Junior Open Wheel Talent

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.

Conor Daly has signed with Juncos Racing for the 2010 Star Mazda Championship.

The partnership was all but set-in-stone after the duo had a very successful pre-season test at Sebring International Raceway in late-January.  Conor topped the time charts in 3 out of the 6 sessions and set the fastest lap of the weekend with a 2:00.588.  It was just a matter of finalizing some sponsors before the official announcement could be made.  Last season, Conor drove for Andersen Racing in the Star Mazda championship and finished 3rd in the overall standings.  He completed the year with 1 win, 1 pole position, 6 podiums and 9 top-five finishes.  His most impressive drive of the year was perhaps his first race in a Star Mazda car (Sebring), where he drove from 16th on the grid to finish 3rd.

Conor is, without a doubt, a very promising open-wheel prospect and now that he is returning for a second year in Star Mazda competition he will be a favorite to challenge for the overall title.  It’s nice to see him stick around for an additional year of development rather than rush up the ladder like so many seem to do.  I have a feeling that he won’t be disappointed in that decision come October.

Andretti Autosport announced today that they have signed 15-year-old Sage Karam to pilot their F2000 car in the 2010 USF2000 National Championship.

Sage, of Nazareth, PA., will be an excellent addition to Andretti Autosport’s ‘Road to Indy’ program.  The 15-year-old phenom has performed remarkably in both karts and cars— competing full-time in both disciplines last season via the Skip Barber National Championship and the World Karting Association.  I’ve been following Sage for quite awhile now and I’m confident in saying that he will be a driver to watch in 2010.

Michael Andretti- President of Andretti Autosport- has a similar opinion of Sage’s potential.

“We look forward to bringing Sage on board as Andretti Autosport’s first USF2000 National Championship driver and hope to make him the first driver to go all the way through the ‘Road to Indy’ program – all the way to the IZOD IndyCar Series. I’ve watched him grow to become an accomplished young driver, and I think his experience in karting and Skip Barber will serve him well this year in the USF2000 series. I’m very confident Sage will be successful with Andretti Autosport,” Michael stated in a release.

In 2008, Sage was awarded the prestigious Skip Barber Karting Scholarship after winning the annual shoot-out.  At 13, he was the youngest driver in history to win the overall prize of a fully-funded ride in the Skip Barber National Championship.

Sage had a great inaugural full-season in the car ranks during 2009 that included  2 wins, 2 pole positions, 3 podiums, 2 fast laps, 32 laps lead, 1 hard charger award and 1 track record (LRP).  He continued to develop and improve throughout the season and I expect we will see much of the same this year in USF2000 competition.

Jake Rosenzweig

American Jake Rosenzweig has re-signed with Carlin to compete in the 2010 World Series by Renault.  The 20-year-old drove for Trevor Carlin, Carlin Team Boss, last season in the Formula 3 Euro Series.

Aside from a stellar weekend at Zandvoort, Jake had a fairly tough year in 2009, one that was laden with DNF’s.  His average finish (in races completed) was 13.69.  His best finish of the season, in F3 Euro Series competition, was 3rd.  He qualified off-pole for that race.

Jake has shown a tremendous amount of potential.  Personally, I would have liked to have seen him run another season in the Formula 3 Euro Series.  I’m still waiting for that break-out year from him.

His most recent racing endeavors include running two races in the GP2-Asia series with Super Nova Racing.  Additionally, he spent some time in the sports car ranks driving in the British Porsche Carrera Cup.

It was made official this morning, after nearly a month of rumors,  that Patrick McKenna has signed with Cape Motorsports for the 2010 USF2000 National Championship.

McKenna, 22, won this year’s prestigious Motorsport Ireland “Dunlop Young Driver of the Year” award which is valued at approximately €50,000.  Last season, McKenna competed in the ultra-competitive MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain where he finished 10th in the final standings (1 pole position, 5 podiums, 12 top-ten finishes) driving for the UK based Jamun Racing.  In 2008, he finished runner-up to USA’s Josef Newgarden in the Formula Ford Festival-Kent Class.

McKenna will be testing with Cape Motorsports in the coming weeks at Roebling Road in Savannah, Georgia prior to making his North American debut on the Streets of St. Petersburg for the 2010 USF2000 opener on March 27-28.

Canadian driver Remy Audette has confirmed that he will return to the F2000 Championship for his third season.  At this time, he plans to run a partial season but still has hopes of winning the overall championship.

“Right now the plan is to improve upon last year,” explained Audette in a press release. “We want to lower our track records, and as of today we are not planning on running the full schedule, so we may try to win the championship on a partial season.”

Last season, Audette finished third in the final F2000 Championship standings.  He had 1 win, 6 podiums and 11 top-five finishes.  Watch for Remy to be a front runner again in 2010.

Mikhail Aleshin announced that he will return to Formula Renault 3.5 competition in 2010 with Carlin.  This will be his fourth full-season in the World Series by Renault.

The 22-year-old Russian driver spent last season in the FIA Formula 2 championship where he compiled 1 win, 5 podiums, and 13 top-ten finishes en route to 3rd in the overall championship.  During his three previous seasons in Formula Renault 3.5 with Carlin, he logged six podiums and one win (Monza-2007).

He should do pretty well in 2010 as he (at least at this point) will be the most experienced driver in the field.  He had 6 top-five finishes during his 2008 FR 3.5 season and his average finishing position, excluding two DNF’s, was 8.4.

Gustavo Yacaman will return for his sophomore season in the Firestone Indy Lights series after signing with Cape Motorsports and Wayne Taylor Racing.  Yacaman had a tough season in 2009, one that was riddled with injury and disappointment.  The 18-year-old Colombian will look to rebound in 2010 under the guidance of Dominic and Nicholas Cape along with multi-time sports car champion’ Wayne Taylor.  Simon Hodgson will oversee the program as the Operations Manager of Wayne Taylor Racing.

Last season, while driving for Sam Schmidt Motorsports, Yacaman finished 12th in the final standings.  He completed the year with 7 top-ten finishes.  His best result occurred at Milwaukee, where he finished 4th.

Spaniard Victor Garcia has signed with KMP Racing for the 2010 World Series by Renault.  He will join Anton Nebylitskiy who signed with the team early last month.

Garcia spent the bulk of last season in British F3-International competition where he logged 11 top-ten finishes.  His best finish was 3rd at Spa-Francorchamps after starting the race in 13th position.