christopher deharde Tag

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer With rumors of a third potential engine supplier possibly in the works for the Verizon IndyCar Series, let’s take a look at a few companies that could provide a nice boost to rival the current regime of Chevrolet and Honda. 1. Mercedes Mercedes has a long motorsports heritage dating back to the early 20th century. Granted, they stepped away from the sport for nearly 40 years but they came onto the Indy car scene with a splash in 1994 by badging the PenskeRead More

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 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

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer ST. PETERSBURG, FLA. – Ryan Hunter-Reay did not have the ideal start to his Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg weekend, but finishing fourth was way more than he could’ve expected to start the 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series season. “We had so much going on this weekend with the brake issues that we had in practice session two, where we lost most of the time there, then I tapped the wall in qualifying which threw qualifying out the window and then thisRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — First impressions are critical, and even more so for a top-tier employer. For Josef Newgarden, driving the No. 2 Verizon Wireless Chevrolet for Team Penske is about as top-tier as you can get in the Verizon IndyCar Series and by earning an eighth-place finish in the season opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, the impression was a good one. Newgarden was caught out on bad strategy after not making his first pit stop before the caution flagRead More