Iowa Speedway – Indy Lights and Pro Mazda practice #1

Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tire – Thursday evening practice

The Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tire series arrived a day early for an hour and a half test session on Thursday night before the Indy Lights Iowa 115 to test a new compound of rubber (more on that later).

Schmidt Peterson Motorsports with Curb-Agajanian drivers Jack Harvey and RC Enerson led the Thursday Indy Lights test at Iowa Speedway (Photo Courtesy of IndyCar)
Schmidt Peterson Motorsports with Curb-Agajanian drivers Jack Harvey and RC Enerson led the Thursday Indy Lights test at Iowa Speedway (Photo Courtesy of IndyCar)

There were no on-track incidents.  Schmidt Peterson Motorsports with Curb-Agajanian rookie Ethan Ringel was only able to turn 12 laps because his flight to Iowa arrived late.

Here is the complete timesheet:

RANK — DRIVER — QUICK LAP (MPH) — LAPS TURNED

  1.  Jack Harvey 159.118 111
  2.  RC Enerson 159.051 91
  3.  Scott Anderson 158.993 84
  4. Kyle Kaiser 158.806 89
  5.  Spencer Pigot 157.609 81
  6.  Max Chilton 157.380 106
  7.  Ed Jones 157.259 91
  8.  Felix Serralles 157.239 106
  9. Juan Piedrahita 156.380 57
  10.  Shelby Blackstock155.730 109
  11.  Ethan Ringel 154.958 12

———

Pro Mazda – Friday morning practice

The 14 drivers entered in the Pro Mazda Iowa 100 got their first taste of the Iowa Speedway at 9:15am.

This is the first visit to the 0.894-mile oval for all 14 drivers.

The session went green for the first 20 minutes before Raoul Owens had a incident in at the entry to Turn 3.  He was able to be towed back to the pits.

At that point the top 5 speeds were: Weiron Tan, Santiago Urrutia, Dalton Kellett, Will Owen and Garett Grist.

The track was only green for a few minutes before the yellow flag flew for the second time.  This time it was for Tan, who hit the wall at the exit of Turn 2 and damaged the right front suspension, nose and front wing on the No. 22 Andretti Autosport machine.

TSO was able to talk to Tan after the session and he said that the car got unsettled over one of the Turn 2 bumps.

The track went back to green and Tan’s quick time was eclipsed by a pair of quick Canadians, Juncos Racing sophomore Garett Grist and Dalton Kellett.

The complete timesheet is as follows:

RANK — DRIVER — QUICK LAP (MPH) — LAPS TURNED

  1.  Garett Grist 141.190 53
  2.  Dalton Kellett 141.120 54
  3.  Weiron Tan 141.025 36
  4. Jose Gutierrez 140.906 60
  5.  Santiago Urrutia 140.823 57
  6. Will Owen 140.588 52
  7. Neil Alberico 140.174 44
  8. Timothe Buret 140.117 56
  9. Florian Latorre 139.127 41
  10.  Pato O’Ward 138.963 56
  11. Daniel Burkett 138.894 58
  12. Raoul Owens 137.880 30
  13. Alessandro Latif 132.499 57

Canadian rookie Daniel Burkett has one of the more unique fire suits we have seen. (we are definitely going to find out the story behind this).

https://twitter.com/DavidStorvick/status/622046997332099077

Indy Lights – Friday morning practice

The Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tire series took to the 0.894-mile variably banked Iowa Speedway oval at 10:15am for a 45 minute practice session.

The Schmidt Peterson Motorsports with Curb-Agajanian team let the rest of the field know that they would be the team to be reckoned with in The Hawkeye State by posting the top four times

Championship point leader Jack Harvey ran only five laps and told Indy Car Radio that they won’t be running at this time of day, so they decided to wait until the afternoon session to turn the majority of their practice laps.

That is certainly one of the benefits of being part of a four car team.  Harvey can save a set of tires for more representative atmospheric conditions and share in the knowledge that his Schmidt Peterson Motorsports with Curb-Agajanian teammates gather.

The teams receive two new sets of Cooper Tire Racing slicks and are allowed to bring one carry over set of tires from the Milwaukee race weekend or Iowa test.

The top five after the first twenty minutes of practice were: Harvey, RC Enerson, Scott Anderson, Ethan Ringel and Kyle Kaiser.

The entire session went green and the full time sheet is below:

RANK — DRIVER — QUICK LAP (MPH) — LAPS TURNED

  1. Jack Harvey 161.145 5
  2. RC Enerson 160.944 53
  3. Scott Anderson 160.285 52
  4. Ethan Ringel 159.409 54
  5. Max Chilton 158.864 55
  6. Kyle Kaiser 158.561 61
  7. Spencer Pigot 158.437 56
  8. Ed Jones 157.723 53
  9. Juan Piedrahita 157.488 18
  10.  Felix Serralles 156.613 60
  11. Shelby Blackstock155.356 59

 

Mazda Road To Indy  – off-season testing changes

Andersen Promotions just released the Chris Griffis Memorial Test date and locations and American open wheel fans will excited by location of the annual season ending test.  A full compliment of USF2000, Pro Mazda and Indy Lights will test on the 20 turn 3.427 mile road course at the Circuit of The America’s in Austin Texas.

The dates for the fifth annual test named after former Schmidt Peterson Motorsports with Curb-Agajanian Indy Lights team manager will be November 21-22, 2015.

Gone from the Mazda Road To Indy calendar will be Cooper Tires Winterfest.  It will be replaced by two testing opportunities:

  • an Indy Lights test at Homestead-Miami Speedway on January 25th (road course) and January 27 (oval), 2015
  • an all series “Spring Training” at Barber Motorsports Park from March 5-8, 2015

“We are excited to announce that our fifth annual Chris Griffis test will take place at COTA and will give our current drivers and newcomers to our series the opportunity to drive this state-of-the-art circuit,” said Dan Andersen, Owner and CEO of Andersen Promotions. “Numerous teams and drivers have used this as a ‘try-out’ and we are pleased to continue to offer this now traditional test.

“Based on the input from our team owners, we have decided to replace our pre-season Winterfest event with Spring Training at Barber, and will once again return to Homestead-Miami Speedway for a two-day Indy Lights test. Our 2016 schedule is coming together nicely, and we look forward to unveiling this in the coming months.”