After being out of a race car for 16-months, Dillon Battistini is set to make his return this weekend at Chicagoland in the No. 35 Team PBIR Indy Lights car.
Battistini, 32, finished sixth overall in the 2008 Indy Lights drivers’ championship. He completed the season with four wins, all on ovals, while driving for Panther Racing. His last race was at Kansas in April 2009 – he finished 15th.
The Englishman hopes to make a full-time return to racing in 2011.
Felix Serralles
(Photo: Kelly Brouillet/Skip Barber)
After a successful outing in the F2000 Championship (two top-10 finishes), Felix Serralles has signed with Liberty Motorsports for the remaining USF2000 races on the 2010 calendar.
Serralles, a regular in Skip Barber National competition, will make his USF2000 debut with Liberty Motorsports next weekend at Road America August 21-22.
The 18-year-old Puerto Rican, who currently resides in Florida, received backing from Mazda this season after winning the 2009-10 Skip Barber Karting Scholarship Shoot-Out. He’s finished inside the top-10 in all but one Skip Barber National race this season, logging one win, and five podiums.
At Liberty Motorsports, he will team up with Matthew Powers who has been competing on a limited budget this season, running only four races. Despite a limited amount of seat time Powers recently grabbed two top-five finishes at the Autobahn stop. With the addition of Serralles to the squad, Liberty Motorsports will have a pretty solid line-up to finish the 2010 season. Watch for big things from these two drivers.
Skip Barber National competitor Scott Anderson has signed with ZSports Midwest for the upcoming USF2000 doubleheader at Road America.
Anderson has done a nice job diversifying his skill set this year by competing in various cars. The bulk of his season has been spent in the Skip Barber National Championship, but he has also logged time in a SCCA Spec Racer Ford and a Legends car. It has been an up-and-down season for the Colorado native. In April, he recorded his career best finish of 3rd in a Skip Barber National car at Virginia International Raceway (VIR).
ZSports Midwest has been without a driver for the past couple of months following the early retirement of Ben Searcy.
PopOffValve.com’s Tony Johns put together a great piece on Shane Hmiel and his return to racing via the Indy Lights series. It’s a great read. The fact that Tony refers to himself as a “word butcher” is absolutely laughable.
I was planning to write something up about Hmiel signing with Alliance Motorsports for the Chicagoland Indy Lights race, but this will work just fine. Enjoy.
Andersen Racing signed Brazilian Giancarlo Vilarinho to run the team’s No. 5 Indy Lights car at Mid-Ohio and Infineon Raceway. Vilarinho, who finished second in the 2009 Formula BMW-Americas series, will return to open-wheel competition for the first time since making his Star Mazda debut in October, 2009.
Vilarinho made quite a name for himself during his Formula BMW campaign, stringing together 5-consecutive victories in 2009. He ended the year with 10 top-five finishes, including seven wins.
I expect he will get up to speed rather quickly in his Indy Lights debut. He will be coached by fellow Brazilian Mario Romancini, who finished sixth in the 2009 Indy Lights championship while driving for Andersen. This season, Romancini graduated to the IndyCar ranks with Conquest Racing, but will be out of the cockpit at Mid-Ohio due to funding woes.
It would be great to see Vilarinho make a full-time return to racing in 2011.
Genoa has signed 28-year-old Mexican driver David Martinez to contest the upcoming Indy Lights race at Mid-Ohio. In 2008, Martinez ran five races in the Atlantic Championship. The following season, 2009, he ran one race in the Grand Am Rolex Series (Daytona Prototype) at Daytona Speedway.
His previous open-wheel experience, aside from karting, includes A1GP (Team Mexico) and Champ Car.
- Ashley Freiberg
(Photo: Eric McCombs)
Skip Barber National competitor Ashley Freiberg is set to make her return to Star Mazda competition this weekend at Autobahn (Rounds Eight and Nine) in the No. 91 Team GDT car. In 2009, she drove two races in the Star Mazda Championship with GDT, both at Autobahn – which is her home track. Last winter, she competed in one Formula Mazda Winter Series event at Infineon, finishing sixth.
Freiberg, 19, has done an excellent job of pacing her development, and her growth as a driver has been evident every season. This weekend’s event at Autobahn should offer an excellent opportunity to gauge her progress from last year. It’s likely that we will see her competing in Star Mazda full-time in 2011.
For now, this is a one-off opportunity for her to pick up some additional seat time. Her focus will remain on the 2010 Skip Barber National Championship.
Other returning drivers include Kevin Toledo (Linares Racing) and Sean Burstyn (Juncos Racing).
This weekend’s Round Eight and Nine of the 2010 Star Mazda Championship will be broadcast live on HDNet. Both races are scheduled for a 3:05 p.m. CST start time on July 31 and August 1.
- Sean Burstyn
(Photo: Juncos Racing)
Sean Burstyn is set to make his return to the Star Mazda Championship this weekend during the doubleheader at Autobahn in Joliet, Illinois. The 20-year-old Florida resident has signed with Juncos Racing for the event — the same team he drove for last season. He made nine Star Mazda starts last year, earning two top-10 finishes. His best finish of the season, 7th, occurred at Autobahn last July.
Burstyn will join teammates Conor Daly, Tatiana Calderon, and Rusty Mitchell under the Juncos Racing tent this weekend. With the guidance of Ricardo Juncos, driving coach Peter Dempsey, and the aforementioned teammates, it’s quite possible we will see another top-10 result from Burstyn.
In order to prepare for this weekend’s races, Burstyn tested with the team two weeks ago at Autobahn in a private test. All four Juncos Racing drivers were present.
Linares Racing has announced the signing of 19-year-old Kevin Toledo for the remainder of the 2010 Star Mazda Championship. The Chilean driver will join Carlos Linares, who is currently tied for 13th in the overall championship.
Toledo competed in the Star Mazda Championship last season, logging a best-finish of seventh at Iowa Speedway. His previous experience includes Chilean F3 and Formula Renault in Argentina.
The team is testing at Putnam Park in Indiana this week. The addition of Toledo to the squad should help Linares Racing build their program heading into the 2011-12 season.
Skip Barber National driver and MazdaSPEED scholarship driver Felix Serralles will make his F2000 Championship debut this weekend with GTP Motorsports at Lime Rock Park. The 18-year-old race driver is coming off his first-career win in the Skip Barber National Championship last weekend at New Jersey Motorsports Park.
GTP Motorsports will also enter Phil Lombardi, Paul Farmer, Tom Fatur, and Jim Hanrahan. I expect Serralles will be a nice addition to the squad and do quite well.
Update: Felix Serralles was the fourth quickest driver in this morning’s wet practice session at LRP. Qualifying for Race 1 is scheduled for 1:30 p.m.
