Posted by Steve Wittich on Saturday, March 10th 2018
After missing out on pole in Friday’s Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires qualifying session by one-tenth of a second, Andretti Autosport rookie Patricio O’Ward ended Saturday’s qualifying session the same amount ahead Colton Herta (Andretti Steinbrenner Racing).
The Mexican pilot’s pole lap of 1:05.039, was quicker than Aaron Telitz’s pole lap of 1:05.1279 from Friday afternoon.
It’s the 18-year-olds first Indy Lights pole, and sixth career Mazda Road To Indy Presented by Cooper Tires pole.
Patricio O’Ward scored his first Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires poles on the street of St. Petersburg, Fla. (Photo courtesy of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC Photography)
O’Ward told INDYCAR Radio’s Rob Howden that it took longer then they thought it would for the tires to come up to temperature, and that the team made no changes to the No. 27 for his final run at pole. He just had to dig deeper to find the extra speed.
The top three qualifiers from Friday’s qualifying session, Telitz, Herta, and O’Ward, spent the first half of the 30-minute session trading the provisional among themselves.
At the halfway point of the 30 minutes session, the top five were: Teliz, O’Ward, Herta, Franzoni, and Blackstock. At this point, Telitz’s lap time was 1:05.499, but the top five were all within four-tenths of the Rice Lake, Wisc. Native.
Other then Santi Urrutia, who appeared to be doing a long race run on scrubbed tires, the track went reasonably quiet as the teams called their drivers to pit road to make some final adjustments bolt on the second set of sticker Cooper Tire slicks. The Belardi red was called to pit road just as the rest of the field started to head back out for the final pole shootout.
After three or four laps to let the Cooper Tires came up to temperature, the timing and scoring screen started to light up as drivers began to get quicker
Neil Alberico and O’Ward were the first two drivers to improve on the quickest lap of the session.
With just under five minutes left in the qualifying session, O’Ward grabbed the provisional pole. That lap at 1:05.039 broke Telitz’s track record set in Friday afternoon’s qualifying session.
Telitz, Herta, Franzoni, Alberico, and Urrutia were all turning quicker and quicker laps, but the session came to an end with just under two minutes remaining when Telitz made contact with the concrete barriers in Turn 3.
Aaron Telitz’s car is returned to the Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires paddock after a qualifying shunt in St. Petersburg. (Photo Courtesy of Tony DiZinno)
At the time of the incident, Telitz had the second quickest lap of the session but was dropped to third after he lost his fastest lap for causing the red flag.
Telitz was checked, cleared and released to drive.
For the second straight day, the Belardi Auto Racing team will have to flail to repair a badly damaged machine after a Turn 3 incident.
Scratch that. The car appears to have suffered enough damage that it will not be able to be run further this weekend. The team does not have a spare car available, and other options are being explored.
This was the second straight Indy Lights qualifying session before the first of two Mazda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Presented by Cooper Tires races gets the green flag at 1:05 pm.
Aaron Telitz extended his streak of winning a pole position on the 1.8-mile streets of St. Petersburg to three, with an authoritative performance in first qualifying for the Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires season opener.
Telitz, in the No. 9 Belardi Auto Racing Dallara IL-15 Mazda, progressively improved throughout the 30-minute session to an ultimate best time of 1:05.1279. The third of three laps he turned in the 1:05.1 bracket set a new track record, the third of the day for the Mazda Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires. This eclipsed the mark set by Ed Jones in 2015 at 1:05.3193.
For Telitz, starting on pole here isn’t new. He did so in race two in Pro Mazda in 2016, and in race one in Indy Lights here last year. He promptly won both events. This is his first Indy Lights pole since that season opener a year ago, and he enters this weekend having been the most recent series winner over the last six months – the 2017 Watkins Glen season finale.
“I think it’s the first race of the season… you could put it anywhere and I want to do well. I love St. Pete… I think it’s the best city in Florida,” Telitz deadpanned when talking to TSO Ladder after the session.
“We’re going to try to qualify on pole again tomorrow, then in the afternoon get a clean start. I know some guys got a run on me last year. Turn 1, the key is getting through cleanly,” he added.
“I think the new pavement in the back section is showing more dividends than in years past, I think. To be honest I thought it would get even faster from practice to qualifying. We had used tires in the first session and were still in the (1:05) fives.”
Indeed Telitz’s fastest laps came after the Indy Lights field came in and switched onto sets of new Cooper Tires roughly halfway through the session..
Pato O’Ward, Telitz’s former teammate in Pro Mazda and like Telitz, a past Pro Mazda race winner at St. Petersburg, will line up second in his first race for his return to the championship. He was second in race two here last year with Team Pelfrey, and will look to go one spot better in his debut with Andretti Autosport.
Only once in the six prior Dallara IL-15 Mazda races at St. Petersburg has the polesitter not won. That came in the first race of 2016, when Kyle Kaiser grabbed the pole and Felix Serralles won the race. Otherwise, all of Telitz, Jones, Colton Herta and Felix Rosenqvist have all converted poles into race wins.
“Yeah, we didn’t find the extra tenth and a half we needed,” O’Ward told Ryan Myrehn of the Advance Auto Parts IndyCar Radio Network.
“I’m pretty satisfied and help us improve in the race. It’s a totally different monster. We’ll get down in the debriefing room. They have a little extra speed on us.”
O’Ward’s best lap time of 1:05.286 was also under Jones’ old track record, but not enough to supplant the Wisconsin native on pole.
Herta made it to third in the Andretti Steinbrenner Racing entry, with Santi Urrutia fourth in the repaired second Belardi car and series debutante Victor Franzoni completing the top five in Juncos’ lone car.
Ryan Norman in sixth and the Team Pelfrey pair of Shelby Blackstock and Neil Alberico were next, all still within a second of pole. Dalton Kellett rounds out the field.
By starting this race, Blackstock seeks to extend his mark as the only driver in Indy Lights to have started every one in the history with the Dallara IL-15 chassis. Saturday will mark Blackstock’s 51st start, but coincidentally his first in a car not numbered 51 – he’ll be in Pelfrey’s No. 3 car, which has finished second in a race at St. Petersburg each of the last two years (O’Ward last year, Scott Hargrove in 2016).
Indy Lights qualifies for its second race from 8:30 to 9 a.m. tomorrow, then has its first race of the season just after 1 p.m. at 1:05 p.m. ET.
Mazda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Presented by Cooper Tires Qualifying #1 timesheet
Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires had its first practice session of the year as the third Mazda Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires series on track this morning at St. Petersburg. Quick reports from the Pro Mazda Presented by Cooper Tires and Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda first practices are linked here.
While the field dropped to nine cars – as TSO reported earlier this week, Alfonso Celis Jr.’s planned debut with Juncos Racing is on a temporary hold – it was still close at the top between the remaining cars in the 45-minute session.
A couple red flags interrupted the session, with the second and longer one coming with just over 25 minutes remaining. Santi Urrutia lost the back-end of his No. 5 Belardi Auto Racing Dallara IL-15 Mazda and tagged the wall. TSO spoke to Urrutia and while the Uruguayan driver was fine, he noted he bottomed out over the bump in Turn 3 (the track is back to its prior configuration after a last-minute change last year), and the car has extensive left side damage.
The AMR INDYCAR Safety Team came to inspect Turns 3 and 4 after the incident, and a healthy amount of the session was lost under this red flag. Practice resumed with just over 15 minutes remaining.
Practice resumed with former Team Pelfrey teammates and Pro Mazda title rivals Pato O’Ward and Aaron Telitz exchanging the top times. Telitz, in his No. 9 Belardi car and O’Ward, in his No. 27 Andretti Autosport entry, swapped the top spot nearly half a dozen times before both drivers dipped into the 1:05 bracket.
O’Ward was first into that range at 1:05.9767, while Telitz supplanted it later at 1:05.9100. The latter time stood as the session’s best, with O’Ward second.
Colton Herta completed the top three in the No. 98 Andretti-Steinbrenner Racing entry, at 1:06.2633. Juncos rookie and Pro Mazda champion Victor Franzoni was fourth with Ryan Norman in the third of four Andretti Autosport entered cars completing the top five. Just 0.6927 of a second covered the top five.
Telitz and Herta split the two races last year and O’Ward scored his first and only Indy Lights podium here in race two.
Indy Lights qualifies for the first of the Mazda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Presented by Cooper Tires races later today, from 1:40 to 2:10 p.m. ET and local time.
Mazda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Presented by Cooper Tires Practice Session #1 timesheet
Posted by Steve Wittich on Wednesday, March 7th 2018
By Steve Wittich
The Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires series will take to the streets (and runways) of downtown St. Petersburg, Fla. for the 19th and 20th time. It will also be the 10th straight year that the series starts the season on the shores of Tampa Bay.
Previous race winning drivers and teams at the Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires events in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Previous race winning drivers and teams at the Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires events in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Year
Driver
Team
2017 Race #2
Colton Herta
Andretti Autosport
2017 Race #1
Aaron Telitz
Belardi Auto Racing
2016 Race #2
Felix Rosenqvist
Belardi Auto Racing
2016 Race #1
Felix Serralles
Belardi Auto Racing
2015 Race #2
Ed Jones
Carlin
2015 Race #1
Ed Jones
Carlin
2014
Zach Veach
Andretti Autosport
2013
Jack Hawksworth
Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
2012
Tristan Vautier
Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
2011
Josef Newgarden
Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
2010
JK Vernay
Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
2009 Race #2
Junior Strous
Winners Circle Group
2009 Race #1
Junior Strous
Winners Circle Group
2008 Race #2
Richard Antinucci
Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
2008 Race #1
Rafa Matos
Andretti Autosport
2007
Alex Lloyd
Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
2006
Rafa Matos
Guthrie Racing
2005
Marco Andretti
Andretti Autosport
Marco Andretti celebrates an Indy Lights win at St. Petersburg with his grandfather and grandmother (Photo courtesy of INDYCAR – Ron McQueeney)
Race weekend basics:
The official name of the pair of races is: Mazda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Presented by Cooper Tires
Saturday’s Race 1 is scheduled for 35 laps or 60 minutes
Sunday’s Race 2 is scheduled for 40 laps or 60 minutes
Each entry is permitted to use four sets of new Cooper Tire slicks, and can also carry over one set that has to be used in the first practice session of the event
Each entry is permitted to use four sets of new Cooper Tire rains.
Driver points are distributed as follows: 30 – 25 – 22 – 19 – 17 – 15 -14 – 13 – 12 – 11 – 10 – 9 – 8 – 7 – 6 – 5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1 – an additional one point will be awarded to the pole sitter, and to the driver who leads the most laps
Race weekend schedule:
Friday, March 9
TIME
EVENT
8:50am – 9:35am
Indy Lights Practice #1
1:40pm – 2:10pm
Indy Lights Qualifying #1
3:30pm – 4pm
Indy Lights Autograph Session
Saturday, March 10
TIME
EVENT
8:30am – 9am
Indy Lights Qualifying #2
1:05pm – 2:05pm
Indy Lights Race #1
Sunday, March 11
TIME
EVENT
10:45am – 11:45am
Indy Lights Race #2
If you want to win the $1 million Mazda Motorsports scholarship you don’t need to win the season opening weekend, but you should finish.
Looking back a recent history, a driver doesn’t need to win a race during the first race weekend to collect the Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires title. In fact, the last driver to do that was Tristan Vautier in 2012. In the past five seasons, the eventual scholarship winner has finished third or worse in both weekend races. Most recent Indy Lights title winner Kyle Kaiser finished sixth and fourth in 2017, and it was eventual 2016 champion and current Chip Ganassi Racing IndyCar driver Ed Jones, who had the worst start to the season, finishing 10th and 7th in the first two races of the year.
“I know that the champion isn’t always determined by who wins at St. Pete, but I always feel like it’s good to get off on the right foot at the first event of the season,” said sophomore championship contender Aaron Telitz to TSO Ladder. “ I’ll be gunning for a pole, gunning for a win in both the races.”
You might not have to win the first race of the year, but making sure you finish is always highly recommended. Of the previous 32 Indy Lights champions, only one title winner not complete the first race of the season. ABC/ESPN and NBCSN pit reporter Jon Beekhuis started fourth, but crashed on the fourth lap, finishing 16th in the 1988 season-opening race at Phoenix International Raceway.
And, if history is any indicator – all but two of the eighteen Indy Lights races in St. Petersburg, Fla. have had at least one caution, drivers will have the opportunity to get into trouble and start the season on a sour note.
Quality over quantity
For a number of reasons, that we’ll go into more depth about in an article during the six-week hiatus between the season opener this weekend and the doubleheader at Barber Motorsports Park on April 20-22, the field for Indy Lights will be a short one in 2018.
However, that doesn’t mean it lacks in star power.
“I think it’s going to be tough this year, there are only ten cars, but all ten cars can win the championship,” said double vice-champion Santi Urrutia. “If you look at the times from today, it’s going to be really tight.”
Rookie Pato O’Ward agreed with Urrutia, telling TSO: “I think it’s going to be a very big year for people to see who’s got it and who doesn’t. It’s going to be tight. At this test (Homestead-Miami Speedway spring training) everybody was within a few tenths. That’s insane. So it’s definitely going to be a very, very strong pack of eight to ten cars.”
Collectively the experienced field features:
205 Indy Lights starts
10 Indy Lights wins
35 Indy Lights podiums
526 MRTI starts
51 MRTI wins
152 MRTI podiums
The full-season contenders (aka the entire field).
First up is Santi Urrutia, the Indy Lights vice-champion the past two seasons. Still only 21-years-old, Urrutia will return for another year in his quest to win the big prize, an opportunity to race in the Verizon IndyCar Series. The Uruguayan pilot has collected six wins, four poles, 16 podiums, and six fastest laps of the race in 34 Indy Lights races.
Santi Urrutia, who will return to Indy Lights for a third season and Belardi Auto Racing for a second season, led the first official road course test of the 2018 Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires season (Photo courtesy of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC Photography – Joe Skibinski)
Urrutia, who has worked with engineer Tim Neff during his rookie season at Schmidt Peterson Motorsports and last year at Belardi Auto Racing, will return to Brian Belardi’s Brownsburg, Ind. based team.
Urrutia ran into some early trouble last year, finishing outside the top 10 in three of the first four races of the year, understands what it takes to go home with the $1million Mazda Motorsports advancement scholarship.
“If you want to win the championship, you are always going to need to be in the top three,” said Urrutia. “You need to win races when you have the car to win races, and when you don’t have the car to win, you have to be on the podium, or at least in the top five.”
Rejoining Urrutia at Belardi Auto Racing to form an extremely potent duo is Telitz, the winner of the first and last races of the 2017 Indy Lights season. If our sources are correct, the Rice Lake, Wisc. Native has been the quickest driver during off-season testing.
Aaron Telitz is returning to Belardi Auto Racing for a second season. The princess sticker was added to the car by an adoring fan – Belardi team manager John Brunner (Photo courtesy of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC Photography – Joe Skibinski)
Telitz, whose MRTI podium rate currently sits at an outstanding 54.8% (34 podiums in 62 starts), will be returning to a team for a second year of competition for the first time in his career, and believes that comfort level will help him during the season.
“This is the first time that has ever happened to me,” said Telitz. “It’s really confidence building. Already in pre-season testing. You already know what to tell your engineer, and he knows what you are going to say when you come of the race track. That’s a great feeling to have.”
Finishing only ten points behind Urrutia last year was second generation driver Colton Herta. Herta, whose seven poles during the 2017 season, fell one short of an Indy Lights season record held by his dad Bryan Herta, will need to avoid the type of stretch of races he had at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May (12th, 10th, and 13th), if he wants to challenge for the championship.
“To keep my cool during the races,” explained Herta to TSO Ladder when asked what he learned last year that he use to be better in 2018. “Obviously, I know a lot more about the car now and set-up. There were a few times where I think I maybe misjudged changes going into races and how the track conditions were changing. There are a few things to work on. Staying cool when I’m in the lead and making the max (imum) out of the changes and really thinking about it.”
Sophomore Andretti Steinbrenner Racing driver Colton Herta should challenge for the 2018 Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires championship (Photo courtesy of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC Photography – Joe Skibinski)
Herta’s teammate Dalton Kellett may have made 93 Mazda Road To Indy Presented by Cooper Tires starts, but until he made the jump to Indy Lights in 2016, schooling was his primary focus. The Toronto, Ontario native graduated in from the prestigious Queen University with a B.Sc in Engineering Physics in 2015. Kellett’s driver coach Darren Manning told us that with a singular focus on racing, the 24-year-old has made incredible strides to catching up to his peers that began focusing on racing at much earlier age.
Kellett’s pace has improved substantially over the past two seasons, but he has still lacked consistency at times. That’s not something that’s lost on him.
When asked about his goals for this season, Kellett told TSO: “The goal is always the same. You want to win the championship. You just need to keep focusing on the process. We’ve had a big off-season as far as testing goes. From my end personally, just working on being consistent in the races and always in the top five. I think that has to be the goal because that’s how you are going to win a championship. Consistency, minimizing mistakes. You can say you want to win every race, but that’s not going to happen, you really have to be consistent over the whole year.”
Andretti Autosport teammates Ryan Norman and Dalton Kellett share a laugh during pre-season Indy Lights testing (Photo courtesy of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC Photography – Joe Skibinski)
The third driver to return to the four-car Andretti Autosport line-up is Ryan Norman. The 19-year-old made significant strides during the 2017 season, and it appears that he has continued his growth in the offseason. Norman, whose previous experience was in SCCA Formula Atlantic, ended the oval test at Homestead-Miami Speedway with the fastest lap, and until a late lap in which Urrutia used three activations of push-to-pass, had the quickest road course lap as well.
“I think the confidence is definitely up, especially over last year,” said the Cleveland, Ohio native after the Homestead-Miami Speedway test. “We’re so much closer. I think we’ll be ready to go for some wins.”
TSO also asked Norman if having such a successful test changes his expectations and he told us “It reassures that I can put it at the top (of the timesheet). So, when I’m not putting it at the top, I just have to be real with myself, because I know I can do it.”
Despite being only 18 years-old and his rookie status, the final member of the Andretti Autosport quartet might have the best resume of the talented group. Coming off a second place finish in the 2016 Pro Mazda championship, Pato O’Ward collected one podium in the four starts of an aborted 2017 Indy Lights campaign that just never had the right resources to be successful, but that didn’t keep the always smiling Mexican out of a car.
Andretti Autosport rookie Pato O’Ward is clearly ready to start the 2018 Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires season (Photo courtesy of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC Photography – Joe Skibinski)
O’Ward was the lead driver on a Performance Tech Motorsports squad that won seven of eight Prototype Challenge in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, scoring the fastest lap in all eight races.
O’Ward is relieved to be confirmed for an entire season, telling TSO Ladder: “There is not so much, not pressure. I’m not as tight. Last year, everything was just super, super tight and everything was down to the bone. There wasn’t anything extra (as far as budget). And this year – finally I have a year with testing. Finally, I have a year where I can get the knowledge about the car before I go to the first race. The past years have been “go to the first race and see what you can do.” So, I guess it just gives me a bit more confidence going into the first race, knowing the car, knowing how it’s going to react to certain situations, knowing more about the Cooper tires for qualifying. I guess knowledge is the biggest difference between last year and this year.”
Last but not least is the reigning Pro Mazda champion Victor Franzoni, who has moved up the ladder with Juncos Racing. The Speedway, Ind. based team is the only active team to win an Indy Lights championship in the IL-15 era and has graduated 2015 winner Spencer Pigot and 2017 winner Kyle Kaiser to the Verizon IndyCar Series.
The always smiling Victor Franzoni is looking to add an Indy Lights title to his Pro Mazda championship (Photo courtesy of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC Photography – Joe Skibinski)
The 2018 season will be the fifth season of Mazda Road To Indy Presented by Cooper Tires competition for the 22-year-old, who has 12 wins, eight poles, 29 podiums, and 12 fastest race laps in 55 USF2000 and Pro Mazda starts.
Franzoni, who until this year had not had full season confirmed when the season started, thinks that taking the race-by-race approach he used to win the Pro Mazda championship will work again this year.
“I’ll try to do the same as last year because it worked,” Franzoni told TSO Ladder. “I’ll be looking race-to-race. The next one is St. Pete, and I’m looking forward that we are thinking already about the set-up. It’s important to do a good result there. Of course, I expect to win, but I think the main goal now is to be top three. It’ll be my first race, and I’ll learn a lot in the race. See how the car reacts. How everybody drives. And learn as much as possible. So, the goal is top three. If I can finish both races in the top three, it’ll be better for the rest of the year.”
Alfonso Celis, Jr. is scheduled to be Franzoni’s teammate at Juncos Racing this year, but as of this writing, was not expected to take part in the event due to licensing issues. We’ll have more on the Mexican driver when he makes his Indy Lights debut.
Ricardo Juncos told TSO that he is looking hard to find a replacement for Celis, Jr. for St. Petersburg. We’ll send an update when we know more.
Team Pelfrey, who signed veterans Neil Alberico and Shelby Blackstock for the first race weekend of the year, are late additions to the Mazda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Presented by Cooper Tires entry list. The team and drivers will need to tap all the experienced gained in 84 Indy Lights and 186 Mazda Road To Indy Presented by Cooper Tires starts, to overcome a lack of pre-season track time.
The Pompano Beach, Fla. based team have not turned a wheel since the Chris Griffis Memorial Test at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway over three months ago, and the pair of drivers have not been on track since the Indy Lights final race of the year at Watkins Glen International on Labor Day weekend.
But, don’t discount the Gary Neal led squad just yet. Twice before, the striking yellow and black cars were last minute entries, and on both occasions, they scored podiums on the Streets of St Petersburg. Last year, Pato O’Ward finished third in the second race of the weekend, and the year before that it was Scott Hargrove that stood on the second step of the podium. Neither driver had any pre-season testing with the with no preseason testing with the squad.
Posted by Steve Wittich on Monday, February 26th 2018
By Steve Wittich
When the eventual quickest driver of the road course portion of spring training, Santi Urrutia, began his final lap just before the checkered came out, all seven drivers were within a scant four-tenths of a second of each other. But thanks to a triple hit of push-to-pass, which feeds the 2.0L turbo-charged Mazda, and addition 50hp, the double Indy Lights vice-champion, ended the test on the 2.21-Mile Homestead-Miami Speedway road course four-tenths of a second ahead of the rest of the field.
“The problem is that I used my push to pass at the end,” explained the Uruguayan who will be back for a third Indy Lights season. “I think the quickest car today was Aaron (Telitz – his Belardi Auto Racing teammate). We’ve worked on set-up for St. Pete. We were pretty good, but we need to fix some problems that we had today. I think that it’s going to be tough this year. Only 10 cars, but all 10 cars can win the championship. If you look at the times today, it’s really tight.”
Santi Urrutia, who will return to Indy Lights for a third season and Belardi Auto Racing for a second season, led the first official road course test of the 2018 Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires season (Photo courtesy of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC Photography – Joe Skibinski)
The road course portion of Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires spring training on the 2.21-Mile, 14-Turn Homestead-Miami Speedway road course got underway promptly at 9 am, and was scheduled to be split into two sessions, the first running from 9 am – noon, and the second running from 1:30 pm – 5 pm.
However, the first session was interrupted by a light rain shower at 11:15 am. The series and teams opted to break for lunch at that point, and start the final session 45 minutes early at 12:45 pm.
When the shower came to end the shortened session, sophomore Aaron Telitz, who will return to Belardi Auto Racing for a sophomore year, had the quickest lap at 1 minute, 16.4000 seconds. That was only one-hundredth of a second ahead of his 2016 Pro Mazda teammate and title challenger Patricio O’Ward.
However, all seven drivers that took part in the morning session were within a half-second of Telitz.
When the track went back to green, reigning Pro Mazda Champion Victor Franzoni was the first driver on track, and also the first pilot to break the 76-second barrier. He was quickly joined by Santi Urrutia and O”Ward in that category.
Telitz was the next driver out on the track, and after dialing in his car on used tires, he did a sticker tire run to set what ended up being the fourth quickest lap of the day, a lap at 1 minute, 15.045 seconds. At that point, the team decided to pack up for the day, and save the crew, car, and Mazda engine for the opening round of the championship.
“We learned what we needed to learn,” explained the 2016 Pro Mazda champion to TSO Ladder. “And, Homestead is a little hard on tires, so there is no reason to burn through extra tires that you don’t need to burn through. We felt like we tested the items we wanted to test. Things went smooth, and it’s better to keep our Mazda engine fresh for St. Pete, so we just went ahead and called it a day early.
“Basically we’re just confirming things. Obviously, we never race here, and going for an overall fast time is great if you can get the fastest time, that’s awesome. We really rolled off the truck quickly today. Early in the morning, we were quick, and this afternoon we just built on that. I don’t know if it’s super important to be fast here at Homestead, but it’s a good place to get warmed up for the season.”
Aaron Telitz is shaded by an umbrella held by former teammate Shelby Blackstock (Photo courtesy of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC Photography – Joe Skibinski)
It wasn’t too long after the Rice Lake Weighing Systems sponsored No. 5 of Telitz was packed away that a pair of Andretti Autosport teammates moved ahead of the sophomore, but not by much. For most of the last half of the afternoon session, the top four drivers were all within one-tenth of second of each other, and spots two through seven on the timesheet ended up being separated by only three-tenths of a second.
Right up until Urrutia threw down the last minute flyer, it was Friday’s quickest driver on the oval, Ryan Norman, that looked like he would duplicate his teammate Colton Herta’s feat from last year, and “win” both rounds of testing.
Ryan Norman and his Andretti Autosport / Journey Mazda just missed out on leading both the oval and road course portion of Indy Lights spring training. (Photo courtesy of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC Photography – Joe Skibinski)
“I think the confidence is definitely up, especially from last year, said the Aurora, Ohio native. “We’re so much closer now. I was struggling a little bit this morning and after lunch, we hit the reset switch and try to calm down and I ended up coming back.”
O’Ward, who is confirmed for the entire season with Andretti Autosport turned in the third quickest time.
Five of the seven drivers ended the day with lap times below the benchmark of 1 minute, 15.201 seconds set by Herta during testing last year. Somewhat surprisingly, Herta was not one of the drivers to best that lap. He was awfully close though – missing the mark by a mere 0.09 seconds.
Combined Indy Lights timesheet from testing on the Homestead-Miami Speedway road course.
RANK
CAR NO.
DRIVER
TEAM
QUICK LAP
GAP
TOTAL LAPS
1
5
Santi Urrutia
Belardi Auto Racing
01:14.5024
——
68
2
48
Ryan Norman
Andretti Autosport
01:14.9442
-0.4418
81
3
27
Pato O’Ward
Andretti Autosport
01:15.0077
-0.5053
91
4
9
Aaron Telitz
Belardi Auto Racing
01:15.0453
-0.5406
53
5
23
Victor Franzoni
Juncos Racing
01:15.0822
-0.5798
91
6
28
Dalton Kellett
Andretti Autosport
01:15.2182
-0.7158
93
7
98
Colton Herta
Andretti Steinbrenner Racing
01:15.2947
-0.7923
76
Indy Lights Notebook
Newly signed Juncos Racing driver Alfonso Celis, Jr. was scheduled to test today but is having some licensing issues with INDYCAR. They hope to have things sorted out in time for the season-opening race in just under two-weeks. Despite not being in the car, the 21-year-old told TSOLadder that he still had an extremely productive day, exlpaining “Today was very good. It was very productive. It might have been better than actually driving because I saw the whole picture. Obviously, it’s great to drive, but today I digested everything so much. I know in a test how everything works. I learned everything about the Cooper Tires, and how the team works. If I was driving the car, I would have been less of a sponge. If you’re driving, you’re only thinking about that part. It was very helpful.
Despite not being in the car today, Juncos Racing newcomer Alfonso Celis, Jr. had a productive day learning from Victor Franzoni and the team (Photo courtesy of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC Photography – Joe Skibinski)
Santi Urrutia has not been officially announced at Belardi Auto Racing, but TSO Ladder was told by the team that the two-time Indy Lights vice-champion has been signed for the entire 2018 campaign. We were also told the team is close to putting together a deal for a familiar face to pilot a third entry for the first event of the year.
Andretti Autosport veteran Dalton Kellett is working with former Indy car driver Darren Manning as his driver coach. Manning, who owns the full-service iAdvance Motorsports, http://www.iadvancemotorsports.com/iam-team/ will be working with the Canadian driver for the third season. Manning, who made 79 Indy car starts, told TSO that he has seen tremendous growth in the 24-year-old, and he believes this will be his best season of racing yet.
Stephen Simpson, who is a full-time driver of the JDC-Miller Motorsports N0.99 Oreca 07 Gibson in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, will be serving as the driver coach for all of the Belardi Auto Racing drivers. Simpson worked solely with Shelby Blackstock last year.
George Michael Steinbrenner, the co-owner of Colton Herta’s Andretti Steinbrenner Racing / Curb Mazda No 98 missed the oval portion of testing on Friday because the New York Yankees were playing the Detroit Tigers in the opening game of Spring Training. The bad guys (hey, I’m a long time Tigers fan) beat the good guys 3-1 at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Fla. If you are headed down to the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg a day early, the Yankees will be taking on the Philadelphia Phillies at 1:05 pm.
Victor Franzoni, who didn’t have to, hung around the track on Saturday and Sunday coaching the drivers from the Juncos Racing Pro Mazda Presented By Cooper Tire team. He told TSO Ladder: “I enjoy it. I didn’t’ even need to come (to the track). I just came to help them and spend some time with them. It was good to be part of the team and come back to Pro Mazda a little bit.”
Posted by Steve Wittich on Saturday, February 24th 2018
For the fifth season, Team Cooper Tire and Mazda Motorsports have joined forces to help the drivers of the Mazda Road To Indy Presented by Cooper Tires amplify their social media voices.
In 2014, Cooper Tire rolled out the #TeamCooperTire program and garnered 60 million impressions, and by the end of the 2017 season, that number had grown 363% to 218 million impressions.
The following racing season, Mazda Motorsports and the #MRTI hashtag joined the party and in the past three years, the number of unique Twitter users that have been connected with has grown 400%, from 6 million in 2015 to 24 million in 2017.
There is little doubt that the motorsports landscape has changed significantly over the past few decades. Gone are the days that a driver has to only bring their helmet to the track. They still need to be quick to move to the pinnacle of the sport. But, they also need much more than a proficient right foot in their toolbox.
Sponsors are now looking for results AND a driver that is engaged and represents their brand effectively. With the amount of money and brand goodwill involved with sponsoring a race car driver, it’s not surprising that engaged drivers like James Hinchcliffe and Pippa Mann are popular with fans and sponsors.
With that last point in mind, the goal of the #MRTI and #TeamCooperTire hashtag program is for Cooper Tires and Mazda to provide a series of guideposts that will help Mazda Road To Indy drivers tell their story (branding) and connect with, and increase social media followers. Both of those functions are key to attracting a personal fan base and also gives a driver a chance to show off their personality to potential sponsors.
The #TeamCooperTire and #MRTI hashtags are displayed prominently on the IL-15 of 2017 Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires champion Kyle Kaiser (Photo courtesy of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC Photography)
The career benefits should be more than enough to make a driver and team want to participate in the program, but Cooper Tires and Mazda have gone a step further and will be providing significant prizes to the teams and drivers.
The MRTI season has been divided into seven different contest periods and depending on how many of the established social media goals are met by the drivers and teams, they can earn between one and five entries into each drawing.
Unlike previous years when only one driver/team was drawn in each contest period, the entries of three drivers/teams will be randomly selected to choose from a group of prizes that can directly impact their racing career. Included are a set of race or street tires from Team Cooper Tire, a $500 certificate from Mazda to be used to purchase race gear, a one-on-one meeting with Verizon IndyCar Series race stewards Arie Luyendyk or Max Papis, a interview on IndyCar Radio during an IndyCar practice or qualifying session, a one-on-one with the IndyCar Race Director during an IndyCar Practice Session, race weekend pass packages with hospitality to be used with sponsors, family or friends, a one-on-one during the Road To Indy TV Race Recap.
Having a central place to find MRTI content is a huge benefit for racing fans. Searching the two hashtags on Twitter and Instagram will guide you to content created by drivers, teams, the series, media and other partners. Drivers are encouraged to post behind-the-scenes action, so that you, as a fan will have a fun way to follow along with the stories and lives of the drivers as they strive to reach the Verizon IndyCar Series.
Don’t forget to follow Team Cooper Tire on Twitter and Instagram.
Posted by Steve Wittich on Friday, February 23rd 2018
It was exactly one year ago at this test that Andretti Autosport sophomore pilot Ryan Norman turned his first ever oval laps. The 19-year-old turned a lap at 187.
“I think so,” said the Cleveland, Ohio native pensively when asked if leading a testing session was meaningful. “I think it’s an overall confidence booster. At the end of the day, it’s a lot different than (leading at) a road course. But, with the hard work that we’ve put in over the offseason, I think I’ve shrunk that gap from last year a lot, so I think I’ll be a lot more competitive than last year, and we should be able to challenge for wins.
Norman’s lap of 187.170 mph was just shy of Paul Dana’s 2004 189.74mph pole lap, that was set on a fairly new track surface during qualifying. For reference, the NASCAR track record is 181.238 mph set by Brad Keselowski in 2014, and the quickest Verizon IndyCar Series lap was a scorching 218.539 mph lap set by Sam Hornish Jr. in 2006.
Second year Andretti Autosport driver Ryan Norman led the oval portion of Indy Lights testing at Homestead Miami Speedway (Photo courtesy of IMS photography)
During the final 60 minutes of the session, the quartet of Andretti Autosport drivers went out in nose-to-tail formation. Once with used tires, and once with fresh tires. All four of the Indianapolis, Ind. based teams drivers set their quickest lap near the end of the day, and the team ended up with the four quickest speeds.
The half-dozen drivers turned a total of 337 trouble-free laps. Veteran Dalton Kellett, who turned 83 laps, was the busiest pilot doing the three-hour afternoon session.
Indy Lights at Homestead-Miami Speedway – oval test session #2 timesheet
RANK
NUMBER
DRIVER
TEAM
QUICKEST LAP
TOTAL LAPS
1
48
Ryan Norman
Andretti Autosport
187.170
59
2
28
Dalton Kellett
Andretti Autosport
186.660
83
3
27
Pato O’Ward
Andretti Autosport
186.375
78
4
98
Colton Herta
Andretti Steinbrenner Racing
185.928
63
5
23
Victor Franzoni
Juncos Racing
183.379
38
6
7
Alfonso Celis
Juncos Racing
183.216
16
Here are a couple of notebook items to end the day:
Reigning Pro Mazda Presented By Cooper Tire champion Victor Franzoni was in the Soul Red Juncos Racing machine for the first time, and also his first time in the more powerful turbocharged Mazda race car on an oval. The Brazilan told us that the biggest difference was the sheer speed of the IL-15. The winner of last year’s Pro Mazda race at Gateway Motorsports Park told us that he wasn’t pushing too hard and that it was just nice to get the rust off.
Reigning Pro Mazda champion Victor Franzoni turned his first laps in an Indy Lights machine on an oval (Photo courtesy of IMS Photography – Joe Skibinski)
The 1.5-Mile Homestead-Miami Speedway oval is not a track that the series races at, so most drivers weren’t pushing too hard. Andretti Autosport veteran Dalton Kellett did explain to us that there was still some things to be learned. He and his engineer were able to confirm that some changes that they made to the car corresponded to what the Canadian felt on track.
While not on track today, USF2000 and Pro Mazda drivers were busy taking headshots, doing Road To Indy TV interviews and taking part in an MRTI Media Training session with the NBC Sports Network’s Kevin Lee. The USF2000 and Pro Mazda drivers take to the 2.21-mile, 14-turn road course for two days of testing beginning tomorrow, Saturday, February 24, 2018.
Two iterations of Indy Lights series have raced on the 1.5-Mile Homestead-Miami Speedway oval an even dozen times. Four of those times were in the Championship Auto Racing Teams era, and eight of those races were sanctioned by INDYCAR.
David Empringham and Forsythe Racing won the inaugural Indy Lights race in 1996, while Brandon Wagner and Davey Hamilton Racing won the final Indy Lights race in 2010.
The 1.5-Mile oval came to life under the direction of promoter Ralph Sanchez as a means to help the south Miami-Dade County and Homestead, Fla. area rebound from the utter devastation of Hurricane Andrew, has had a number of different configurations in the facilities two-plus decade history.
The track began as a 1.5-Mile copy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with it’s four flat rectangular corners, but unlike the Speedway, Ind. track, passing was difficult and crash angles were dangerous.
In 1997, the track was configured as a more conventional continuous turn oval, but still with low banking.
The final change to the track took place in 2003 when the flat corners were replaced with the higher 18 to 20-degree variable banked turns
Posted by Steve Wittich on Friday, February 23rd 2018
By Steve Wittich
Good day, and welcome to our TSOLadder.com coverage of the first official Mazda Road To Indy Presented by Cooper Tires (MRTI) test of the year.
I (Steve) will be on hand with all of your details.
I arrived in Florida on Thursday afternoon after a loooong day of travel that began when my alarm went off at 4 a.m. and ended when I rolled into my hotel at 9 p.m.
Since my Mom was planning on visiting some friends in Florida and she had not traveled since she lost my Dad, we made plans to travel together to Florida. Since her friends winter in Fort Myers, Fla. we flew to the Gulf Side of the Sunshine State.
My wonderful wife dropped us off at the airport in Indianapolis, Ind. at 6 a.m. for what was supposed to be an 8 a.m. departure. The first group of passengers had just boarded the plane when they were turned around and they told us there would be a slight delay for a mechanical issue.
A slight delay became a five+ hour delay when the copilot’s window that had a leak could not be quickly fixed, and a new plane had to be flown to Indianapolis to bring us south. No complaints from any passengers when it was explained that a decompression of the cockpit at 30,000 feet would have been possible.
After arriving in Florida and picking up our rental car, we met my Mom’s friends for an early dinner at Cheddar’s Scratch Chicken. Since I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, I was pretty hungry. I had an order of chicken-fried-chicken, mashed potatoes, and green beans. I would definitely order that entree again.
Me, being me (frugal, tight, cheap, or whatever you want to call it) decided to take the Tamiami Trail through the Everglades instead of paying the toll on I-75. That might have been a mistake.
The two-lane U.S. Highway 41 was busy and I was bogged down by construction a number of times, and the trip took a lot longer than I anticipated.
Alright, now that we have the travel portion of the trip out of the way, we’ll get to the on-track action.
The first of two Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires oval sessions ended the same way last year’s oval test at Homestead-Miami Speedway ended – with the No. 98 Andretti Steinbrenner Racing of Colton Herta leading the way with a lap of 186.810 mph.
The first of four days MRTI testing at Homestead-Miami Speedway got underway 90 minutes after the scheduled start time of 9 a.m. after a light morning drizzle made the track damp.
A total of six Mazda MZR-R powered Dallaras are taking part in today’s oval test, with the first 30 minutes set aside for the three rookies. One of those drivers, the newly signed Alfonso Celis, Jr., is making his first ever oval appearance, and two drivers, Victor Franzoni and Patricio O’Ward were sampling the Indy Lights car on an oval for the first time.
All three oval rookies were quick to take to the 22-year-old track and completed their portion rookie testing quickly.
Herta was the first of the veteran drivers to hit the track and within two minutes (four laps), he had turned the lap that would stand as the quickest of the session.
The half-dozen drivers turned a total of 172 trouble-free laps. Andretti Autosport rookie O’Ward, who turned 36 laps, was the busiest pilot.
Posted by Steve Wittich on Sunday, October 22nd 2017
Here are your combined time-sheets from the first day of the seventh annual Chris Griffis Memorial Test being held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Chris Griffis Memorial Test USF2000 Combined Day #1 Timesheet
Andrés Gutierrez led the first day of USF2000 testing at the Chris Griffis Memorial Test (Photo courtesy of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC Photography)
RANK
CAR NO.
TEAM
DRIVER
FAST LAP
DIFFERENCE
TOTAL LAPS
1
22
Andres Gutierrez
Pabst Racing
1:25.562
—-
89
2
27
Callan O’Keeffe
BN Racing
1:25.629
-0.067
73
3
36
Darren Keane
Newman Wachs Racing
1:25.688
-0.126
86
4
90
Parker Thompson
Exclusive Autosport
1:25.874
-0.312
71
5
23
Lucas Kohl
Pabst Racing
1:26.076
-0.514
84
6
21
Hunter McElrea
Pabst Racing
1:26.143
-0.581
82
7
37
Jake Craig
Newman Wachs Racing
1:26.245
-0.683
91
8
80
Michael D’Orlando
Team Pelfrey
1:26.275
-0.653
76
9
31
Rasmus Lindh
Team BENIK
1:26.319
-0.757
75
10
20
Aaron Tetliz
RJB Motorsports
1:26.435
-0.873
68
11
32
Jaden Conwright
Team BENIK
1:26.456
-0.894
80
12
38
Max Peichel
Newman Wachs Racing
1:26.506
-0.944
86
13
82
David Osborne
Team Pelfrey
1:26.682
-1.120
75
14
25
Elliott Finlayson
BN Racing
1:26.822
-1.260
40
15
33
Myles Rowe
John Cummiskey Racing
1:27.062
-1.500
84
16
34
Sabre Cook
John Cummiskey Racing
1:27.176
-1.614
79
17
92
Justin Gordon
Exclusive Autosport
1:28.104
-2.542
81
18
24
Zoey Edenholm
BN Racing
1:28.673
-3.111
70
Chris Griffis Memorial Test Pro Mazda Combined Day #1 Timesheet
Oliver Askew, a familier name to MRTI fans and the 2017 Cooper Tires USF2000 Powered by Mazda champ, led the first day of Pro Mazda testing for the seventh annual Chris Griffis Memorial Test (Photo courtesy of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC Photography)
RANK
CAR NO.
TEAM
DRIVER
FAST LAP
DIFFERENCE
TOTAL LAPS
1
8
Oliver Askew
Cape Motorsports
1:19.892
——-
72
2
1
Carlos Cunha
Juncos Racing
1:20.024
-0.132
62
3
3
Robert Megennis
Juncos Racing
1:20.127
-0.235
62
4
81
Kaylen Frederick
Team Pelfrey
1:20.225
-0.333
83
5
79
David Malukas
BN Racing
1:20.246
-0.354
59
6
91
Nikita Lastochkin
Exclusive Autosport
1:20.700
-0.808
88
7
18
Calvin Ming
Pabst Racing
1:20.737
-0.845
79
8
80
Kris Wright
Team Pelfrey
1:20.993
-1.101
75
9
2
Sting Ray Robb
Juncos Racing
1:21.125
-1.233
35
10
90
Parker Thompson
Exclusive Autosport
1:21.442
-1.550
27
11
78
Leonard Hoogenboom
BN Racing
1:23.045
-3.153
12
Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tire
Nico Jamin, who made his Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tire debut at the Chris Griffis Memorial Test last year, led the time sheets in the top rung of the MRTI ladder (Photo courtesy of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC Photography)
Nico Jamin led two of the four Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tire test sessions and topped the time sheet during the first day of the two day Chris Griffis Memorial Test. After the session Jamin, who is testing with Belardi Auto Racing, told us:
“I like the way the team is working so far. It’s a small family team, but they are very professional.
“We had a good day today. We topped two sessions this morning, and came close tonight (Session 4). That’s a little frustrating, but that’s the way it is. I’m new in the team, so I need to start working with the engineer, and figure out how we can go a little bit quicker. I feel there is very good potential. We’ll work on it tonight and be stronger tomorrow.”
USF2000 vice-champion Rinus VeeKay (Belardi Auto Racing) led the third session, and ended up with the 4th quickest time overall.
Colton Herta, who is expected to run a sophomore season of Indy Lights with Andretti-Steinbrenner Racing, topped the final session, and ended up with the second quickest Saturday time.
Championship winning team Juncos Racing didn’t lead any sessions but Pro Mazda Champion Victor Franzoni (3rd) and sophomore Nicolas Dapero (5th) were both quick.
Chris Griffis Memorial Test Indy Lights Combined Day #1 Timesheet
Posted by Steve Wittich on Tuesday, October 17th 2017
Portland International Raceway, Increased Points/Prize Money in Mix
PALMETTO, Fla. – The Mazda Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires today unveiled its 2018 calendar of events. The most effective driver development program in the world with over $3.5M in scholarships and awards on offer will continue its momentum at premier road course, street circuit and oval venues in support of the Verizon IndyCar Series.
The highly acclaimed platform – comprised of Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires, the Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires and the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda – will enter the new season with a trio of state-of-the-art chassis on display including the much anticipated debut of the new Pro Mazda PM-18 which completes the revitalization of the entire ladder system.
On deck for 2018 is a return to the Pacific Northwest and Portland International Raceway (PIR) in Portland, Ore. The 1.967-mile, 12-turn permanent road course will host the season finale for all three series. Indy Lights last raced at PIR in 2001, and Pro Mazda and USF2000 in 2006. The last IndyCar race took place in 2007.
The month of May will bring several new additions. Pro Mazda and USF2000 will return to Lucas Oil Raceway for the Carb Night Classic “The Race Before the 500” after a year’s hiatus. Mere hours after the conclusion of Carb Day activities at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in preparation for the 102nd Running of the Indianapolis 500 – including the Freedom 100, the crown jewel on the Indy Lights schedule – the two series will make their appearance on the .686-mile oval.
Additionally, the three Indianapolis oval races will see an increase in points for all series for the first time, and an increase in prize money.
In Pro Mazda, the National Class will be replaced by the Pro Mazda Classic (PMC) Series – a six-weekend, 12-race championship within the Pro Mazda Championship utilizing the older Pro Mazda rotary-powered cars from 2002 to 2017. The series will see a separate points chart, prize money and year-end awards.
While there is no limitation on PMC Series testing, Indy Lights, Pro Mazda and USF2000 will see amended testing rules. Indy Lights in-season testing is restricted to two days per team with two additional days available for use with current Pro Mazda and USF2000 drivers. Pro Mazda and USF2000 teams are permitted four days of in-season testing per driver but not at tracks yet to hold an event. Each series will continue with open tests at select venues.
The annual Mazda Road to Indy Spring Training will take place at Homestead-Miami Speedway on February 23-26. Indy Lights will test on the 1.5-mile oval on February 23 and the 2.21-mile road course on February 26. Pro Mazda and USF2000 will run on the weekend – February 24 and 25 – to assist young drivers juggling their schedules alongside school commitments.
The Mazda Road to Indy Summit program – providing valuable education on a variety of topics including marketing/business, media training, career growth and development, fitness, social media and a comprehensive oval clinic – will continue to be in place next season.
“We’ve put a lot of thought into our schedule and I am pleased with the balance we have in place to properly train drivers to move up the ladder,” said Dan Andersen, Owner and CEO of Andersen Promotions. “We are excited to have Portland on the schedule, which will be a great circuit for our season finales in the three series, and to return to Lucas Oil Raceway on Carb Day for a great night of racing. The Freedom 100 is obviously the biggest race on our calendar and to be able to bring Pro Mazda and USF2000 back into the excitement surrounding the Indianapolis 500 was key. Increasing both the points awarded and the prize money gives these events the weight they deserve.
“The Mazda Road to Indy will take on new life next year with the competition debut of the PM-18. This completes the process we began several years ago to provide the best for our competitors with state-of-the-art race cars. We have a great program in place and it’s working. As always, I am looking forward to seeing many of our drivers take their next steps up the ladder including our recently crowned champions.”
Indy Lights will feature a 17-race schedule at 10 venues comprised of three oval, five road course and two street circuit events. In addition to hour-long race broadcasts on NBCSN, Indy Lights will also be featured on Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku and Xbox One as well as Road To Indy TV and on the Road To Indy TV App. Worldwide live streaming and live timing is also available on indylights.com and indycar.com.
Coverage of all Indy Lights sessions is available on the Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network with broadcasts on Sirius 214, XM 209, IndyCar.com, indycarradio.com and on the INDYCAR Mobile app.
Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires 2018 Schedule
Open tests are scheduled at Homestead-Miami Speedway on February 23 (oval) and 26 (road course), Barber Motorsports Park on March 5, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 10 (road course) and 21 (oval), Road America on June 11/12 and the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on July 17/18 for a total of nine test days.
Pro Mazda will expand to a nine-event, 16-race schedule which includes two ovals, five road course and two street course venues. Pro Mazda will be featured on Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku and Xbox One as well as Road To Indy TV and on the Road To Indy TV App. Worldwide live streaming and live timing is also available on promazda.com and indycar.com.
Pro Mazda Presented by Cooper Tires 2018 Schedule
A total of 10 open test days are scheduled at Homestead-Miami Speedway on February 24/25, Barber Motorsports Park on March 3/4, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 10, Lucas Oil Raceway on May 24, Road America on June 11/12 and the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on July 17/18.
The USF2000 series will continue with a 14-race format held at seven venues featuring one oval, four road course and two street circuit events. Coverage will be available on Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku and Xbox One as well as Road To Indy TV and on the Road To Indy TV App. Worldwide live streaming and live timing is also available on usf2000.com and indycar.com.
Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda 2018 Schedule
Open tests are schedule at Homestead-Miami Speedway on February 24/25, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 10, Lucas Oil Raceway on May 24, Road America on June 11/12 and the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on July 17/18 for a total of eight test days.
Two events still remain on the 2017 calendar – the seventh annual Chris Griffis Memorial Open Test at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on October 21/22 and the Mazda Road to Indy $200K Scholarship Shootout on December 9/10 at the Bondurant Racing School near Phoenix, Ariz.
