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2018 Firestone GP of St. Petersburg Recap


What does Josef Newgarden, Spencer Pigot, Zach Veach, Sage Karam, and other IndyCar drivers have in common? If you answered, they were all part of the Mazda Road to Indy (MRTI) program, you would be correct! MRTI is a driver development program providing a scholarship funded path to reach the Indy Car racing series. Josef Newgarden has the distinction of being the first MRTI graduate and scholarship winner to win the IndyCar Series championship.

The MRTI starts with the USF2000 series racing and progresses to Pro Mazda, Indy Lights, hopefully leading to a successful career as an Indy Car driver. I encourage you to learn more about the MRTI program at these websites: https://www.indycar.com/RoadToIndy

Why am I telling you all this? If you are a long time reader of my articles, you know I enjoy what series refer to as the “support races”. When Grand-Am used to race on the same weekend as IndyCar at Barber Motorsports Park, Grand Prix of Long Beach, or Detroit Grand Prix, I could be seen at the airport leaving on Sunday morning. I wasn’t there for the Indy Car race. For me, Grand-Am was the main event!

This past weekend at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg was no different for me. When I realized my longtime friend and Rolex 24 winning race car driver, Oswaldo “Ozz” Negri, would be coaching an up and coming IndyCar driver in the USF2000 series, I had to take notice and check the driver out. I watched more on track action for the MRTI and Pirelli World Challenge series than the Indy big boys!

On Saturday, I had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with Darren Keane, driver of the #36 Mazda USF2000 car with Newman Wachs Racing. The first race of the USF2000 season was held on Saturday. Darren had qualified eighth and finished the race third. Darren had a slight brush with the wall but held on to start the season off right with a podium!

For the St. Petersburg weekend, the USF2000 field was stacked with 25 cars. With the narrow streets of St. Petersburg course being lined with white concrete barriers, it is easy to tell the cars making wall contact by the white scuff marks on the tires when returning to the paddock.

For the second race, Darren started 15th and ended 12th. Darren showed competitive times at the test sessions at Homestead Road Course held in late February. When Darren races in IndyCar, I just might change my weekend plans and stay for the Sunday Indy car race!

The USF2000 series will take a little break in the schedule until heading to Indianapolis in May with an Indianapolis Grand Prix Circuit test on May 10. A series test on May 24 to be held at Lucas Oil Raceway will be extra exciting for Darren as he had never raced on an oval track before.

Again if you have been a regular reader of my racing recaps and articles, you know I joined the Pato O’Ward fan club three years ago and I have mentioned Kyle Kirkwood many times…..take note…… Darren Keane is another driver to watch!

Please take a moment to watch this short video of Darren http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYB3KITS2Mg

And read more about him on the USF2000 website: https://www.usf2000.com/news/keane-ready-for-2018-season

Please follow him on Twitter: @darren_keane25

Also like many successful drivers, Darren started in karting, you can read about his karting success at his website: http://darrenkeaneracing.com/

Next time you are at the track, please go to the USF2000 autograph session or stop by the Newman Wachs racing hauler and wish Darren and his coach, Ozz, good luck. Keep your eye on this kid….he’s fast and furious! I predict many more podiums in Darren’s future.

Thank you all for reading and I welcome your comments. I have no affiliation with IndyCar, GP at St Pete, PWC, etc. just a fan. There are many blogs and websites where you will find statistics, results, and scoring from the race; this is just the way I see it. Got a response? Follow and tweet me @viclovesracing

And look for future “Vickie’s Trackside Reports” coming to a track near you!

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