Previewing the Road to Indy

Veterans and strong rookies battle for open-wheel glory and advancement scholarships from Mazda

The beginning of the 2018 Mazda Road to Indy season is only days away and the teams are headed to St. Petersburg, Fla., where all three series will compete in conjunction with the Verizon IndyCar Series season opener. While it’s tough to make predictions about how things might go, especially in series where the racers are steadily moving up, the spring training session two weeks prior to the start of the season at Homestead Miami Speedway provides clues.

Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda

Even though there were a handful of veterans present during testing for the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda, the rookies set the fastest times. Kyle Kirkwood topped the chart, only about 15 hundredths ahead of Swede Rasmus Lindh, who is entering his first season of racing cars. Winner of the 2017 U.S. Formula 4 Championship with Cape Motorsports, Kirkwood sealed his deal to move with the team into the USF2000 Championship hunt only days before the test, making his time in the Cape Motorsports Tatuus USF-17 all that much more impressive. Given his championship-winning form, his 2017 Team USA Scholarship and the fact that Cape has won the last seven titles in the category, Kirkwood has to be considered a favorite.

“I’m ecstatic,” Kirkwood said after the test. “It’s great to do so well this weekend, especially against a team like Pabst who have an awesome track record and four drivers to compare data. I drove the car here last year so that’s not new. People have asked me if there’s a lot of pressure on me, driving for the team that has won seven championships in a row, but I think it’s just the opposite: it gives me complete confidence in the team. 

“I know [2017 USF2000 champion] Oliver Askew as a driver really well, and we’re pretty similar drivers, so if everything is the same as last year, I think I can match what Oliver has done – especially given everything they learned last year with the USF-17. We have a little bit of a disadvantage because we’re a one-car team, but I’ve already built a relationship with Nicholas and Dominic Cape, the mechanics and the engineers, so actually I think we’re ahead of the game. The team is on a roll, so we’ll just try to keep that going,” the 19-year old Jupiter, Fla., resident added.

Twenty-three drivers set times in USF2000 during the test. Following the first two rookies were a pair of veterans and teammates with Lindh at Pabst Racing: Lucas Kohl, who finished seventh in the 2017 championship; and Kaylen Frederick, who was fourth last year as a rookie.

Mazda Road to Indy Shootout winner Keith Donegan was 15th. And the Irishman has a pretty steep learning curve ahead, having to learn many of the tracks as well as acclimating to racing in the U.S.

Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires

Despite everyone starting again with the new Tatuus PM-18 that will be enjoying its rookie season in the Pro Mazda Championship, two returnees to Pro Mazda from 2017 topped the time sheets at Homestead.

Three different drivers topped one or more of the six sessions before second-year Pro Mazda competitor Carlos Cunha, from Campinas, Brazil, earned bragging rights by posting the fastest time in the final one-hour session for defending champion team Juncos Racing. Cunha, 18, who finished third in the 2017 title chase, stopped the clocks in 1:19.2017 (100.452mph) – more than four seconds faster than the best time from Spring Training one year ago in the older Elan/Van Diemen/Crawford car.

“I’m really happy, Juncos Racing is an amazing team,” said Cunha. “On track, we are always improving, never going backwards, and that’s very good. We have tested a lot but we still need to learn a lot about the car, though we are almost to a perfect setup. The team has given me everything I need to be comfortable inside the car, to know what the car needs, and to know what I need to be a better driver. We have time to improve and we are moving forward quickly.”

Cunha’s performance at the test, and his record in 2017, certainly make him one of the favorites for the 2018 title and the $790,000 Mazda scholarship that goes with it. But he’ll have plenty of competition from rookies such as Juncos teammates Robert Megennis and Dutchman Rinus VeeKay, along with USF2000 champion Askew and Parker Thompson, all having performed well in USF2000 in 2017.

The youngest driver in the field, Sting Ray Robb, 16, from Payette, Idaho, turned some heads by also using a fresh set of Cooper tires to establish the second fastest time, 1:19.409s, in the final session for Team Pelfrey.

Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires

The Indy Lights field may not be large, but it is certainly stacked. Five fast returnees – three of whom won races in 2017 – and a pair of rookies moving up from Pro Mazda, including champion Victor Franzoni, will make for exciting racing in 2018.

Veteran Santiago Urrutia set the fast time at Homestead for Belardi Auto Racing, but every driver was within a second of Urrutia’s time. “It’s going to be tough this year, because anyone can win the championship,” said Urrutia. “You see from the times…that it’s going to be really tight. To win the championship you have to always be right there – win when you have the car to win, and if you don’t, be right there in the top five.” 

Joining Urrutia as race winners looking to claim the top spot in 2018 are Aaron Telitz (Andretti Autosport) and Colton Herta (Andretti-Steinbrenner). Also present at Homestead were Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Norman, who set the fast time on the Homestead oval, Dalton Kellett and Pro Mazda graduate Pato O’Ward.

Telitz and Herta split wins at last year’s St. Petersburg opener. The season-opening Mazda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Presented by Cooper Tires takes place this weekend on a combination of city streets and airport runways/taxiways that always produce spectacular racing.