Colton Herta

Colton Herta
Herta at Road America in 2018
Nationality	American
Born	(2000-03-30) March 30, 2000
IndyCar Series career
32 races run over 3 years
Team(s)	No. 88 (Harding Steinbrenner Racing)
Best finish	2020 (3rd)
First race	2018 GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma (Sonoma)
Last race	2024 Music City Grand Prix (Nashville Superspeedway)
First win	2019 IndyCar Classic (Austin)
Last win	2020 Honda Indy 200 Race 2 (Mid-Ohio)
Wins Podiums Poles 3 4 4
Previous series
2017-2018	Indy Lights

Colton Herta (born March 30, 2000 in Valencia, California) is an American open-wheel racing driver, and the son of IndyCar and Champ Car driver Bryan Herta. He is the youngest person to ever win an IndyCar Series race.

Career

Herta at Portland in 2018

Early years

Herta made his karting debut in 2010 at the age of 10, racing karts in the SKUSA and IKF series, although he had been karting since the age of 6. He made his single-debut at 13, finishing second in the SBF2000 Winter Series. In 2014, he made his formula car debut in the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda, finishing 15th in the championship despite missing the opening weekend due to age requirements. In the same year, Herta made his International Formula racing debut in Sepang, Malaysia with the AsiaCup Series, taking part in one event where he won 1 race win and 3 podium finishes. Herta also made a one-off appearance in the Global RallyCross Championship Lites, being the youngest driver to compete in the series.

In 2015, he made his debut in the UK-based MSA Formula series, as the youngest driver and the only American on a grid that consisted mostly of Britons, and got his first win in the second race at Snetterton Circuit in August, thus helping the United States win the Nations Cup. He went on to collect three more victories over the course of the season, finishing third overall.

For 2016, he was planning to move to the newly renamed BRDC British F3 series, but was too young to compete at the opening round. Wanting to complete a full season he made the switch to the Euroformula Open Championship, staying with Carlin and finished third in points, with four victories, six podium finishes and five pole positions. Herta went on to compete in six British F3 events, earning three podium finishes including a victory at Brands Hatch.

In 2017 Herta joined forces with the newly formed Andretti-Steinbrenner Racing to pilot the 98-car in the Indy Lights Series. He started the year strong with a second-place finish in the first race at St. Petersburg street circuit and followed it up with a Sunday victory; Colton's first win in Indy Lights. He got his 2nd victory at the next event at Barber Motorsports Park, the series' 400th race. Herta won Rookie of the Year and finished 3rd in the drivers championship.

In 2018, Herta remained in Indy Lights. He won four races, including all three held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (both races of the GP of Indianapolis and the Freedom 100 on the speedway). Herta finished 2nd in points to his Andretti teammate Patricio O'Ward.

IndyCar

Also in 2018, Herta debuted in IndyCar at the season finale in 1Sonoma with Harding Racing.

Herta participated in the 2019 24 Hours of Daytona in a BMW M8 GTE for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Colton, along with co-drivers Connor De Phillippi, Augusto Farfus and Philipp Eng, won the race in the GTLM class.

For the 2019 IndyCar season, Herta signed to drive the No. 88 Harding Steinbrenner Racing car. Herta was the first IndyCar Series driver born in the 2000s to start a race. On March 24, 2019, at the age of 18, Herta became the youngest-ever winner in IndyCar history by winning the IndyCar Classic at Circuit of the Americas. He qualified 5th for the Indianapolis 500, but retired after just four laps after a gearbox failure. On June 22, 2019 at the age of 19, Herta became the youngest-ever pole-sitter at Road America. The driver won again at Laguna Seca, and finished 7th in the overall standings, just 5 points behind Rookie of the Year Felix Rosenqvist.

Herta finished 7th in the opening round of the 2020 IndyCar season at Texas Motor Speedway. He finished 8th at the Indianapolis 500. On September 13, 2020, Herta won the second of two races held at Mid-Ohio. He scored a runner-up finish at the Indianapolis road course's Saturday race. With seven top 5s in 14 races, he ranked third in points.

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
2012-13	SBF2000 Winter Series	N/A	12	1	1	0	4	287	6th
2013	Pacific Formula F1600	PR1/BHA with Curb-Agajanian	15	10	6	10	15	413	1st
2014	GRC Lites	AD Racing	1	N/A	0	N/A	N/A	16	15th
	U.S. F2000 National Championship	JAY Motorsports	12	0	0	1	0	115	15th
2015	MSA Formula Championship	Carlin	30	4	3	8	12	355	3rd
2016	BRDC British Formula 3 Championship		6	1	0	1	3	109	19th
	Euroformula Open Championship		16	4	5	4	7	199	3rd
	Spanish Formula 3 Championship		6	2	2	1	4	94	2nd
	Masters of Formula 3		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	13th
2017	Indy Lights	Andretti Steinbrenner Racing	16	2	7	3	7	300	3rd
2018	Indy Lights		17	4	3	7	13	447	2nd
	IndyCar Series	Harding Racing	1	0	0	0	0	20	37th
2019	IndyCar Series	Harding Steinbrenner Racing	17	2	3	2	2	420	7th
	WeatherTech SportsCar Championship - GTLM	BMW Team RLL	3	1	0	0	2	89	14th
2020	IndyCar Series	Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport	14	1	1	0	2	421	3rd
	WeatherTech SportsCar Championship - GTLM	BMW Team RLL	3	0	0	0	0	79	9th
2021	WeatherTech SportsCar Championship - GTD	Turner Motorsport	1	0	1	0	0	285	6th*

^* Season still in progress.

American open-wheel racing results

U.S. F2000 National Championship

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	Rank	Points
2014	JAY Motorsports	STP	STP	BAR 19	BAR 7	IMS 5	IMS 20	LOR 14	TOR 5	TOR 14	MDO 10	MDO 16	MDO 13	SNM 7	SNM 9	15th	115

Indy Lights

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Rank	Points
2017	Andretti Steinbrenner Racing	STP 2	STP 1	ALA 10	ALA 1	IMS 12	IMS 10	INDY 13	RDA 12	ROA 3	IOW 4	TOR 4	TOR 10	MDO 2	MDO 6	GMP 3	WGL 3		3rd	300
2018	Andretti Steinbrenner Racing	STP 3	STP 8	ALA 2	ALA 3	IMS 1	IMS 1	INDY 1	RDA 1	RDA 2	IOW 2	TOR 7	TOR 6	MDO 2	MDO 2	GTW 2	POR 2	POR 4	2nd	447

IndyCar Series

(key)

Year	Team	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Rank	Points
2018	Harding Racing	Dallara DW12	Chevrolet	STP	PHX	LBH	ALA	IMS	INDY	DET	DET	TXS	RDA	IOW	TOR	MDO	POC	GTW	POR	SNM 20	37th	20
2019	Harding Steinbrenner Racing		Honda	STP 8	COA 1	ALA 24	LBH 23	IMS 23	INDY 33	DET 12	DET 12	TXS 18	RDA 8	TOR 7	IOW 18	MDO 8	POC 16	GTW 9	POR 4	LAG 1	7th	420
2020	Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport			TXS 7	IMS 4	ROA 5	ROA 5	IOW 19	IOW 19	INDY 8	GTW 4	GTW 6	MDO 9	MDO 1	IMS 4	IMS 2	STP 11				3rd	421

Indianapolis 500

Year	Chassis	Engine	Start	Finish	Team
2019	Dallara	Honda	5	33	Harding Steinbrenner Racing
2020	Dallara	Honda	10	8	Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport

Complete WeatherTech SportsCar Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Class	Make	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Rank	Points
2019	BMW Team RLL	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	BMW S63 4.0 L Twin-turbo V8	DAY 1	SEB 7	LBH	MDO	WGL	MOS	LIM	ELK	VIR	LGA	PET 3		14th	89
2020	BMW Team RLL	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	BMW S63 4.0 L Turbo V8	DAY 5	DAY	SEB	ELK	VIR	ATL	MDO	CLT	PET 6	LGA	SEB 4		9th	79
2021	Turner Motorsport	GTD	BMW M6 GT3	BMW 4.4 L Turbo V8	DAY 6	SEB	MDO	DET	WGL	MOS	LIM	ELK	VIR	LGA	LBH	PET	6th*	285*

^* Season still in progress.

External links

• Colton Herta driver statistics at Racing-Reference