PORTLAND, Oregon (September 3, 2018) – Monterrey, Mexico’s Patricio O’Ward clinched the 2018 Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires Championship after a thrilling performance at Portland International Raceway. The 19-year-old’s championship title comes after winning six of the last eight races, including a weekend sweep in Portland.
Along with joining notable Indy Lights Alumni Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, James Hinchcliffe and reigning Verizon IndyCar Series Champion Josef Newgarden, O’Ward wins over $1 million in scholarship funding towards at minimum a four-race IndyCar Series deal, including the 103rd Running of the Indianapolis 500 in 2019.
“I was screaming in the car.” said the 2019 Mazda Scholarship driver. “You work for it all year, so many months of just hard work and focus, and finally all that weight is off my shoulders. I knew it would be a battle with Colton [Herta] today [Saturday] and I had to beat him, because that’s the only way you can be a champion.”
O’Ward’s journey on the Mazda Road to Indy began in 2015, racing alongside Mazda scholarship driver to be Santi Urrutia at Team Pelfrey. At just 16 years old, O’Ward’s ability to learn and adapt to racing with Mazda power impressed teams and drivers from around the Mazda Road to Indy paddock. 2016 saw O’Ward’s potential prosper as he went on to win seven races and finish second in the Pro Mazda Championship fight to Aaron Telitz.
2017 was another great year of development for the San Antonio resident, joining the Performance Tech IMSA team, winning the Rolex 24 at Daytona, 12 Hours of Sebring and five additional races en route to the IMSA Prototype Challenge Series title. O’Ward also got his first taste of Indy Lights action, competing in three races and finishing third in the streets of St. Petersburg.
“When John Doonan [Director of Motorsports, Mazda] and I saw ‘Pato’ for the first time we both looked at each other and said ‘this kid has something special’”, said Kyle Kimball, Motorsports Operations Manager for Mazda North America. “What he has put together in this Indy Lights season is the culmination of his talents and what we all knew Pato could achieve and we are so happy for Pato. He has worked extremely hard to win this scholarship and he is going to have a long career in the Verizon IndyCar Series.”
Patricio O’Ward joins Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires champion Rinus VeeKay and Cooper Tires USF2000 Powered by Mazda Champion Kyle Kirkwood as the 2019 Mazda Scholarship Class of 2019. Thanks to a $780,000 scholarship, VeeKay will move up to Indy Lights and via a $325,000 scholarship, Kirkwood will move up to Pro Mazda.
Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires
Rounds 16 and 17 of the Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires Championship concluded the 2018 season at Portland International Raceway. Championship leader Patricio O’Ward came into the first race of the weekend with a 25-point advantage over Andretti Autosport teammate Colton Herta. After qualifying on pole and setting a new track record, O’Ward would lead the field to Race 1 on Saturday afternoon. On Lap 5, Herta would take the lead in Turn 1, keeping his title hopes alive. O’Ward would have the winning move of the race and made a daring pass in the same corner to secure the championship on Lap 14. O’Ward crossed the line in first to win his ninth race of the season, with Herat finishing second and Mazda Scholarship driver Victor Franzoni in third. The victory secured the Indy Lights Championship for O’Ward.
Race Two would begin with a chaotic start. Pole sitter Ryan Norman made contact with Franzoni and teammate Dalton Kellett. The incident would force Norman to retire while the race lead would be assumed by Aaron Telitz and his teammate, Santi Urrutia. The teammates would battle for the next several laps for the lead while O’Ward stormed from seventh to third and had his sights set on the race leaders. Urrutia and O’Ward would both pass Telitz and take over the top two positions and O’Ward would pass Urrutia on Lap 17 for the race lead. The newly crowned champion would cruise to another victory and Telitz would finish ahead of Urrutia to finish second and third, respectively.
Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires
Pro Mazda Championship leader Rinus VeeKay would establish himself as the driver to beat this weekend after breaking the track record and securing the pole position for Race 1. At the start of the 30-lap race, Mazda Scholarship driver Oliver Askew would take the lead after a pass on the opening lap, placing VeeKay in second and Parker Thompson in third. The trio of drivers would hold onto their positions for the next 30 laps and VeeKay would clinch the championship with his second-place performance.
With the championship already decided, VeeKay would lead the field in Sunday afternoon’s final race of the 2018 season. Rookie David Malukas would pass the Dutchman and Oliver Askew as they went three-wide through Turn 1. Malukas would create a gap over VeeKay, who was holding off Saturday’s winner Oliver Askew in a battle for second-place. The top three drivers would gap the field by over 30 seconds and would finish off the weekend without a caution in the 30-lap race. Malukas won his third race of his rookie campaign, with VeeKay finishing second again and Askew in third.
Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda
Kyle Kirkwood entered the final weekend of the season with the championship already in hand, but the 19-year-old from Jupiter, Florida had the opportunity to tie USF2000 alumni JR Hildebrand for the most wins in the series history. The Cape Motorsports driver would have to sweep the weekend in order to do so and in Race 1, he made it look easy. He set the new lap record at Portland International Raceway and would lead the field to the green flag. Rasmus Lindh would edge Kirkwood around the outside of Turn 2 on the opening lap. On the next lap, Kirkwood would retake the lead after passing Lindh into Turn 1 and the champion wouldn’t falter, leading the remaining 24 laps. Pabst Racing’s Calvin Ming would finish second and Kory Enders in third after starting seventh.
Kirkwood would have to pass Lindh and Kaylen Frederick in Race 2 and win the final race of the season in order to tie Hildebrand. As the green flag waved, Lindh would hold off his teammate Frederick and Kirkwood for the next six laps. Kirkwood would get around Lindh on Lap 7 on the outside of Turn 4. Kirkwood and Lindh would hold on to the top two spots for the remainder of the race, while Team Pelfrey’s Julian van der Watt would finish third and collect his first podium result on the Mazda Road to Indy. The win gave Kirkwood the tie with Hildebrand and cemented his performance as one of the most dominant seasons in Mazda Road to Indy history.