All posts by Christopher DeHarde

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer The third place driver in the Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires championship, Pato O’Ward earned a fifth and a third place finish in St. Petersburg for the opening races of the 2017 season. However, he was uncertain about whether or not his season would continue. After speaking with Motorsports Tribune, it might be a good idea to pencil in O’Ward as an entrant. “As everyone knows, it’s a long championship so anything can happen here in a couple of months, but I’mRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer Two-time Formula 1 champion Fernando Alonso will race in the 2017 Indianapolis 500, driving a McLaren-branded Honda-powered entry run by defending champions Andretti Autosport. The 35-year-old Spaniard cited multiple reasons for wanting to race at Indianapolis in a statement issued by McLaren-Honda this morning. Among them, his desire to emulate the late Graham Hill and become just the second driver to complete the Triple Crown of Motor racing. “I’ve won the Monaco Grand Prix twice, and it’s one of my ambitions to win theRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer Sunday’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach displayed the talents of Dale Coyne Racing’s driver duo of Sebastien Bourdais and Ed Jones as they managed second and sixth place finishes in the second round of the 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series season. Bourdais, coming off of a win at the season opening race on the streets of St. Petersburg, started 12th but moved to tenth after the first lap contact between Charlie Kimball and Will Power brought them to the back of theRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer James Hinchcliffe scored his first Verizon IndyCar Series victory in nearly two years at Sunday’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach after holding on after two late restarts and speeding away from Sebastien Bourdais. The Canadian was able to parlay a two stop strategy to the lead after staying out a lap later than Ryan Hunter-Reay, who was leading at the time he made his final pit stop. The No. 5 ARROW Electronics Honda led the final 27 laps to give SchmidtRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer In a perfect world where the Mazda Road to Indy presented by Cooper Tires gets the maximum exposure for its top tier series, the Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires, one would think that having the series race on each of the premier types of tracks that the Verizon IndyCar Series visits would be a necessity. On the ovals, you have the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, site of the Freedom 100. On the road courses, you have Road America’s doubleheader weekend. For streetRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer A past Indy Lights front-runner will be making his debut in the 101st Indianapolis 500 on May 28th as Zach Veach will be driving the No. 40 Indy Women in Tech Championship presented by Guggenheim Chevrolet for A.J. Foyt Racing. The team’s announcement confirms that 2017 will be the third year in a row where the team will field a third car in the Indianapolis 500 after having Alex Tagliani joining the teams’ drivers the last two years. The 22-year-old Ohio nativeRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer Simon Pagenaud is the man to watch out for at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, and not just because the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series champion won comes in as the defending race winner. Top to bottom, he has one of the more impressive results listings over the last decade at the beach, only rivaled by Team Penske teammate Will Power. 2007: 14th (Team Australia, rookie year – Champ Car era) 2012: Second 2013: Eighth 2014: Fifth 2015: Fourth 2016: FirstRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer Now that we’ve had a week to digest all of the Mazda Road to Indy presented by Cooper Tires action from the streets of St. Petersburg, it’s time to reflect on some interesting observations. Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires Aaron Telitz won the first Indy Lights race of the season with nearly the largest margin of victory for an Indy Lights car ever at St. Petersburg, in what was an impressive showing for the Wisconsin native. J.K. Vernay’s winning margin inRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer Upon hearing that Superkarts! USA was hosting their Pro Tour WinterNationals at NOLA Motorsports Park on March 3-5, I immediately reached out to Rob Howden, announcer for the tour and founder/editor of ekartingnews.com about the event and going to it. He said it would be a good experience and that this is where the Mazda Road to Indy kids would come from and that the size of the event would surprise me. He was right, the size of the event did surpriseRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer After starting 18th, climbing to third and finishing 10th probably wasn’t what Ed Jones was expecting to do in his Verizon IndyCar Series debut in his No. 19 Boy Scouts of America Honda, but the Dale Coyne Racing driver managed to accomplish all of that on Sunday’s season opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Jones made his first pit stop on Lap 25 and played the strategy game to perfection as the yellow flag came out one lap later. After aRead More