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.

Conor Daly has signed with Juncos Racing for the 2010 Star Mazda Championship.

The partnership was all but set-in-stone after the duo had a very successful pre-season test at Sebring International Raceway in late-January.  Conor topped the time charts in 3 out of the 6 sessions and set the fastest lap of the weekend with a 2:00.588.  It was just a matter of finalizing some sponsors before the official announcement could be made.  Last season, Conor drove for Andersen Racing in the Star Mazda championship and finished 3rd in the overall standings.  He completed the year with 1 win, 1 pole position, 6 podiums and 9 top-five finishes.  His most impressive drive of the year was perhaps his first race in a Star Mazda car (Sebring), where he drove from 16th on the grid to finish 3rd.

Conor is, without a doubt, a very promising open-wheel prospect and now that he is returning for a second year in Star Mazda competition he will be a favorite to challenge for the overall title.  It’s nice to see him stick around for an additional year of development rather than rush up the ladder like so many seem to do.  I have a feeling that he won’t be disappointed in that decision come October.

I’m constantly working on new ideas and trying to develop creative ways to help promote today’s up-and-coming drivers.  I’ve decided to try something new next week…

For the first time, I will be holding a LIVE Q&A session with Jonathan Summerton at 8PM EST on Monday night.  I will be using CoverItLive as I have in the past during a few of my Live Blog broadcasts.  For those not familiar with CoverItLive, please outclick on the link above and replay one of my previous Live Events.  The software is pretty cool in that it allows fans to interact during a Live event.  You simply add your name and type in your comment or question.  You won’t need to register or sign-up in order to participate… just simply tune-in and ask questions.

The idea here is to give today’s open wheel prospects a chance to interact with fans and gain some additional exposure.  I encourage everyone to tune-in on Monday night and participate by asking Jonathan questions.  I can’t guarantee that we will get to everyone, but we will certainly try our best.

Assuming the format is popular and I don’t have any major technical disasters, I’d like to continue this series in the future. I will post a reminder link sometime this weekend.  Make sure to help spread the word and support one of America’s most promising drivers (Jonathan Summerton).

Make sure to tune in Monday night at 8PM EST for a Live Q&A session with Jonathan Summerton right here at Junior Open Wheel Talent.com.

Andretti Autosport announced today that they have signed 15-year-old Sage Karam to pilot their F2000 car in the 2010 USF2000 National Championship.

Sage, of Nazareth, PA., will be an excellent addition to Andretti Autosport’s ‘Road to Indy’ program.  The 15-year-old phenom has performed remarkably in both karts and cars— competing full-time in both disciplines last season via the Skip Barber National Championship and the World Karting Association.  I’ve been following Sage for quite awhile now and I’m confident in saying that he will be a driver to watch in 2010.

Michael Andretti- President of Andretti Autosport- has a similar opinion of Sage’s potential.

“We look forward to bringing Sage on board as Andretti Autosport’s first USF2000 National Championship driver and hope to make him the first driver to go all the way through the ‘Road to Indy’ program – all the way to the IZOD IndyCar Series. I’ve watched him grow to become an accomplished young driver, and I think his experience in karting and Skip Barber will serve him well this year in the USF2000 series. I’m very confident Sage will be successful with Andretti Autosport,” Michael stated in a release.

In 2008, Sage was awarded the prestigious Skip Barber Karting Scholarship after winning the annual shoot-out.  At 13, he was the youngest driver in history to win the overall prize of a fully-funded ride in the Skip Barber National Championship.

Sage had a great inaugural full-season in the car ranks during 2009 that included  2 wins, 2 pole positions, 3 podiums, 2 fast laps, 32 laps lead, 1 hard charger award and 1 track record (LRP).  He continued to develop and improve throughout the season and I expect we will see much of the same this year in USF2000 competition.

Jake Rosenzweig

American Jake Rosenzweig has re-signed with Carlin to compete in the 2010 World Series by Renault.  The 20-year-old drove for Trevor Carlin, Carlin Team Boss, last season in the Formula 3 Euro Series.

Aside from a stellar weekend at Zandvoort, Jake had a fairly tough year in 2009, one that was laden with DNF’s.  His average finish (in races completed) was 13.69.  His best finish of the season, in F3 Euro Series competition, was 3rd.  He qualified off-pole for that race.

Jake has shown a tremendous amount of potential.  Personally, I would have liked to have seen him run another season in the Formula 3 Euro Series.  I’m still waiting for that break-out year from him.

His most recent racing endeavors include running two races in the GP2-Asia series with Super Nova Racing.  Additionally, he spent some time in the sports car ranks driving in the British Porsche Carrera Cup.

I’m sad to report that the 2010 Atlantic Championship season has been cancelled.  Ben Johnston, owner of the Atlantic Championship, and his crew took all the right steps (with a few exceptions) over the last few months… unfortunately, it was just too little, too late.  You have to give them credit for sticking with a sinking ship right until the end though.  They certainly put forth the effort.

The Atlantic Championship was poised to celebrate its 37th anniversary this season.  It was the longest running junior formula series in North American history.  Unfortunately, due to economic woes and some additional issues, it has faced an untimely demise.

Immediately following the release of the article on Auto123 (linked above), I sent an email out to my contacts within the Atlantic Championship.  Their failure to confirm or deny the allegations basically validated the inevitable.  **Update** Here is the Atlantic Release.

There are a lot of people ready to point fingers at this point… which is the easy thing to do.  Unfortunately, doing so won’t change anything for the better.  At this point, it’s simply time to move on and hope for a brighter future.

The mysterious insider who released the story to Auto123’s René Fagnan is quoted in saying, “We’re taking 2010 off to seriously rethink the series.  Mr. Johnston is seriously thinking about relaunching the series in 2011, and even to stage a short and affordable “Winter Series” at one point.”.

I guess they’re emphasizing the word “seriously“.

I’m not sure how serious you want to take them at this point, but I for one certainly hope this isn’t the end for the Atlantic Championship.  The storied history and the number of talented pilots who have participated in this series is perhaps the only solace for now.

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It was made official this morning, after nearly a month of rumors,  that Patrick McKenna has signed with Cape Motorsports for the 2010 USF2000 National Championship.

McKenna, 22, won this year’s prestigious Motorsport Ireland “Dunlop Young Driver of the Year” award which is valued at approximately €50,000.  Last season, McKenna competed in the ultra-competitive MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain where he finished 10th in the final standings (1 pole position, 5 podiums, 12 top-ten finishes) driving for the UK based Jamun Racing.  In 2008, he finished runner-up to USA’s Josef Newgarden in the Formula Ford Festival-Kent Class.

McKenna will be testing with Cape Motorsports in the coming weeks at Roebling Road in Savannah, Georgia prior to making his North American debut on the Streets of St. Petersburg for the 2010 USF2000 opener on March 27-28.

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.

Canadian driver Remy Audette has confirmed that he will return to the F2000 Championship for his third season.  At this time, he plans to run a partial season but still has hopes of winning the overall championship.

“Right now the plan is to improve upon last year,” explained Audette in a press release. “We want to lower our track records, and as of today we are not planning on running the full schedule, so we may try to win the championship on a partial season.”

Last season, Audette finished third in the final F2000 Championship standings.  He had 1 win, 6 podiums and 11 top-five finishes.  Watch for Remy to be a front runner again in 2010.

With temperatures hovering just above the 40 degree Fahrenheit mark in Alabama this morning, Indy Lights’ drivers cautiously entered the track for their first official test of the 2010 season.  According to the Tweets of several teams… no one wanted to be the first driver on track.  Philip Major, who is driving for Sam Schmidt Motorsports, was the first driver willing to test the limits of adhesion on the cool racing surface.  Shortly thereafter he was joined by the balance of the field, which included 14 drivers.

Martin Plowman (Andretti Autosport) quickly jumped to the top of the timing and scoring page early in the session.   It didn’t take long for Canadian James Hinchcliffe (Team Moore) to take away the top spot.  Plowman remained close throughout the morning session but was unable to re-take the fast lap.

In the afternoon session, Andretti Autosport’s Charlie Kimball held the top spot for a lengthy period of time but was eventually bumped down the charts by Hinchcliffe.

Keep in mind that lap-times aren’t essential to a “good test” and every team had different objectives heading into today’s session.  Regardless, I’ve compiled a few thoughts on today’s test (which tend to revolve around lap-times)… so, as usual, it is up to you how serious you want to take this.

What Was Good

• JK Vernay- Despite a lack of experience in a Firestone Indy Lights car, Jean-Karl quickly jumped up the timing charts (holding the third quickest lap for most of the morning).  He was by far the quickest rookie during the test.  During the morning session he was over a full second quicker than teammates Pippa Mann and Philip Major.

• James Hinchcliffe- Hinch was very fast in both the morning and afternoon session.  He was the only driver to break into the 1:14’s throughout the day, setting a fast lap of 1:14.9604.

• Charlie Kimball- Kimball only ran 15-laps during the morning session due to an engine issue (see below).  Despite running very few laps, by comparison to all the other competitors, Kimball managed to post the 3rd quickest time of the morning session trailing Hinch’s fast time by a mere 0.8946 seconds.

What Wasn’t So Good

• Cold Temps- Well, it didn’t snow, but the cold temperatures (especially during the morning session) caused some problems for a few teams and drivers.  Not to mention the fact that the conditions greatly affected the amount of useful data teams were able to take away from today’s pre-season test.  The afternoon temperatures were in the low-50’s.

• Rodrigo Barbosa- Barbosa has more experience than 57% of the drivers taking part in the Barber Motorsports Park test, but still trailed the field in both the morning and afternoon session.

• Kimball’s Engine Failure- During the morning session, Charlie Kimball was forced to only run 15-laps due to an engine failure.  He quite possibly would have been much higher on the time sheets if he was able to run more laps.  Regardless, Andretti Autosport did a great job getting him back on track quickly.

___________

Combined Results Sorted by Lap Time

1. James Hinchcliffe 1:14.9604 (session 1)
2. Martin Plowman 1:15.0832 (session 1)
3. Charlie Kimball 1:15.1716 (session 2)
4. Sebastian Saavedra 1:15.3818 (session 2)
5. Jan Heylen 1:15.5407 (session 2)
6. Stefan Wilson 1:15.5912 (session 2)
7. JK Vernay 1:15.6040 (session 2)
8. Gustavo Yacaman 1:16.0609 (session 2)
9. Pippa Mann 1:16.7144 (session 2)
10. Richard Kent 1.16.8621 (session 2)
11. Philip Major 1:16.9294 (session 2)
12. Adrian Campos Jr. 1:17.5841 (session 1)
13. Carmen Jorda 1:18.9406 (session 2)
14. Rodrigo Barbosa 1:19.8520 (session 2)