Rocky Moran Jr. will drive for Dale Coyne Racing in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach this weekend in the No. 18 Trench Shoring Honda entry.
“I can’t tell you how excited I am about finally being able to drive an Indy Car,” commented Moran. “Dale is a dream maker and I have always dreamed of this opportunity. We just need to run a lot of miles, as I am aware of the hill I have to climb, but I love Long Beach and this truly is a dream come true for me.”
Moran will make his competitive debut in the Verizon IndyCar Series after a long history in the Toyota Formula Atlantic series in the early 2000’s. While in this series, he went toe-to-toe against former Verizon IndyCar Champion and reigning Indy 500 Winner Ryan Hunter-Reay. He also raced against Joey Hand, Alex Gurney, and Jon Fogarty in this series.
While competing against these future racing stars, Moran managed to win at Laguna Seca in 2001 and at Montreal in 2002.
After Moran’s time in the Formula Atlantic series, he teamed up with his father, Rocky Moran Sr., to build a state-of-the-art karting track in California. Most recently, Moran Jr. drove the Jaguar XKR in the GT class of the American Le Mans series in 2011. He drove alongside teammates P.J. Jones, Bruno Junquiera, and Cristiano Da Matta.
Keeping IndyCar as the ultimate goal, Moran had the opportunity to test with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports on the Homestead-Miami Speedway road course in September 2014.
While the old adage “out of sight out of mind” might apply to Moran’s recent racing career, he hopes to be quickly reacclimated to the DW-12 IndyCar chassis and impress with his superb racing talent.
Dale Coyne Racing / Image: Snipview.com
