing’s Parker Thompson by just 0.0547 of a second.

With Luke Gabin, Luo and Jordan Lloyd completing the top five, the same top five occurred in the afternoon session as they clocked in in the morning session. Additionally, Cape’s Anthony Martin was sixth for the second straight session.

The top 16 drivers were separated by just 0.9995 of a second.

All but two of the 26 drivers entered completed 10 laps or more in the session, with ArmsUp’s Max Hanratty setting the highest number with 20 laps.

USF2000 kicks off Friday’s track activity with its next session, qualifying from 9:30 to 10 a.m., before its first race from 1 to 1:40 p.m.

P No Name FTime Diff Laps
1 9 Victor Franzoni 1:27.637 0.000 15
2 2 Parker Thompson 1:27.691 0.0547 16
3 91 Luke Gabin 1:27.757 0.1200 16
4 23 Yufeng Luo 1:27.841 0.2048 15
5 21 Jordan Lloyd 1:27.970 0.3338 16
6 8 Anthony Martin 1:28.002 0.3658 14
7 5 Austin McCusker 1:28.213 0.5764 16
8 22 Garth Rickards 1:28.224 0.5874 17
9 81 Jordan Cane 1:28.248 0.6111 17
10 33 Ayla Agren 1:28.438 0.8015 14
11 18 Dakota Dickerson 1:28.440 0.8034 14
12 3 Nikita Lastochkin 1:28.459 0.8226 16
13 80 Robert Megennis 1:28.461 0.8243 13
14 34 Lucas Kohl 1:28.486 0.8490 15
15 6 Max Hanratty 1:28.501 0.8645 20
16 82 TJ Fischer 1:28.636 0.9995 16
17 77 Sam Chastain 1:28.784 1.1475 10
18 92 Cameron Das 1:28.852 1.2157 13
19 72 Tazio Ottis 1:29.013 1.3760 18
20 19 Michai Stephens 1:29.485 1.8483 17
21 20 Clint McMahan 1:30.309 2.6721 13
22 7 Dale VandenBush 1:30.594 2.9569 19
23 11 Robert Armington 1:30.913 3.2765 14
24 44 Charles Finelli 1:31.701 4.0649 9
25 15 Brenden Puderbach 1:31.835 4.1983 15
26 12 Eric Filgueiras 1:32.942 5.3052 7

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Pro Mazda Logo

Aaron Telitz paced his second straight Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires practice session, albeit with times slower in the afternoon 30-minute second practice than they were compared to the morning times.

The Rice Lake, Wis. native posted a best time of 1:24.4319 in the No. 82 Team Pelfrey entry, which is supported by Rice Lake Weighing Systems.

Will Owen was second for Juncos Racing in the No. 23 AMR entry at 1:24.5280, with teammate Garett Grist in third. Points leader Pato O’Ward and another Juncos entry, Nicolas Dapero, completed the top five.

As in the morning session, the 30-minute session ran incident-free without any red flag interruption.

The next Pro Mazda session is 10:15 to 10:45 a.m. on Friday, with qualifying. Its first race of the weekend is scheduled from 1:55 to 2:45 p.m.

P No Name FTime Diff Laps
1 82 Aaron Telitz 1:24.432 0.000 21
2 23 Will Owen 1:24.528 0.0961 17
3 5 Garett Grist 1:24.656 0.2241 14
4 80 Pato O’Ward 1:24.740 0.3077 21
5 31 Nicolas Dapero 1:24.962 0.5299 17
6 00 Jake Parsons 1:25.088 0.6556 15
7 2 Nico Jamin 1:25.253 0.8212 16
8 3 Jake Eidson 1:25.449 1.0174 16
9 13 Bobby Eberle 1:25.862 1.4303 18
10 44 Kevin Davis 1:27.204 2.7718 17
11 57 Bob Kaminsky 1:27.586 3.1543 17
12 37 Jay Horak 1:27.963 3.5306 17

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Indy Lights Logo

There wasn’t much running time in the second Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires series practice at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, ahead of this weekend’s Mazda Indy Lights Grand Prix of Indianapolis Presented by Cooper Tires.

Darkening skies and impending rain closed on the IMS road course, before hitting hard just before 5 p.m. local time.

Most of the field got some dry laps in before the rain hit, with Juncos Racing’s Kyle Kaiser posting a best time of 1:16.7026 around the 2.439-mile road course in the InterVision/NetApp/Juniper Networks backed No. 18 car.

Scott Anderson had his best practice session of the year ending second in the No. 77 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports entry, with support from Anderson Podiatry Centers/Laser Therapy, Surgery and Neuropathy/Curb Records.

Felix Rosenqvist, Dean Stoneman and Scott Hargrove completed the top five.

Once the rain hit, Rosenqvist, Belardi Auto Racing teammate Zach Veach and RC Enerson all took to the track for a handful of laps on Cooper Tires wet weather rubber. Times were anywhere from in the 1:45 to 1:55 range in the miserable and worsening conditions.

With just over 14 minutes to go the session received an early checkered flag, owing to the rain.

Indy Lights’ next session is qualifying on Friday, from 12 to 12:45 p.m. Its first race of the weekend is scheduled from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m., following Verizon IndyCar Series qualifying.

P No Name FTime Diff Laps
1 18 Kyle Kaiser 1:16.703 0.000 4
2 77 Scott Anderson 1:16.876 0.1733 4
3 14 Felix Rosenqvist 1:16.882 0.1791 8
4 27 Dean Stoneman 1:16.904 0.2011 6
5 7 RC Enerson 1:17.010 0.3074 7
6 3 Scott Hargrove 1:17.015 0.3126 4
7 11 Ed Jones 1:17.022 0.3195 3
8 5 Zach Veach 1:17.249 0.5468 12
9 51 Shelby Blackstock 1:17.252 0.5498 4
10 13 Zachary Claman De Melo 1:17.285 0.5826 6
11 4 Felix Serralles 1:17.363 0.6607 5
12 2 Juan Piedrahita 1:17.375 0.6724 5
13 55 Santiago Urrutia 1:17.612 0.9097 5
14 28 Dalton Kellett 1:17.797 1.0945 4
15 22 Neil Alberico 1:17.824 1.1216 5
16 17 Andre Negrao 1:17.898 1.1959 5

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Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course – USF2000, Pro Mazda, Indy Lights First Practice & Notes

Posted by  on Thursday, May 12th 2016     

The Mazda Road to Indy has its full complement of series here at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.

The Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda, Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires and Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires championships have all had their first practice sessions, which grew in importance with impending weather likely to hit the track this afternoon.

Quick session reports are below.

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USF2000 logo

The first USF2000 session of the weekend before the Cooper Tires USF2000 Grand Prix of Indianapolis Powered by Mazda was clean, green and dry for 30 minutes from 9:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. on the 2.439-mile road course.

Yufeng Luo, who won Round 2 of the season at St. Petersburg, took his No. 23 Pabst Racing entry to the top of the timesheets at 1:26.8246.

Luke Gabin was second in the No. 91 JAY Motorsports entry at 1:26.8872, with Parker Thompson of Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing and Luo’s teammate at Pabst, Jordan Lloyd, also dipping into the 1:26 bracket.

Victor Franzoni of ArmsUp Motorsports completed the top five runners; the Brazilian makes his USF2000 return to the IMS road course after making his Pro Mazda series debut here last year.

The top 14 drivers were covered by 0.8744 of a second. Nico Jamin holds the track record with a qualifying lap of 1:26.1799 for Cape, set last year.

Of note, the field is reduced to 26 cars this weekend with the absence of James Munro, the fourth driver at Team Pelfrey. Team Pelfrey team principal Nigel Tuckey said there were contractual issues that arose with Munro, and his return status for further rounds is doubtful.

Additionally, ArmsUp is back to three cars with Blake Mount, who drove a fourth ArmsUp entry during Wednesday’s test sessions, not competing in the first practice.

The next USF2000 practice session is another 30-minute session, from 1:30 to 2 p.m.

P No Name FTime Diff Laps
1 23 Yufeng Luo 1:26.825 0.000 8
2 91 Luke Gabin 1:26.887 0.0626 14
3 2 Parker Thompson 1:26.891 0.0668 18
4 21 Jordan Lloyd 1:26.972 0.1476 16
5 9 Victor Franzoni 1:27.009 0.1841 13
6 8 Anthony Martin 1:27.093 0.2686 17
7 3 Nikita Lastochkin 1:27.189 0.3643 13
8 22 Garth Rickards 1:27.307 0.4822 16
9 80 Robert Megennis 1:27.471 0.6468 14
10 33 Ayla Agren 1:27.519 0.6949 17
11 82 TJ Fischer 1:27.636 0.8113 17
12 81 Jordan Cane 1:27.654 0.8293 16
13 5 Austin McCusker 1:27.664 0.8393 17
14 34 Lucas Kohl 1:27.699 0.8744 18
15 6 Max Hanratty 1:27.998 1.1735 10
16 18 Dakota Dickerson 1:28.165 1.3402 11
17 92 Cameron Das 1:28.181 1.3562 14
18 77 Sam Chastain 1:28.295 1.4701 6
19 72 Tazio Ottis 1:28.838 2.0133 16
20 19 Michai Stephens 1:29.282 2.4570 16
21 20 Clint McMahan 1:29.408 2.5838 14
22 7 Dale VandenBush 1:29.978 3.1534 19
23 11 Robert Armington 1:30.432 3.6072 13
24 12 Eric Filgueiras 1:31.634 4.8098 13
25 44 Charles Finelli 1:31.915 5.0900 13
26 15 Brenden Puderbach 1:33.140 6.3155 16

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Pro Mazda Logo

In first practice for the Pro Mazda Grand Prix of Indianapolis Presented by Cooper Tires, the now routine Team Pelfrey timesheet topping continued with Aaron Telitz ahead of teammate Pato O’Ward.

Telitz, in the No. 82 entry, clocked a best time of 1:23.6710 with O’Ward, in the No. 80 car, a little more than a tenth in arrears at 1:23.7781.

Juncos Racing, which had a strong 2015 setup at the IMS road course and won one race with Timothe Buret, placed three of its four drivers in the next three spots. Garett Grist was third ahead of rookie Jake Parsons and past IMS road course winner in USF2000, Will Owen, in fifth.

Nico Jamin, who swept the weekend in USF2000 here last year, was only sixth best and the lead of two Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing entries.

Of note, Weiron Tan in the third Team Pelfrey entry, is withdrawn for the remainder of the weekend per a contractual issue.

Tan won the Thursday at IMS last year in what was the NOLA Motorsports Park rain-delayed makeup round, then driving for Andretti Autosport.

The next Pro Mazda practice session is another 30-minute session, from 2:15 to 2:45 p.m.

P No Name FTime Diff Laps
1 82 Aaron Telitz 1:23.671 0.000 8
2 80 Pato O’Ward 1:23.778 0.1071 9
3 5 Garett Grist 1:23.877 0.2065 16
4 00 Jake Parsons 1:24.020 0.3493 16
5 23 Will Owen 1:24.105 0.4335 18
6 2 Nico Jamin 1:24.210 0.5391 16
7 3 Jake Eidson 1:24.302 0.6315 17
8 31 Nicolas Dapero 1:24.521 0.8498 16
9 13 Bobby Eberle 1:25.553 1.8818 17
10 44 Kevin Davis 1:26.538 2.8675 17
11 37 Jay Horak 1:26.972 3.3012 13
12 57 Bob Kaminsky 1:27.437 3.7657 14
13 81 Weiron Tan No Time — —

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Indy Lights Logo

Ahead of the Mazda Indy Lights Grand Prix of Indianapolis Presented by Cooper Tires doubleheader, three track veterans led the opening 45-minute practice Thursday at the 2.439-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.

Santiago Urrutia, who won the most recent round of the season at Barber Motorsports Park, was the only driver to clock into the 1:15 bracket with a 1:15.9770 lap time. Urrutia drives the Soul Red Mazda No. 55 entry for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports with Curb-Agajanian.

The Uruguayan won his first Pro Mazda race last year at the IMS road course, which helped kickstart his title charge. He told TSO before the session he was confident in the car’s pace before even putting on new tires during the test day on Wednesday and it showed on Thursday.

Meanwhile series sophomores Ed Jones of Carlin and RC Enerson, also of SPM, were second and third. Jones was just 0.1256 off Urrutia’s best time with Enerson third, 0.1767.

Felix Rosenqvist of Belardi Auto Racing and Kyle Kaiser of Juncos Racing completed the top five, with Dean Stoneman in sixth (Andretti Autosport), Felix Serralles (Carlin) and Scott Hargrove (Team Pelfrey) the top half of the 16-car field.

SPM didn’t run a ton of laps in the session with Urrutia running only six laps and Scott Anderson seven.

As in the Pro Mazda and USF2000 sessions earlier Thursday, there were no red flags or incidents during the sessions.

Second practice for Indy Lights runs from 4:30 to 5:15 p.m., which is the last session of the day’s activity.

P No Name FTime Diff Laps
1 55 Santiago Urrutia 1:15.977 0.000 6
2 11 Ed Jones 1:16.103 0.1256 13
3 7 RC Enerson 1:16.154 0.1767 14
4 14 Felix Rosenqvist 1:16.407 0.4298 18
5 18 Kyle Kaiser 1:16.603 0.6256 14
6 27 Dean Stoneman 1:16.711 0.7338 18
7 4 Felix Serralles 1:16.727 0.7496 18
8 3 Scott Hargrove 1:16.745 0.7682 16
9 5 Zach Veach 1:16.756 0.7786 16
10 51 Shelby Blackstock 1:16.778 0.8009 17
11 22 Neil Alberico 1:16.853 0.8757 14
12 77 Scott Anderson 1:16.858 0.8806 7
13 13 Zachary Claman De Melo 1:16.911 0.9343 19
14 17 Andre Negrao 1:16.973 0.9958 14
15 2 Juan Piedrahita 1:17.168 1.1906 17
16 28 Dalton Kellett 1:17.329 1.3516 22

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category: Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda, Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires, Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires
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Pro Mazda Championship Augmented by National Class in 2016

Posted by  on Tuesday, February 16th 2016     

Pro Mazda Championship Augmented by National Class in 2016
Lower-Cost, Entry-Level Division Added to Mazda Road to Indy’s Middle Rung

PALMETTO, Fla. – The Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires will include a revised sub-class for 2016 following today’s announcement that the Expert Series, which previously catered to drivers over the age of 30, will be brought more in line with the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Presented by Mazda and replaced by a new National Class.
Pro Mazda represents the middle rung on the acclaimed Mazda Road to Indy development ladder which provides Mazda scholarships to assist drivers graduating from karting through USF2000, Pro Mazda and Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires to the Verizon IndyCar Series and the Indianapolis 500.
The new National Class will be open to any drivers who have reached the age of 20 before March 1, 2016 and is aimed at providing a lower-cost entry point. Eligible cars include those currently running in Pro Mazda specification and meeting the older Star Mazda technical requirements as governed by the Sports Car Club of America General Competition Rules pertaining to the FA class.
“There are so many former Star Mazda race cars competing in North American club racing and in other forms of open-wheel competition that it just makes sense to create an opportunity for interested drivers to sample the fantastic schedule of events we have in the Pro Mazda Championship,” said Dan Andersen, Owner and CEO of Andersen Promotions.
“With the revival of the National Class in USF2000, the model is perfect to use as a replacement for the Pro Mazda Expert class as it does not require any investment in changes required for our championship class car regulations. We look forward to welcoming some new faces and hope they enjoy this great new place to compete.”
Entry fees for the new National Class will be discounted 50 percent below the regular Pro Mazda rate, and each race winner will earn a free entry for an upcoming event in the same season. The second-place finisher will claim a 50 percent reduction in the entry fee for an upcoming race.
The National Class will utilize the same point system as the former Expert Class. Competitors will vie for their own separate classification and will not be eligible for overall series awards or championship points.
The 2016 Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires will comprise 16 races, beginning with a double-header on the Streets of St. Petersburg, Fla., on March 12/13.
category: Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires
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