Road to Indy – Test Results Are In!

Wednesday and Thursday of last week, the US F2000 National Championship presented by Cooper Tires powered by Mazda and the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear held a test on the 5/8-mile oval at O’Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis. For many of the drivers, this was not just their first time driving on an oval circuit, it was their first time BEING at an oval circuit! That didn’t seem to intimidate some as some blindingly quick times were posted.

US F2000 Test

Of the teams that tested at ORP on Wednesday and Thursday of last week, Cape Motorsports and Andretti Autosport were the absolute tops. Patrick McKenna set the fastest time of 21.667 sec over the two days. His nearest competition is the current championship leader and dominant racer from the St. Petersburg event, Sage Karam who put in a best time of 21.847 sec, 0.180 sec off of McKenna’s pace. Joining Sage at Andretti Autosport is Zach Veach who put up the third quickest lap of the two-day test with a time of 22.142 sec. Not too bad for his first time on an oval and in a US F2000 car. Here are the fastest times for the rest of the drivers. You can get a full listing of times from each of the eight sessions from the main page on the US F2000 website. As an aside, I find it rather amusing that the lap record for the NASCAR Nationwide Series at ORP is held by David Green with a time of 21.766 sec. McKenna has him covered by a full tenth of a second!

Star Mazda Test

Conor Daly put in the fastest time in five of the eight sessions, including the overall fastest time for the two-day test at O’Reilly Raceway Park. In fact, Daly’s quick time of 20.187 sec was fast enough to best the USAC Midget record by nearly two-tenths in a car with 100hp less power. Other session-fastest times were posted by Mikael Grenier in Session #1 on Wednesday and in Session #5 on Thursday, and by Anders Krohn in Session #6 on Thursday. Mikael’s fastest time was 20.360 sec which was good enough for second best overall. Anders time of 20.440 sec was fastest in Session #6, but was only fourth best overall. Tristan Vautier, winner of the first race of the season at Sebring, posted the third best time at 20.363 sec. The smaller formula cars aren’t as aero-sensitive as the larger IZOD IndyCar Series cars, so expect to see a LOT of wheel-to-wheel action at ORP when Star Mazda returns for the Night Before the 500. Here’s what Conor had to say about the test and the upcoming race at ORP.

“The track temperature makes a huge difference here, and we qualify in the afternoon and race at night, so we might or might not out‐qualify the Midgets, but either way the fans are in for a hundred laps of wheel‐to‐wheel Star Mazda racing. The fast line around the track is right up next to the wall where the banking is the steepest, so the keys to the race will be qualifying up front, managing your tires and setting your car up so you can move to the inside to pass when you start hitting traffic. The Iowa oval was probably the most fun race last year so I’m really looking forward to the Night Before the 500 and I know the Juncos Racing team will give me a competitive car.” –Conor Daly