Junior Open Wheel Talent

Florida resident Nick Andries will rejoin Andersen Racing for the remainder of the 2010 Star Mazda Championship.  His next race with the team will be this weekend at Iowa Speedway.

Andries made his Star Mazda debut with the team during Round 3 on the Streets of St. Petersburg.  This weekend will be his first official oval race, but he did test Andersen Racing’s Star Mazda car at O’Reilly Raceway Park in May.

Andries, 19, will continue racing in the Skip Barber National Championship this season where he is currently ranked fourth in the points’ championship. In a press release, he is quoted saying:

“I think this is a great opportunity for me to continue developing my talent, but I’m not going to lose focus of winning a national championship in Skip Barber.”

I tend to agree with him.  The opportunity to run both series is a great one, especially with the chance to learn from Andersen teammates Anders Krohn, Mikael Grenier and Tristan Vautier – all of whom will be an asset to Andries’ development. To me, his key sentence is “I’m not going to lose focus of winning a national championship in Skip Barber.”

Skip Barber National competitor Daniel Lloyd will make his British Touring Car Championship (BTTC) debut next weekend at Croft.  He will be driving for Ian Harrison – team principal of Triple 8 Vauxhal.  The opportunity comes after a solid test with the team at Rockingham.

It hasn’t been ruled out, but it’s unlikely that Lloyd, 18,  will return to open-wheel racing this season.  Prior to running the Skip Barber National championship, Lloyd’s focus was on sports car racing.  He finished first in the ELF Renault Clio Winter Cup.  Prior to that he logged several race wins in the Ginetta GT Junior Championship.

Lloyd ran six races this season with Skip Barber Racing.  His best finish was fifth, which occurred in Round 3 at Sebring International Raceway.  In Round 4, he qualified on pole but dropped to 11th in the final standings. It’s clear that he has great potential.  I’m never happy to see drivers drift away from open-wheel racing, but this is a great opportunity for Daniel and I wish him the best.

Isaac Lyons won his third Skip Barber National race of the 2010 season yesterday at Lime Rock Park.  It was his second win of the weekend.  Spencer Pigot finished second, falling short of victory by a mere 0.021.  Dennis Trebing finished third, trailing by just 0.099 seconds, to earn his second podium finish of the season.

Spencer Pigot set a new track record with the fastest lap of the race; 56.695. Ashley Freiberg broke the previous record on Friday with a lap of 56.978. Update: The official track record was set in 2009 by Sage Karam in qualifying when he turned a 56.073.

Honorable mention should go to Series’ rookies Trent Hindman and Scott Heckert for finishing fourth and fifth, respectively, in their first National events.  Heckert earned the hard charger award for improving three positions.  He drove from 8th to 5th in the 26-lap event.

The Skip Barber National competitors will return to action on July 15-17 at New Jersey Motorsports Park.

Complete Results from Lime Rock Park after the jump.

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Isaac Lyons won his second Skip Barber National race of the 2010 season today at Lime Rock Park. After qualifying on pole, Lyons proceeded to drive from flag-to-flag, for the victory, beating Spencer Pigot to the line by 2.924 seconds.  Pinellas Park, Florida native Nick Andries finished third for his second consecutive podium finish and his third of the season.

The hard charger of the race is Spencer Pigot, who drove from sixth on the grid to second at the flag.  The fastest lap of the race was set by Ashley Freiberg, 56.978, a new track record.  Lyons set a new qualifying record on Friday with a 57.006 second lap.

Full results from Round 7 – Lime Rock Park after the jump.

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The Skip Barber National Championship will be completing Round 7 & 8 of the 2010 championship this weekend at Lime Rock Park.  The entry list was released this morning and featured two rookies, each looking to make their Skip Barber National debut.

Scott Heckert, 16, of Ridgefield, Connecticut, will make his debut this weekend along with 14-year-old New Jersey resident Trent Hindman.  Both drivers have an extensive background in karting.

Heckert competes nationally with the World Karting Association and locally in the Norwalk Karting Association in the Briggs division- a low horsepower karting program that emphasizes finesse and smoothness behind the wheel.  I’m not real familiar with Heckert but I’ve heard some good things about him.  He has put together some real solid performances at the National karting level in the WKA Gold Cup.  The jump to Skip Barber National competition will be fairly large, but he should do relatively well as he becomes comfortable with the car.

Hindman has been competing both locally and nationally in karts for about five years now, focusing mostly on 2-cycle classes.  Last summer he started making the transition to cars through various Skip Barber regional programs.  The New Jersey native qualified second in his first-ever car race and finished fifth out of 16 drivers.  I expect Hindman to be pretty fast right out-of-the-box.  He has a lot of track time at Lime Rock and showcased his speed today by finishing P1 in the final lapping session ahead of several National Series’ regulars.

SBN Competitors Negotiate VIR
(photo: Kelly Brouillet/Skip Barber Racing)

The Skip Barber National Championship completed Round 5 & 6 of their 14-race 2010 schedule over the weekend at Virginia International Raceway. It’s a bit strange to think that they are almost halfway through the 2010 season and it’s only April.

Round 5- VIR

Floridian Spencer Pigot claimed his second-career win by battling to the front of the pack in Round 5 after starting the race 4th. Honorable mention should go to Dennis Trebing who qualified on pole — with a broken right hand — and led the majority of the race prior to be being bumped off track on the final lap by Mukul Sud. Trebing ended up eighth in the final standings for the day. Sud was given a stop-and-go penalty by race officials following the event which resulted in a ninth place finish. Ashley Freiberg and Scott Anderson both earned their career-best National finish by completing the race 2nd and 3rd, respectively.

Brandon Newey of Indianapolis, IN. earned the hard charger award by improving the most positions. Newey, 17, started the race in 11th and finished 5th – similar to that of Freiberg and Anderson this was Newey’s career-best finish in Skip Barber National competition.

Round 6- VIR

Mexican driver Luis Michael Dörrbecker earned his first-career win in Sunday’s Round 6 after starting the race in 7th.  The impressive drive earned him the co-hard charger award for improving six positions.  Isaac Lyons shared the honor after driving from 10th on the grid to finish 4th.

Felix Serralles finished 2nd and Nick Andries rounded out the top-three.  Round 5 winner Spencer Pigot started the race from pole position, but, ultimately ended up 8th when the checkered flag came out.  The result marked Pigot’s first non-podium finish of the 2010 season.

The series’ resumes action on May 28-31, 2010 at Lime Rock Park.

Ashley Freiberg

Ashley Freiberg, 18, recently became the first female driver to win a Skip Barber title by wrapping up the Southern Race Series championship – a regional Skip Barber development series.  The Illinois native finished just ahead of fellow National competitor Dennis Trebing in the final standings.  She completed the regional season with 6 wins and 10 podiums.

She is currently sixth in the National Series point standings.  To date, through the first four National races, she has logged 2 top-five finishes including a drive from 10th to 5th in the latest race – which was held at Sebring International Raceway.

The National Championship will resume action on April 23-25, 2010 at Virginia International Raceway.

I’m a little late on posting this… but, I suppose late is better than never and let’s be honest, during these economic times, it’s nice to know for sure who plans to stick around for more than a couple races before writing a detailed— or semi-detailed in this case— report.

The Skip Barber National championship just completed Round 4 of the 2010 championship so this piece could easily be titled “early season preview“.  Regardless of the title, there is still a lot of racing to be had and the overall championship remains wide open.

Please make the jump to read the full preview.

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Round 3- Sebring International Raceway

Isaac Lyons, who I named the 2009 Skip Barber National Unsung Hero, won his first career Skip Barber National race yesterday at Sebring International Raceway.  His previous best finish was 2nd which occurred at Lime Rock Park in the series’ 2009 finale.

MAZDASPEED Development Drivers’ Spencer Pigot and Felix Serralles finished 2nd and 3rd respectively.  Nick Andries and Daniel Lloyd rounded out the top-five in Round 3.

The hard charger from Round-3 is Daniel Lloyd who improved 7 positions in 10-laps.  He started the race in twelfth and finished fifth as noted above.   Lloyd went on to qualify on pole for Round 4.

Round 4- Sebring International Raceway

Dennis Trebing became the first repeat winner of the 2010 season by winning Round-4 in dominant fashion.  The Florida resident managed to win by an almost-unheard-of margin in Skip Barber National competition (5.861 sec).

The MAZDASPEED Development Driver duo of Felix Serralles and Spencer Pigot reversed their finishing positions from Round 3 with Serralles beating Pigot to the stripe.  Sophomore pilots Isaac Lyons and Ashley Freiberg rounded out the top-five.

The hard charger of Round 4 is Luis Michael Dorrbecker who improved 7 positions in 9-laps.  Dorrbecker finished 8th after starting 15th.

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Dennis Trebing (67) leads Spencer Pigot (56) in Race 1 at Homestead-Miami Speedway

Skip Barber Racing held their opening rounds of the 2010 Skip Barber National Championship this past weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway. As usual, the racing was close and featured several lead changes throughout the weekend.

Dennis Trebing won Round-1 by beating Isaac Lyons and Spencer Pigot to the line. It was his first Skip Barber National win. Ashley Freiberg and Nick Andries rounded out the top-five respectively.

The margin of victory in Race-1 was an astonishing 0.018 seconds, the margin of victory in Race-2 was even closer.

Spencer Pigot crossed the stripe first in Round 2 just ahead of Nick Andries and Nicolas Costa. The margin of victory was a mere 0.013 seconds. Danilo Estrela put in the drive of the weekend to finish 4th, he started the event 14th. Isaac Lyons rounded out the top-five.

Honorable mention should go to Felix Serralles who set the fastest lap of the race in both Round 1 & 2.

Point Standings After Round 2 of 14 (Top-Five)

1. Spencer Pigot 66
2. Dennis Trebing 59
3. Isaac Lyons 58- Tie
4. Nick Andries 58-Tie
5. Nicolas Costa 55

Read the full report from Skip Barber Racing here.