Junior Open Wheel Talent

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.

The Skip Barber National Championship has released their preview and entry list for the opening rounds of the 2010 championship, which will be held this weekend (March 5-7, 2010) at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

The drivers scheduled to take part in this weekend’s event are listed below along with their age (in parenthesis) and their hometown.

Overall, it looks like they have a solid core-group of drivers.  I’m not sure how many of them will be running a full-season at this point.  There are 8 drivers listed below who are from Florida (which may or may not skew the numbers for the rest of the season).

The only returning drivers from last year’s Skip Barber National Championship are Ashley Freiberg, Dennis Trebing, and Isaac Lyons.

Scott Anderson (21) Fort Collins, Colo.
Nick Andries (19) Pinellas Park, Fla.
Matt Bell Chandlers Ford, Hampshire, England
Al Carter – S (43) Greenville, Del.
Nicolas Costa (18) Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Luis Michael Dörrbecker (17) Queretaro, Mexico
Danilo Estrela (16) Long Branch, N.J.
Ashley Freiberg (18) Homer Glen, Ill.
John Giddens – S (54) Orlando, Fla.
Austin Hopper (21) Seminole, Fla.
Daniel Lloyd (17) Huddersfield, England
Isaac Lyons (20) Hillsborough Down, Northern Ireland
Brandon Newey (17) Carmel, Ind.
Jim Norman – S (51) Tampa, Fla.
Wilson Philippe (16) Key Biscayne, Fla.
Spencer Pigot (17) Windermere, Fla.
Felix Serralles (17) Haines City, Fla.
Brian Skinner – S (33) Philadelphia, Penn.
Mukul Sud (24) Bangalore, India
Kevin Tittle (20) South Pasadena, Calif.
Dennis Trebing (18) Cape Coral, Fla.

It was announced today that the 2010 Skip Barber National Champion will receive a Indy Lights test courtesy of Bryan Herta Autosport.  The new partnership between Bryan Herta and Skip Barber Racing will also allow Skip Barber National competitors the chance to get a behind-the-scenes look at the operation of BHA and Indy Lights competition during race weekends.

This looks like a win-win partnership for both Bryan Herta and the Skip Barber Racing School.  It’s nice to see another Indy Lights test being awarded to today’s up-and-coming open wheel drivers.  Let’s hope these type of partnerships continue with other teams and series.

It’s been awhile since I posted a Time Killer quiz and today— (TGIF)— seems like a good time to do so.  I had originally planned to put together an Atlantic Championship quiz, but apparently it has already been done.  So, I decided to put together a Skip Barber National Championship quiz instead.

If you’re not familiar with my Time Killer quizzes… all you have to do is click the green start button when you are ready to begin.  You will have eight minutes to fill in the correct driver name.  You must use the drivers last name or full name, spelling counts.  Good luck.

You can take this week’s quiz here: Can you name the last 11 Skip Barber National Champions? (1999-2009)

British driver Daniel Lloyd has committed to running the 2010 Skip Barber National Championship.  The 17-year-old spent his early years in karts prior to moving into sports cars in 2008.  Last year, he drove in the ELF Renault Clio Cup where he won the Winter Cup.

I realize I’m a bit biased (being that I write an open-wheel blog) but it’s always nice to see a driver make the switch from tin-tops to single-seaters.

This should turn out to be a really positive move for Lloyd.  The Skip Barber National Championship is traditionally loaded with competition and the required budget is low.  With the MazdaSPEED Development Ladder in place  there is a good chance for him to move up the North American open-wheel ranks in the future.  It will be fun to watch his progress this season.

Spencer Pigot and Felix Serralles earned the top prize at the 2009-2010 Skip Barber Karting Scholarship Shoot-Out; each earning a fully-funded ride in the 2010 Skip Barber National championship.

Nicolas Costa, Mukul Sud, Sebastian Ordonez and Jesus Rios also earned prizes at the shoot-out.

Prizes

• Spencer Pigot (16)- fully-funded season in Skip Barber National
• Felix Serralles (17)- fully-funded season in Skip Barber National
• Nicolas Costa (18)- fully-funded half season in Skip Barber National
• Mukul Sud (24)- fully-funded season in Skip Barber Regional
• Sebastian Ordonez (15)fully-funded season in Skip Barber Regional
• Jesus Rios (15)- fully-funded half season in Skip Barber Regional

A couple thoughts on this year’s shoot-out.

- As always it’s nice to see the Skip Barber organization spreading out the awards and developing a few of the kids in their regional programs.

- It was a good year to be from Florida as both Serralles and Pigot hail from the Sunshine State.  Plus, I would assume that both Serralles and Pigot (being from Florida) have both done their fair share of laps around Sebring.

- Both Spencer and Felix competed in the 2008 shoot-out as well.  I don’t think too many people were surprised when the top-prize recipients were announced.  It will be fun to watch these two develop in the car ranks next season.

- The average age of the award winners is 17.5 years old.
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You can read the official press release here.

2009 Skip Barber Karting Scholarship Shoot-Out Winners(drivers from left to right) Nicolas Costa, Mukul Sud, Sebastian Ordonez, Jesus Rios, Spencer Pigot and Felix Serralles. Joined by John Doonan (l) and Michael Culver (r).

Skip Barber released their 2009 Skip Barber Karting Scholarship Shoot-Out entry list today at the PRI show in Orlando, Florida.  The list is comprised of 37 drivers.

The shoot-out will take place on December 27-30, 2009 at Sebring International Raceway.  The entrants will be competing for $255,000 worth of seat time in various Skip Barber Racing Series.  The top prize, presented by the MazdaSPEED Development Ladder and the FIA Motorsport Safety Development Fund, will be a pair of fully-funded rides in the 2010 Skip Barber National Championship.  A fully-funded ride in the SBN championship is valued at approximately $52,000.

As noted above, their will be 37 drivers in attendance for this year’s shoot-out.  The entry numbers are down in comparison to years past, but I suppose that was to be expected considering the current economic climate.

Last year, I wrote a piece about the number of drivers who are 15 years of age or younger and competing for the prestigious Skip Barber Karting Scholarship.  It seems the average age of the entrants continues to drop every year as competitors are getting younger and younger.  Last year there were ten drivers who were 15 years of age or younger in the shoot-out.  This year, there are thirteen drivers who are 15 years of age or younger.

Here is a closer look at some actual numbers…

Percentage of Drivers Age 15 or Younger

2009- 35.14% (13 drivers) with the youngest being 13 years of age.
2008- 20.00% (10 drivers) with the youngest being 13 years of age.
2007- 29.41% (15 drivers) with the youngest being 12 years of age.
2006- 24.49% (12 drivers) with the youngest being 13 years of age.
2005- 17.02% (8 drivers) with the youngest being 13 years of age.

As noted last season, with these stats, it’s impossible to argue against the fact that drivers are attempting to move from karts to cars at a younger age every year.  I’ve said it before and I will say it again… It’s great to see these young drivers gaining experience in cars but it’s a shame to see so many rushed into cars.  A drivers karting years are so important to their overall development as a race car driver that pushing kids into cars at such a young age can be detrimental to their overall success.

I know that a lot of these drivers will continue karting along with their car programs… which is great to see.  The more seat time the better whether it be in cars or karts, but it’s always great to see drivers diversifying their skills.

Make the jump to see the full 2009 Skip Barber Karting Scholarship Shoot-Out Entry List…

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The Skip Barber National Championship released their 2010 schedule today.  The new calendar features seven double-race weekends, with one venue yet to be announced.  The 14-race schedule looks like this:

2010 BFGoodrich/Skip Barber National Presented by Mazda schedule

Spring Training, January 28-29, Sebring International Raceway
March 5-7 Homestead-Miami Speedway
March 16-19 Sebring International Raceway
April 22-25 Virginia International Raceway
May 28-June 1 Lime Rock Park
July 15-17 New Jersey Motorsports Park
TBD-August (Rd. 11&12)
September 28-October 1 Road Atlanta

Click Here for the full release.

Isaac Lyons

Name: Isaac Lyons
Born: Lisburn, Northern Ireland
Year of Birth: 1989

Website: None

Current Series: Skip Barber National
Final Standings: 5th
Average Finish (1st Half of Season): 11.43
Average Finish (2nd Half of Season): 6.67

Previous Experience:
Started Karting:  Age 8
Karting Experience: 12+years
Car Experience:  1 Year (Skip Barber)

Isaac did a nice job transitioning to cars this season.  Inconsistency seemed to plague him during the early part of the 2009 season, but he appeared to gradually gain more confidence throughout the year.  The change was evident in his results.  If he decides to return for another year of Skip Barber National competition, he should be a real threat.  As noted above, his average finish improved by nearly five places from the first half of the season to the second half.  His best finish of 2009 occurred during the final weekend of the Skip Barber National championship, he finished 2nd at Lime Rock Park after starting 5th.  He also set a track record during the Road Atlanta stop with a lap of 1:33.951.

Related Reading: Unsung Hero Awards

The Skip Barber National Championship completed their 2009 season this weekend at historic Lime Rock Park.

Connor De Phillippi

Conor De Phillippi claimed the overall championship simply by starting Saturday’s Round-13 race.  De Phillippi ended the season with 7 wins, 4 pole positions, 10 podiums, 4 fast laps, and 1 hard charger award.  He set a new record this year for most wins in a single season with 7.  The previous record was held by Grant Maiman, who had 6 wins in 2002.

Read the full report after the jump… [More]