All posts by Christopher DeHarde

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer Cape Motorsports will be running two Soul Red Mazda liveries in the 2017 Mazda Road to Indy presented by Cooper Tires as Anthony Martin and Oliver Askew have signed with the team to run the livery in their respective championships. For Martin, he’ll be racing the No.8 Burgess/BLA/Mazda entry in the Pro Mazda Championship presented by Cooper Tires while Askew will be piloting the No. 3 Mazda Racing entry in the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship powered by Mazda. Both drivers earned theRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer The worst kept secret in the Mazda Road to Indy presented by Cooper Tires has finally been made official as Mazda announced that Aaron Telitz will pilot their Soul Red Mazda paint scheme for Belardi Auto Racing in the 2017 Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires. The 2016 Pro Mazda champion earned the right to race the Soul Red scheme after winning the Pro Mazda Championship presented by Cooper Tires in dramatic fashion and with it, the MAZDASPEED scholarship that funded theRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer After running the 2015 Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship powered by Mazda season for Team Pelfrey, the only Russian on the Mazda Road to Indy went to Cape Motorsports for the 2016 season before stepping up and coming home for 2017. Nikita Lastochkin has signed with Team Pelfrey to drive their No. 80 car in the Pro Mazda Championship presented by Cooper Tires to complete the team’s assault for their third consecutive Pro Mazda championship trophy. Tuesday’s announcement marks the eighth driver confirmationRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer Two time defending Pro Mazda champions Team Pelfrey have announced that Carlos Cunha will be their second driver in the teams’ Pro Mazda Championship presented by Cooper Tires arsenal for 2017. Cunha has raced for eight years across Europe and South America, particularly in his native Brazil where he did Brazillian F3.  He will join TJ Fischer and possibly a third driver in the team. “I am super excited to be with Team Pelfrey,” stated the enthused Cunha. “They have the structureRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer After signing Parker Thompson and Luke Gabin to pilot their Nos. 90 and 91 Tatuus USF-17s, respectively, Exclusive Autosport announced that Dev Gore will drive the No. 92 USF-17 for the Canadian-based team in the 2017 Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship powered by Mazda. Gore cut his teeth in karting, winning two Rotax championships in 2016 including the U.S. Open and U.S. Rotax Grand National titles.  Before those titles, Gore spent a few summers in Canada where he refined his craft. “This wasRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer One of the best off track stories from the 2016 Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship powered by Mazda season is returning to the series for 2017 as Luke Gabin signed with Exclusive Autosport. Gabin had tested for the team late in 2016 before making a deal to join and he had worked with several people on the team previously, making Exclusive a no-brainer. “It was a pretty last minute [deal], I sort of had talks with Michael (Duncalfe, team owner) in November whenRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer Age: 35 Years in IndyCar: 14 Wins: 3 Podiums: 7 Laps led: 305 2017 Team: Ed Carpenter Racing Ed Carpenter is looking for an improved 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series oval campaign. With a background in oval track driving, Carpenter scaled his full-time IndyCar commitments back to just ovals in 2014 and allowed a road racing driver to take over on the road and street courses. Since making that decision, the driver of the No. 20 Fuzzy’s Vodka Chevrolet has had feast orRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer Age: 31 Years in IndyCar: 6 Wins: 1 Podiums: 6 Laps led: 109 2016 Team: Chip Ganassi Racing 2017 Team: Chip Ganassi Racing After a 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series season that gave Charlie Kimball his highest amount of points scored ever, Kimball will be looking to up the ante and get into the winners circle again in 2017. Kimball had two fifth place finishes at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway last May in the IndyCar Grand Prix and the Indianapolis 500 and theRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer Day by day more and more drivers are returning to the 2017 Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship powered by Mazda after spending 2016 in the same championship and Pabst Racing announced the latest driver to do so. Brazillian Lucas Kohl will drive the No. 23 Pabst Racing entry alongside teammate Calvin Ming after spending 2016 with John Cummiskey Racing. Kohl had a difficult 2016 season with three finishes below 20th out of the first four races.  However, as the season went on, heRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer Carlin has expanded again in the Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires.  After competing in 2015 with two cars and 2016 with three cars, the team has expanded to a fourth car and has brought back Neil Alberico to drive one of them alongside Zachary Claman DeMelo, Matheus Leist and Garth Rickards. Alberico had a less than ideal 2016 Indy Lights season with only one top 5 finish at Watkins Glen to carry him to 11th in points.  However, Alberico has aRead More