Junior Open Wheel Talent

Conor Daly Samples an Indy Lights car with Sam Schmidt Motorsports at Putnam Park

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted a testing update, but there were a few teams testing this past week.

AFS Racing/Andretti Autosport just wrapped up their second day of testing at Kentucky Speedway and by all reports, the test went very well.

“We [Charlie Kimball and I] ran 180 laps from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m., with 105 degree Fahrenheit air temperature, and a 145 degree track temperature,” said Martin Plowman, when asked about the test. “It was hot, but we accomplished a lot.”

Other drivers involved in Indy Lights testing this week included Conor Daly (Star Mazda) and Alex Ellis (Jim Russell Race of Champions).  Both drivers spent a day testing with Sam Schmidt Motorsports this week at Putnam Park, Ind.

Daly, who is currently leading the Star Mazda championship, has been looking to get into a Lights car for some time now.  It’s unclear if he will make a one-off appearance later this year or if this was strictly an opportunity to pick up some additional seat time.

Alex Ellis, of St. Catherines, Ontario, recently captured the Jim Russell Race of Champions title.  As a prize for winning the championship, Ellis was awarded a one-off Indy Lights race scheduled for next weekend August 22 at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif.

Krohn Testing an Indy Lights car at Putnam Park

After completing an Indy Lights test with Andersen Racing on June 23 at Putnam Park, Indiana… Anders Krohn is poised to make his debut next weekend in the Corning 100 at Watkins Glen International Raceway with the team. The 22-year-old Norwegian driver is currently competing in the Star Mazda championship — also with Andersen Racing — where he has finished every race, to date, inside the top-five.  Through the first seven-rounds, Krohn is second in the drivers’ championship.

For now, his Indy Lights debut looks to be a one-off race but Krohn is looking to make the move-up to Lights’ competition next season full-time.  This should prove to be an extremely beneficial experience for Krohn.  I’m looking forward to watching his progress throughout the weekend as he adapts to the car.

Previously, he tested an Indy Lights car with Sam Schmidt Motorsports.  I expect he will get up-to-speed fairly quickly.

Indy Lights’ competitors will spend Thursday at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio testing.  The next event on the schedule will take place June 19 at Iowa Speedway.

Here is a quick list of “Who’s testing with Whom.”  I will update the list as necessary over the next couple days.

Sam Schmidt Motorsports- J.K. Vernay, Pippa Mann, Philip Major
AFS/Andretti Autosport- Charlie Kimball, Martin Plowman
Team Moore- James Hinchcliffe, Adrian Campos Jr.
Bryan Herta Autosport- Sebastian Saavedra, Stefan Wilson
Andersen Racing- Adam Christodoulou (paperwork pending)

Adam Christodoulou, who won the 2009 Star Mazda Championship, will test an Indy Lights car this week at Mid-Ohio with Andersen Racing.  The test will be made possible by Performance Friction and is part of the ‘Road to Indy’ development program.  The 2010 Star Mazda champion will also receive an Indy Lights test as part of the program at the end of the season.

Christodoulou won three Star Mazda races last year and finished on the podium nine times to claim the overall title.  This season Christodoulou is co-driving a Mazda RX-8 with John Edwards (2009 Atlantic Champion) in the Grand-Am GT class.

Last season, Christodoulou completed a Indy Lights test at Mid-Ohio with Bryan Herta Autosport. This week’s test is scheduled to take place Thursday June 10.  Adam will celebrate his 21st birthday on Friday, June 11.

Markus Niemela — 2008 Atlantic Champion — is always looking for new thrills. I would venture to say that he has over a 1,000 classic extreme sports’ photos and, yes, he’s in all of them.  This one tops them all.

Feel free to add your own commentary here.

Markus Niemela Develops A New Style of Driver Coaching

Standard Disclaimer: Do Not Try This Under Any Circumstance.

The Indy Lights’ competitors had the chance to test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway yesterday in preparation for the upcoming Freedom 100 (May 28).

Gustavo Yacaman set the fastest lap of the test with a 47.2413, running the third most laps during the test (105).  Only four drivers were able to break into the 190 mph range. Dan Clarke ran the most laps at 119.  Philip Major was the top rookie, 7th quick 47.4975.

Lap times from the open test are posted after the jump.

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Drivers from the USF2000 National Championship and Star Mazda Championship wrapped up a two-day test earlier today at O’Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis, In.

At the time of this posting, I was unable to attain the combined times from Thursday (Day-2) for USF2000.  Star Mazda combined times are posted after the jump.

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The USF2000 National Championship and Star Mazda Championship completed Day-1 of a two-day test earlier today at O’Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis, In.

Many of the drivers participating in this week’s test have never been on an oval race track, so this is a totally new experience for them.  The test offers drivers the chance to work on oval set-ups, communicate with spotters, and the opportunity to adopt a different driving style.

Combined times from Day-1 are posted after the jump.

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J.K. Vernay Testing at Kentucky Speedway
(photo: Ron McQueeney/IndyCar.com)

Adrian Campos Jr., Philip Major, JK Vernay, Carmen Jorda, Stefan Wilson, Dan Clarke and James Winslow all had the opportunity to sample an Indy Lights car earlier this week in Kentucky for the annual rookie test/oval orientation program.

The drivers in attendance were working with Indy Lights driver coach Rick Mears, Indy Lights race director Tony Cotman, series executive director Roger Bailey and IndyCar technical director Kevin Blanch.

Frenchman J.K. Vernay, who is currently leading the Firestone Indy Lights championship, set the fastest time of the bunch during the test.  His only previous oval experience was a half-day test at Homestead-Miami Speedway with Sam Schmidt Motorsports.

The Indy Lights’ drivers will return to action on May 28, 2010 where they will face their first oval this season- Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

I’m a little behind on some World Series by Renault news.  Here’s a quick recap of what’s been going on…

Red Bull junior driver Jean Eric Vergne has committed to running in the World Series by Renault with SG Formula in 2010.  His main focus this season will be British F3–where he will be driving for Carlin— but, he plans to run both series.  The two championships only have one overlapping date (May 1-2, 2010), where the Formula Renault 3.5 competitors will be running at Spa-Francorchamps and the British F3 pilots (including Vergne) will be competing at Silverstone.  Vergne should do pretty well with SG Formula this season.  He had a really solid test with the team back in October at Motorland Aragon where he topped the time charts in two consecutive sessions.  More recently, he was the quickest WSR driver at the Jerez test.  Vergne finished runner-up in the 2009 Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup with 4 wins, 4 pole positions and 8 podiums.  He will be teamed with Marcos Martinez at SG Formula this season.

Sten Pentus will return to the series in 2010 with Fortec Motorsport.  Pentus has kind of flown under the radar for many, but he did put in a few memorable performances during his rookie campaign in Formula Renault 3.5 last year.  Last October, I wrote this about Pentus…

Sten Pentus continues to impress.  The 27-year-old  Estonian driver earned another ‘hard charger’ award this weekend after improving 13 positions in Round 17 of the World Series by Renault.  I haven’t documented every result this year, but I have Pentus down for three previous ‘hard charger’ awards:  Silverstone (improved 8 positions), Spa (improved 9 positions), and Catalunya (improved 17 positions).

It will be fun to watch Pentus progress in 2010 and I expect we will see even more improvement from the 28-year-old Estonian driver. Over the winter, Sten has been competing in the New Zealand Toyota Racing Series (TRS) where he has logged 2 wins and 7 podiums in 12 starts.

Daniel Zampieri, 19, has committed to running the 2010 World Series by Renault with Pons Racing.  The young Italian driver, who won the 2009 Italian F3 Championship, is part of the Ferrari Driver Academy.  Zampieri has a ton of potential and should do real well this season under the guidance of both Ferrari and Pons Racing.  He just recently topped the time charts in the opening day of the Jerez test.  During the winter months, he ran six races for Rapax in the GP2-Asia series logging a best finish of 8th at Bahrain.

You can view the results from the WSR Jerez test here.