Mazda Road To Indy – Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tire testing for the Freedom 100 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway

After taking the weekend off the Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tire series hits the 2.5 oval at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for six hours of testing today.

Indy Lights ROP took place at Chicagoland Speedway on Thursday, May 15th. Eight rookies and one veteran took part in the day long test. Belardi Auto Racing led the way with rookie Felix Serralles turning the quickest lap at 194.473mph.

Here is the complete time sheet:

RANK CAR NO. DRIVER TOTAL LAPS TOP SPEED
1 4 Felix Serralles 85 194.477
2 5 Juan Piedrahita 89 193.248
3 7 RC Enerson 86 193.159
4 51 Shelby Blackstock 75 192.764
5 11 Ed  Jones 79 191.335
6 18 Kyle Kaiser 74 190.635
7 14 Max Chilton 89 190.569
8 12 Spencer Pigot 57 190.483
9 71 Ethan Ringel 43 190.417

Ed Jones was the first to take to the track but only got to completed one lap when the track went yellow. Apparently there was a wildlife sighting on track.

Shelby Blackstock was the second car to complete an installation lap and he was quickly joined by the remaining 11 cars

Juan Piedrahita in the No. 5 Belardi Auto Racing Mazda/Dallara didn’t take long to et up to speed. Coming within one mile per hour of the Indy Lights track record on his third lap of the day.

Ed Jones, who will be making his first career start on an oval was the first driver to turn a significant number of laps.

Felix Serralles first trip onto the iconic two and a half mile oval came in the tire tracks of his experienced teammate, Juan Piedrahita. It didn’t take long for the Puerto Rican to get comfortable. His fifth lap at the “Brickyard” was at 192.699mph. The Indy Lights track record is 192.310mph set by Brandon Wagner in 2011. When he pitted his engineer asked him how that felt and his reply was “Awesome!”

Pole speed for the 2014 Freedom 100 was 187.990mph and the top race speed was 189.214mph.

One hour into the session, Seralles upped the top speed to 194.565mph. Sean Rayhall, Juan Piedrahita, Scott Anderson and Ed Jones were the remainder of the top five.

Indy Lights cars were hitting 200mph in the speed traps according to Johnny Unser:

For reference the best trap speed with the old Indy Lights car last year was just under 188mph.

Early in the session, most of the cars went out by themselves, but by the time lunch time approached, gaggles of four or five cars were on track together.

With just over a half an hour left in the session Indy lIghts veteran Jack Harvey jumped to the top of the time sheets with a tow-aided lap of 195.981mph.

Later in the session of Kyle Kaiser took some downforce off of his Mazda peered Dallara, but quickly pitted when he didn’t find that change comfortable.

Early in the session Juncos Racing driver Spencer Pigot reported that he had understeer and was afraid of putting in too much steering input. On his last run of the morning he reported that the car was much better balanced.

The session went checkered with nine of the eleven drivers turning laps quicker than the track record.

The 11 drivers turned a total of … laps in the session. RC Enerson made 82 circuits of the historic 2.5 mile oval, the most of any driver in the session.

The Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tire drivers are back on track after the Verizon IndyCar Series practice session at 4:30pm.

The top five no-tow laps were:
DRIVER — SPEED
Sean Rayhall — 192.871mph
Felix Serralles — 192.699mph
Ethan Ringel — 192.680mph
Kyle Kaiser — 192.509mph
Scott Anderson — 192.282mph

The complete time-sheet is below:

RANK CAR NO. DRIVER TOTAL LAPS TOP LAP SPEED
1 42 Jack Harvey 37 195.981
2 5 Juan Piedrahita 33 194.749
3 4 Felix Serralles 31 194.565
4 18 Kyle Kaiser 63 194.385
5 7 RC Enerson 82 194.191
6 71 Ethan Ringel 49 194.130
7 77 Scott Anderson 73 194.063
8 8 Sean Rayhall 64 192.821
9 51 Shelby Blackstock 62 192.776
10 12 Spencer Pigot 74 192.173
11 11 Ed Jones 70 191.889

——————

Carlin’s Max Chilton is notably absent for the test session. He is busy testing for Nissan in preparation for Le Mans.

—————

If you are in the Lafayette, Indiana area on Tuesday you will be able to meet Pro Mazda driver Dalton Kellett at Mike Raisor Mazda (2051 Sagamore Parkway South, Lafayette, IN 47905).

—————

There are 14 entries for the Mazda Freedom 75 at Lucas Oil Raceway on May 23, 2015. Entry list: http://www.usf2000.com/docs/default-source/Schedule/usf2000-mazda-freedom-75-entry-list.pdf?sfvrsn=0

There are 15 entries for the Cooper Tires Freedom 90 at Lucas Oil Raceway on May 23, 2015. Entry list: http://www.promazda.com/docs/default-source/Schedule/pro-mazda-cooper-tires-freedom-90-entry-list.pdf?sfvrsn=0

—————

TSO went to a USAC press conference where newly named Executive Director of USAC racing, Davey Hamilton said he enjoyed working with Andersen Promotions and would like to see more cooperation between the United States Auto Club and the Mazda Road To Indy.