Junior Open Wheel Talent

Richard Kent will return to Star Mazda competition for a minimum of two races this season.  The 21-year-old British driver will join Team GDT at both St. Petersburg and Sebring International Raceway and remains hopeful that he will be able to secure the ride full-time.

Kent tested with the team at Sebring International Raceway in January as part of the pre-season official test.  Since that time he has also sampled an Indy Lights car at Barber Motorsports Park with Genoa Racing.

Carlos Conde, who also tested with Team GDT in January, will compete in the Star Mazda Masters class in 2010 for GDT.  J.W. Roberts, who owns Team GDT, will return to the cockpit again this season and plans to compete in all the road and street course events via the Expert class.

The team is currently working to try and help secure additional funding which would allow for Richard Kent to complete the full 2010 Star Mazda season.  In 2009, Kent finished the year with 4 pole positions, 4 podiums and 2 victories en route to a 7th place finish in the overall championship.

Terrick Mansur

Liberty Motorsports has confirmed the signing of the soon-to-be 21-year-old Terrick Mansur for the 2010 USF2000 National Championship.  Mansur completed a test with the team at Sebring International Raceway in January.

Terrick was always quick in the karting ranks and produced some very solid results in cars prior to putting his motorsports career on hold to pursue a degree in software engineering.  He plans to return to racing full-time in 2010.

Mansur’s last full-season took place in 2007 via the F2000 Championship where he finished third in the final point standings driving for Andersen Racing.  Prior to that, he won the (FSCCA) Formula SCCA Southeast Championship during his first full-season in the car ranks.

I expect Mansur to be quick out of the box.  He will, without a doubt, add to the depth of the USF2000 field in 2010.

Junior Strous and HVM's Keith Wiggins

It was confirmed last evening that Dutch racer Junior Strous has joined HVM Racing for the 2010 Indy Lights season.  He was originally planning to drive for Team Moore Racing but was released from his contract for unknown reasons.  The speculation was that he had a better offer from someone else and that just might have been the case.

HVM Racing plans to field Junior in the Firestone Indy Lights series in 2010 but mentions IndyCar testing and racing opportunities as a possibility in the near future.

“Junior is a proven talent,” stated Team Owner Keith Wiggins in a release.  “He’s won races, so we know he has good skills behind the wheel.  We will start him in a (Firestone Indy) Lights car and plan to do some testing with him in the big car at some point this season also.  I have no doubt that with continued development he will be in an IZOD IndyCar Series car in the future,” continued Wiggins.

Junior Strous seems very content with the new opportunity and is looking forward to the possibility of competing in IndyCar.

“I’m now closer to reaching my ultimate goal and that’s racing the big IndyCars,” Strous said in a team release. “If I have a chance to improve my position, I’ll always go for it. The HVM partnership offers me good opportunities both for the short and long term in my racing career.  HVM is the place to be to achieve my goals.”

HVM Racing has teamed up with Team Stargate Worlds to field former Atlantic Championship standout Simona de Silvestro in the 2010 IndyCar series.  It’s likely that we will see Strous join her in North America’s top-tier open wheel series later this season.

Canadian David Ostella is set to return for his sophomore season in the Star Mazda ranks.  He re-signed with AIM Autosport this week after completing a successful test with the team in January.  His teammate this season will be Michael Furfari, who signed with AIM in early January.

Last season, while competing in Star Mazda, Ostella had 6 top-ten finishes including a best finish of 3rd which occurred at Iowa Speedway.  Last season was a learning/development year for Ostella who had previously competed in the Formula BMW-Americas series.  Expect to see a more consistent driver in 2010.

Chris Miller, who won the 2009 F2000 Championship, has registered to compete in both the USF2000 and Star Mazda events during the weekend stop in St. Petersburg, Florida.  He will be driving a JDC Motorsports entry in both series.

For now, the USF2000 race is strictly a one-off opportunity, but it’s possible we will see him back in the car later this season.  His main focus for 2010 will be the Star Mazda Championship.

The JDC Motorsports squad is yet to officially announce their drivers for the 2010 USF2000 National Championship, but the team plans to field 3-4 cars in the series this year.  Rumored drivers, at this point, are Brazilian Raphael Abbate and Colombian Martin Sala.  Stay tuned for a future announcement or official confirmation.

Hayden Duerson

Hayden Duerson has signed a two-race contract with Juncos Racing for the opening events of the 2010 Star Mazda championship.  Both events—Sebring & St. Petersburg— will be held in his home state of Florida.

The 18-year-old St. Petersburg native is excited to be competing in front of friends and family.

“I am looking forward to working with my teammates, Conor Daly and Tatiana Calderon, and I believe with the help of Ricardo and the great team of people he has put together, we will be very competitive this year,” Hayden stated in a release.  “It will especially be a lot of fun for me to race in front of my family and friends when we compete in the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, a race I have wanted to be a part of for a long time.”

I followed Hayden pretty closely in the karting ranks and he always impressed me.  He produced solid results in both the Skip Barber Regional and National programs as well.  The jump to Star Mazda will be a big one, but one I’m sure he’s capable of making with relative ease.

I’m hopeful that he will be able to secure adequate funding and run more than just two events this season with Juncos Racing.

After a few weeks of rumors and testing, it was made official this week that British karting standout Josh Fielding will join Cape Motorsports for the 2010 USF2000 National Championship.

Josh has spent the last two seasons competing in the KF2 division of the karting ranks.  This will be his first full-season in cars.  The 20-year-old race driver was originally planning to compete in the UK Formula Renault 2.0 championship in 2010, but decided to enter the USF2000 National Championship instead.

Fielding will be teamed up with Irish driver Patrick McKenna, who signed with Cape Motorsports early last week.

Carmen Jorda

It was originally thought that Carmen Jorda had signed with Walker Racing for the 2010 Indy Lights season.  However, that rumor proved to be false as it was announced last evening that Jorda had, in fact, signed with Andersen Racing for 2010.

Carmen, 21, tested with Andersen Racing at the open test last month at Barber Motorsports Park.

She spent the 2009 season in European F3 Open which used to be known as the Spanish F3 Championship.  The 21-year-old managed to finish on the podium twice in the Copa de España division.  She also ran three races in a LMP2 car in the Le Mans Series.

James Winslow

This is sort of old news by now, but still worthy of mention. James Winslow, who competed in the Atlantic Championship last season, completed a test last week with Sam Schmidt Motorsports in an Indy Lights car while at Sebring International Raceway.

James is currently looking to secure a ride in the 2010 Firestone Indy Lights series.  Nothing official has been announced at this time.

Last fall, I wrote this about his Atlantic season:

James Winslow didn’t have a break-out season but he was one of the few drivers who actually improved throughout the year.  He also earned 3-hard charger awards; Sebring, Mid-Ohio, and Road Atlanta.   While racing, he improved on his starting position in 75% of his race starts.  His best finish this season was 7th, which occurred at Lime Rock Park, Trois-Riviéres, Road Atlanta, and Laguna Seca.

It would be nice to see James return to North America full-time in 2010.  He was running on a very limited budget last season and he was unfamiliar with most of the tracks.  If he is able to put together the necessary funding for an Indy Lights season, it will be fun to watch his progress in 2010.

I will be holding a Live Q&A session with Jonathan Summerton Monday night at 8PM EST.  Make sure to join us and ask questions.