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USF Pro Championships

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Road to Indy logo

The Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires is a racecar driver development program, providing a scholarship-funded path to reach the IndyCar Series and Indianapolis 500.[1] Sanctioned by IndyCar, the Road to Indy is owned and managed by Andersen Promotions. On December 9, 2010 it was announced that Mazda would become the title sponsor of the program and provide scholarships for series champions to advance to the next rung of the ladder[2] with all three series running on Cooper Tires.

Since its launch in 2010, the Road to Indy ladder system has attracted competitors from around the globe. Drivers from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, France, Guatemala, Guyana, India, Ireland, Italy, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Singapore, Sweden, South Africa, Spain, United Kingdom, Venezuela and Zimbabwe have been part of the grids, showcasing their talents at premier venues on a mix of road courses, temporary street circuits and ovals.

Participating series (in order from lowest to highest "rung"):

  1. U.S. F2000 National Championship
  2. Indy Pro 2000 Championship (known as the Star Mazda Championship and Pro Mazda Championship prior to 2019)
  3. Indy Lights
  4. IndyCar Series

One of the season highlights is the Indy 500 weekend, with Indy Lights competing in the Freedom 100 on Carb Day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and USF2000 and Indy Pro 2000 racing at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis later that evening.

No driver has won the championship and thus scholarship at every rung of the ladder on their way to Indycar. However, both Sage Karam and Matthew Brabham won scholarships from U.S. F2000 and made it to IndyCar. Karam, Brabham, Tristan Vautier, and Spencer Pigot have all won two scholarships on their way to IndyCar. In 2017, Josef Newgarden became the first Road to Indy graduate and scholarship winner to win the IndyCar Series championship.

Mazda Road to Indy Shootout

For 2017 a shootout race for up and coming talents was announced. The Road to Indy has several partnerships with other development series. In a knock-out format the drivers will compete for a $200,000.00 scholarship to race in the USF2000 series.

Drivers from the following series can qualify to compete in the shootout:[3][4]

Shootout winners

Year Track Winner
2016 Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca United States Oliver Askew
2017 Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park Republic of Ireland Keith Donegan
2018 Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park New Zealand Hunter McElrea

Champions

IndyCar Series Indy Lights Indy Pro 2000 U.S. F2000
2010 United Kingdom Dario Franchitti 2010 France Jean-Karl Vernay 2010 United States Conor Daly 2010 United States Sage Karam
2011 United Kingdom Dario Franchitti 2011 United States Josef Newgarden 2011 France Tristan Vautier 2011 Finland Petri Suvanto
2012 United States Ryan Hunter-Reay 2012 France Tristan Vautier 2012 United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth 2012 Australia Matthew Brabham
2013 New Zealand Scott Dixon 2013 United States Sage Karam 2013 Australia Matthew Brabham 2013 Canada Scott Hargrove
2014 Australia Will Power 2014 Colombia Gabby Chaves 2014 United States Spencer Pigot 2014 France Florian Latorre
2015 New Zealand Scott Dixon 2015 United States Spencer Pigot 2015 Uruguay Santiago Urrutia 2015 France Nico Jamin
2016 France Simon Pagenaud 2016 United Arab Emirates Ed Jones 2016 United States Aaron Telitz 2016 Australia Anthony Martin
2017 United States Josef Newgarden 2017 United States Kyle Kaiser 2017 Brazil Victor Franzoni 2017 United States Oliver Askew
2018 New Zealand Scott Dixon 2018 Mexico Patricio O'Ward 2018 Netherlands Rinus VeeKay 2018 United States Kyle Kirkwood
2019 United States Josef Newgarden 2019 United States Oliver Askew 2019 United States Kyle Kirkwood 2019 United States Braden Eves
2020 New Zealand Scott Dixon 2020 Season Cancelled 2020 United States Sting Ray Robb 2020 Denmark Christian Rasmussen

References

  1. ^ "Mazda Road to Indy". Retrieved 25 March 2014.
  2. ^ Mazda to sponsor Road to Indy program Archived 2010-12-12 at the Wayback Machine, IndyCar, December 9, 2010, Retrieved 2010-12-09
  3. ^ "Official Feeder Series of the Mazda Road to Indy". USF2000. Retrieved 20 September 2016.
  4. ^ "MRTI USF2000 $200K Scholarship Shootout Dates/Venue Announced". usf2000.com. Retrieved 2017-09-13.
  5. ^ "La FIA F4 Nacam participará en el MRTI Scholarship Shootout". Chicas Racing. Retrieved 2017-09-13.