Indy – Mazda Road to Indy Update #7 – Saturday 10:35 a.m. – Pre-Race Notes

By Tony DiZinno

A quick hitter from the Mazda Road to Indy before today’s trio of races to round out the seven-race weekend…

Lucky Latif

This isn’t something you see everyday. World Speed Motorsports Pro Mazda driver Alessandro Latif was just doing his usual driving from Turns 6 to 7 on the backstraight, with one slight interruption: a Canadian goose flew into his path.

From the on-board camera shot posted to Instagram, there is a spot-on capture of the goose on the loose. Latif avoided it, but it’s quite a lucky escape.

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Learning From the Best

Before Saturday’s races, three-time Indianapolis 500 champion and four-time Verizon IndyCar Series champion Dario Franchitti spoke to the entire Mazda Road to Indy field for a career development seminar in the Chris Economaki press room at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

It offered all the drivers in the Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires, Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires and Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda a shot to learn and listen to career tips from one of this generation’s finest drivers.

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Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires Warmup

There was a brief 15-minute warmup session for the Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires to kick off today’s on-track activity, held under overcast, cloudy skies. 8Star Motorsports’ Sean Rayhall led the way over Kyle Kaiser and Max Chilton.

Full times are below:

P No Name FTime
1 8 Sean Rayhall 1:15.781
2 18 Kyle Kaiser 1:16.067
3 14 Max Chilton 1:16.205
4 12 Spencer Pigot 1:16.274
5 42 Jack Harvey 1:16.294
6 11 Ed Jones 1:16.322
7 4 Felix Serralles 1:16.445
8 7 RC Enerson 1:16.515
9 51 Shelby Blackstock 1:17.110
10 5 Juan Piedrahita 1:17.193
11 71 Ethan Ringel 1:17.611
12 77 Scott Anderson 1:17.704

The full complement of Mazda Road to Indy races will occur later Saturday.