Nikita Lastochkin Tag

By Road to Indy 2019 HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Two days of Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires Spring Training for both the Indy Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires and the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship wrapped up this afternoon at the Homestead-Miami Speedway road course in South Florida. Teams and drivers were greeted by warm weather – a welcome respite for some after a particularly harsh winter in the Midwest and Northeast – as they completed preparations for next weekend’s season-opening Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Sting RayRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer ST. PETERSBURG, Florida — It’s back to school time for the Verizon IndyCar Series and the Mazda Road to Indy presented by Cooper Tires and the streets of St. Petersburg, Fl showcases the drivers on a grand stage. Let’s take a look at random tidbits from Friday. IndyCar For the IndyCar guys, it was an interesting situation on top of the time sheets in the two practice sessions. Matheus Leist was quickest, the first year driver for A.J. Foyt Racing going around the 1.8 mile streetRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer The 2018 Pro Mazda Championship presented by Cooper Tires kicks off on the streets of St. Petersburg and with the strongest field from top to bottom since 2015, this year promises to be a special one. Before getting to the teams and drivers, let’s first look at the tracks. Barber Motorsports Park returns to the schedule after a 2017 hiatus and Mid-Ohio only has two races this year instead of three like it had last year. Gone is the single oval race date and instead thereRead More

By Road to Indy Nikita Lastochkin took a very different route to the Mazda Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires than many of his fellow competitors. With no motorsports background growing up in Moscow, Lastochkin did not start racing until the age of 22, after moving to the United States. Here, the now 27-year-old entering his sophomore Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires season, talks about coming to America at the age of 16, how he first got the racing bug and how taking racing cues from ColtonRead More

Cape Motorsports is thrilled to confirm its first driver for the 2018 Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires campaign. The team will welcome MRTI veteran Nikita Lastochkin back to the squad, having run the talented Russian-born driver in the USF2000 program in 2016. Cape Motorsports is planning to run a trio of PM-18s on the second level of the Mazda Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires next season. Off-season testing has been extremely successful and the crew is highly-motivated to challenge for the title in 2018. “We areRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer Mark Twain popularized the phrase “There are three kinds of falsehoods; lies, damned lies and statistics,” which he attributed to British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. Statistics was how this writer looked at Team Pelfrey in a recent roundtable discussion.  In it, this writer said that the team had been disappointing because “I did not expect a large organization like Pelfrey to have only one win this season.” Motorsports Tribune sat down at Watkins Glen with Jonathan Baker to speak about the team’sRead More

By Road to Indy As the only squad currently to field teams on all three rungs of the Mazda Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires ladder, Team Pelfrey has the ability to mirror the ladder series’ progression through the ranks. Dale Pelfrey first fielded a team in the IRL in the late 1990s, and today focuses on nurturing young racers, hoping to one day take a driver from karting to the Verizon IndyCar Series – all under the Team Pelfrey banner. Former MRTI racer Jonny Baker handles the team’sRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Victor Franzoni got closer to the 2017 Pro Mazda Championship presented by Cooper Tires trophy and the Mazdaspeed scholarship by winning the first of two Pro Mazda races this weekend at Watkins Glen International for Juncos Racing. The race began with Franzoni leading from the pole but Cape Motorsports’s Anthony Martin would take over the lead heading to the inner loop on the first lap. Martin would lead the first two laps but unfortunately  the green flag wouldn’tRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer MADISON, Illinois — After losing the bonus point for pole to Anthony Martin, Victor Franzoni stormed back to victory at the Pro Mazda Championship presented by Cooper Tires race at Gateway Motorsports Park. The race began with a two car incident between Brendan Puderbach and Jeff Green that saw them spin but not hit any walls. A brief yellow was called but the cars went back to green quickly. The 55 lap race then became a seesaw battle between Franzoni and MartinRead More

LEXINGTON, Ohio — Victor Franzoni took advantage of a lapped traffic slip-up by Anthony Martin to get the lead with mere minutes remaining in Saturday’s Pro Mazda Championship presented by Cooper Tires race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course to win and extend his slim points lead. Martin led the race from pole but Franzoni was not far behind. The pair then gapped the field so much that the lead was over 20 seconds to third place. However, everything changed as the leaders approached Franzoni’s Juncos Racing teammate Jeff Green. GreenRead More