All posts by Christopher DeHarde

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer Dakota Dickerson is ready to help lead the return of Newman Wachs Racing in the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship powered by Mazda. Earlier in 2016, the Tatuus-built USF-17 was unveiled as the new model for the series, replacing a car with over fifteen years of use generated interest among several teams, including the once dominant outfit that left at the end of the 2009 season. The team decided to rejoin open wheel racing and ordered four USF-17s, but not all wouldRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer Many drivers in motorsport are looking to move up the open wheel racing ladder. In this article series, we’ll take a look at several drivers that we believe should be in the Mazda Road to Indy presented by Cooper Tires. The next driver on our list is Tim de Silva. He has raced in Pacific F2000 the last two seasons, winning the 2016 championship before the final race weekend of the season at Auto Club Speedway. In 2015, de Silva droveRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer Andretti Autosport’s announcement that Nico Jamin will join the team’s Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires program was confirmation of the their commitment to returning to the top of the championship table. Jamin had a rough go of it during the 2016 season of the Pro Mazda Championship presented by Cooper Tires.  Then again, anybody not in a Team Pelfrey car did, but the 20-year-old Frenchman won two races en route to third in the championship. The 2015 winner of theRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer One of the more storied teams in the Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires will close the garage doors as Schmidt Peterson Motorsports confirmed they will not be fielding a team in the 2017 championship. Despite nearly winning the 2016 championship with Santiago Urrutia, the team will be centering its focus on the Verizon IndyCar Series program after winning seven championships in the final step on the Mazda Road to Indy ladder The team had tested 2016 Pro Mazda standout PatoRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer Many drivers in motorsport are looking to move up the racing ladder. In this article series, we’ll take a look at several drivers that we believe should be in the Mazda Road to Indy presented by Cooper Tires. Skylar Robinson has racing in his blood. The son of Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring winner Chip Robinson, Skylar has competed in the SCCA’s F2000 and F1600 championships and the F4 US Championship, winning races in all three.Read More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer Redemption. JR Hildebrand has had that word on his mind for three years now since getting unceremoniously dropped by Panther Racing after the 2013 Indianapolis 500 and now the Sausalito, CA native has his second chance as Ed Carpenter Racing announced today that Hildebrand will pilot the No. 21 Fuzzy’s Ultra Premium Vodka Chevrolet full time next year in the Verizon IndyCar Series. “Honestly, I just couldn’t be more ready to get started! I’ve been close to, but still outside of,Read More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer In this series, we will take a look at driver moves we would like to see for the 2017 Mazda Road to Indy presented by Cooper Tires. During his time in the Mazda Road to Indy, Aaron Telitz has been a winner. After winning the 2013 Skip Barber Race Series Championship Shootout, Telitz won the 2014 Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship powered by Mazda Rookie of the Year award as well as the only oval race of the season at Lucas OilRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer Carlin joined the Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires grid in 2015 as Trevor Carlin sought to expand his open-wheel racing empire to the U.S. and succeeded in his second year of operations by securing an Indy Lights championship with driver Ed Jones. Let’s look back at his championship run. The season got off to an uneventful start for Jones as St. Petersburg gave the Dubai-based Brit a tenth and a seventh to start the season off in what is nowRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer 2015 and 2016 haven’t been the best of years for A.J. Foyt’s team. The Texas-based squad with drivers Takuma Sato and Jack Hawksworth have had less than ideal results, with Sato having three top five finishes over the last two seasons while Hawksworth’s best finishes were a pair of sevenths at Detroit last year. The team has decided to make some changes after this past season. They will be switching to Chevrolet in 2017 following the announcement that Chip Ganassi RacingRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer After winning the 2015 Pro Mazda Championship presented by Cooper Tires for Team Pelfrey, Santiago Urrutia moved up to the Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports with the Soul Red Mazda scheme. Here is a look back at his 2016 campaign. The start of the Uruguayan’s season was a complete roller coaster as over the first five races, it was one good race followed by a bad race.  At St. Petersburg, Urrutia finished fourth in the firstRead More