Junior Open Wheel Talent

Over the last week, there has been a few USF2000 signings. In case you haven’t heard, here’s an update on the latest…

Australian Luke Ellery and Colombian Juan Piedrahita have signed with JDC MotorSports for the upcoming 2011 USF2000 National Championship.

Ellery, 21, made his debut last season during the final stop of the 2010 calendar (take a ride with him at Road Atlanta), where he made a splash finishing third in the season-finale. It will be good to see him back in the car this season with a full-time ride lined up. Ellery has a strong background in Formula Ford competition.

Piedrahita will be a driver to watch in 2011. The 18-year-old, who currently resides in Mexico, made his North American debut with Team Apex in last year’s Star Mazda Championship. He scored a top-five finish at Laguna Seca, just his third race in the Series.  This season, he’ll take a slight step back on the ladder, competing in the USF2000 National Championship. In the long run, it should prove to be a good move. Watch for Piedrahita to surprise a few people this season.

Primus Racing, managed by Jon Baytos, has inked Australian Nathan Morcom for 2011. Morcom, 18, picked up a lot of seat time last year competing in the Australian Formula Ford Championship full-time, while also making a few stops in the Toyota Racing Series and Australian F3. He finished 10th in the AFFC, driving for Synergy Motorsports. He should be fun to watch this season as he adapts to the USF2000 car.

Alegra Motorsports will look to defend its F2000 Championship Series title in 2011 after signing two South American drivers for the upcoming season.

Brazilian Gustavo Rizzo, 19, and Venezuelan Angel Benitez, 21, have inked contracts with the defending champions — who won the 2010 crown with Victor Carbone behind-the-wheel.

Both Rizzo and Benitez have relocated to Florida in anticipation of the upcoming season, which kicks off with a double-header at Virginia International Raceway on April 8-10.

I’m not very familiar with either driver, but according to the press release Rizzo began karting six years ago and has, more recently, been competing in Brazilian Formula Ford and Stock Car Jr. Benitez won the 2005 Venezuelan F1600 Championship and the Venezuelan FF2000 Championship during both the ’07 and ’08 season.

The two drivers recently sampled their Alegra cars at Palm Beach International Raceway.

Jorge Goncalvez celebrates a podium finish at the Iowa Speedway round of the 2010 Star Mazda Championship.
(Photo: Ryan - JuniorOpenWheelTalent.com)

Belardi Auto Racing has signed Jorge Goncalvez to pilot the squad’s No. 4 car in the 2011 Indy Lights Series.

Goncalvez, who spent the last two seasons in the Star Mazda ranks, will join Anders Krohn (another Star Mazda graduate) under the Belardi Auto Racing tent this season.

The 19-year-old Venezuelan driver had a break-through year last season, finishing fourth in the Star Mazda drivers’ championship with five podiums (all runner-up finishes) and 10 top-ten finishes. Last winter, Goncalvez competed in the Formula Mazda Winter Series where he compiled two wins, three pole positions and three podium finishes in three starts.

Planning to move up this season, Goncalvez tested an Indy Lights machine with Team Moore at Putnam Park, Indiana in October before deciding to join Belardi Auto Racing for his 2011 campaign. His teammate, Krohn, 23, will also be a rookie in the Indy Lights series this season having finished second overall in the 2010 Star Mazda Championship. The addition of both Krohn and Goncalvez looks to be a solid combo for BAR — watch for good things from this team as these two drivers adapt to their new machines.

Belardi Auto Racing plans to run the USF2000 National Championship in 2011 as well and hopes to have a driver announcement next week. Stay tuned for updates.

Read the team release from Belardi Auto Racing here.

Victor Garcia has inked a deal with Team Moore to run the 2011 Indy Lights Series.

Garcia spent last season in the World Series by Renault, where he logged two top-10s but struggled with consistency; compiling eight DNFs while driving for KMP Racing.

The 21-year-old Spaniard has completed several tests with Team Moore. Garcia will join Gustavo Yacaman under the team tent. The two were teammates during the 2008 Spanish F3 season with TEC Auto. Garcia’s familiarity with Yacaman should help ease his transition to Indy Lights.

“First of all, I have to thank Team Moore Racing for giving me this opportunity,” Garcia said in a release. “I am really happy and confident to be signing with them. We have already worked together [testing] and I really get on well with my crew and the whole team.”

Garcia’s previous experience includes karting, Formula Renault (2.0), Spanish F3, British F3 (International), and WSR (3.5).

Team Moore plans to test Garcia and Yacaman this week at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The 2011 Indy Lights season will get underway March 27 on the Streets of St. Petersburg.

Conor Daly will run a full GP3 campaign in 2011 with Carlin. In addition to his European endeavors, he will also run select non-conflicting Firestone Indy Lights events with Sam Schmidt Motorsports.

The 19-year-old Indiana resident won the 2010 Star Mazda Championship — driving for Juncos Racing — with seven wins and 12 podiums in 13 starts. A portion of his 2011 season will be funded by Mazda as part of the Mazda Road to Indy.

Daly tested a GP3 machine with Carlin at Jerez last October, impressing team owner Trevor Carlin with his outright speed and detailed feedback.

This will be an extremely busy year for the talented up-and-comer, but I expect Daly will adapt just fine.

Nick Mancuso has signed with JDC MotorSports for a partial season in the 2011 Star Mazda Championship.

Mancuso tested with JDC at Infineon Raceway in 2009. That season he raced in the SCCA Pro Racing Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup, logging a best finish of fourth (at both Thunderbolt and Barber). In 2010, the 24-year-old ran one race in the SCCA World Challenge GT Class piloting an Aston Martin DB9 to 17th place at Long Beach.

Mancuso has been working hard to make this deal happen, so it’s great to see him get a shot. Watch for this to be a learning year as he adapts to the open-wheel car and pursues additional funding for a full campaign in 2012.

Shannon McIntosh has signed with Cape Motorsports w/Wayne Taylor Racing for the upcoming 2011 USF2000 National Championship.

Bill Zahren, aka Pressdog, interviewed McIntosh following the announcement; you can read it here.

McIntosh, 21, who has spent the majority of her career in oval racing, will make the jump to road course, and open-wheel racing, for the 2011 season with hopes of eventually graduating to IndyCar. It goes without saying that this is going to be a big change for her. She’s done quite a bit of testing already (w/JDC Motorports, Juncos Racing and more), though, and now she will begin a rigorous testing program with her new team: Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing.

McIntosh will be driving the No. 2 CM/WTR car which was piloted to a runner-up finish in the 2010 USF2000 National Championship by Patrick McKenna — who has recently graduated to Star Mazda.

Working with Dominic and Nicholas Cape should help ease the transition for the now-Florida resident (formerly Ohio) heading into the opening race at Sebring International Raceway on March 17-18.

Tristan Vautier has signed with JDC MotorSports for the upcoming 2011 Star Mazda Championship.

Last season, as a rookie, the Frenchman finished fifth in the drivers’ championship with two wins (Sebring and NJMP), three podiums and nine top-10 finishes while driving for Andersen Racing.

This is a good signing for JDC. The talented 21-year-old Vautier will look to win the championship in 2011 and if he gels with the team — which I’m sure he will — that goal is anything but out of reach. I was very impressed by Tristan last year so I have relatively high expectations for 2011.

Stevenson Motorsports has signed 15-year-old Luca Forgeois — son of Georges Forgeois — to pilot its Zetec-powered Van Diemen in the 2011 USF2000 National Championship.

At this time, the team plans limit its entries to the road course events on the 2011 calendar; competing at Sebring International Raceway, St. Petersburg, Mid-Ohio, Road America and Baltimore via the National Class.

This should be great experience for Luca and it’s nice to see Stevenson Motorsports diving into the open-wheel junior formula ranks for 2011. It will be interesting to see if their program expands in 2012.

Connor De Phillippi

The reigning Star Mazda Rookie of the Year Connor De Phillippi has decided to return to the series for another year of development and a shot at the outright title. He was signed earlier this week by Series’ newcomers Team Pelfrey.

The highly-touted 18-year-old finished third in his rookie campaign with one win, three podiums and eight top-five finishes while driving for JDC MotorSports.

This season, the young American will pilot the No. 11 Pelfrey Star Mazda machine. He joins another talented up-and-comer Nick Andries, 20, who was signed early last month.

Team owner Dale Pelfrey and team manager Geoff Fickling already have a great line-up heading into the 2011 season. It will be interesting to see if they add another addition before the season kicks off March 26-27 at St. Petersburg.