Junior Open Wheel Talent

Take a ride with Jonathan Thonon, one of the world’s greatest karters, in his Super KF entry.  The footage was shot during the Winter Cup at Lonato, Italy.

Take an onboard ride with Ben Searcy in his ZSports Midwest USF2000 car on the Streets of St. Petersburg.  Searcy’s fast lap of the session was clocked at 1:15.245.

The following footage was taken during Round 2 of the 2010 Skip Barber National Championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Take a ride with Nick Andries and notice how well the draft works in these cars.  Make sure you watch the finish as Andries attempts to pass three cars on his way to the checkered flag.  Spencer Pigot ended up winning the race by 0.013 seconds over Andries and Nicolas Costa.  Enjoy.

Today’s video features F2000 Championship driver Jonathan Scarallo on track at Virginia International Raceway.  In Race 1 (featured), Jonathan finished 6th but managed to set the third-quickest lap of the race.  Enjoy.

For those that missed Sunday’s Indy Lights race, here is a quick recap from IndyCar.com.  They certainly don’t include all the details but it should give you a little insight into how ‘wet-n-wild’ this race actually was.  Enjoy.

For anyone that missed my St. Petersburg recap, you can read it here.

This might have been better if I had some onboard footage from St. Petersburg.  But, I don’t so this will have to do.  The following footage was taken during last week’s Star Mazda season opener.

Take a ride with Star Mazda rookie Connor De Phillippi at Sebring International Raceway.

It will be hard to miss, but make sure you pay close attention to how deep he drives the car into the corner.  He does a tremendous job under braking without hurting his exit speed (at least during the opening laps).  As the race wears on, it appears that he is battling a little understeer on entry which, in turn, creates a snap oversteer at mid-corner to exit.  Although it doesn’t seem to hurt him much.  Enjoy.

Jonathan Summerton, Race Johnson, Nic Le Duc, Ben Jopling, Niall Quinn and Steve Lewandowski all took part in the Palm Beach International Raceway Driver Academy last week.  All six drivers were able to participate in a two-day race car test at Putnam Park, Indiana.  The team had both a Formula BMW car and a Indy Lights car on hand.  In addition, they received media and driver presentation training as well as physical fitness training with Jim Leo from PitFit (see video below).

Team PBIR Driving Academy: Physical Fitness with PitFit’s Jim Leo

I haven’t provided much coverage on the Ontario Formula Ford Challenge series (OFFC) due to time constraints but it certainly deserves some press as do the drivers competing in the championship.

One driver who really stood out last season and has yet to sign with anyone for 2010 is Stefan Rzadzinski.  For those not familiar with him, you will be soon.  Stefan is incredibly smooth and did a great job last season during his first year in cars.  The 17-year-old Canadian earned the 2009 Rookie of the Year title after finishing runner-up to Matt White in the overall championship.

In the following video, Stefan qualifies on pole at the OFFC race at Mosport International Raceway.

Watch the onboard footage closely and take notice of how he comes off the brakes on entry and carries momentum through the turns.

Here is a 1:28.3 at Mosport International Raceway… Enjoy.

For those that have been waiting to see 15-year-old Zach Veach behind-the-wheel of an Atlantic Championship racecar, here is your chance.

The following video features onboard footage of Zach Veach testing with Jensen Motorsport.

I’m not sure how recent this footage is, or what the conditions were like during the test… so it’s difficult to provide much insight into his driving technique.  He does a nice job looking through the turns and keeping his eyes ahead of the car.  I would say that he appears a bit reserved (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing during a test day).  He’s lacking entry and mid-corner speed but seems to be adapting to the power of the car quite nicely on exit.  The ability to carry more momentum into– and through— the corner will come with additional seat time.   I’m looking forward to watching more footage and keeping an eye on his progress this season.

Take a ride with Brett Smrz in a Jim Russell FJR-50 race car at Infineon Raceway in this HD video (added by Patrick Barrett).  Smrz showcases his smooth driving and illustrates exactly why he has won the Jim Russell Championship for two consecutive years.