Road to Indy

The Mazda Road to Indy is a driver development program, providing a scholarship-funded path to reach the Verizon IndyCar Series.[1] and Indianapolis 500. Sanctioned by IndyCar, the Mazda 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 Mazda Road to Indy ladder system has attracted competitors from around the globe. Drivers from Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Finland, France, Ireland, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, 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. The Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda
  2. The Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires (known as "Star Mazda" until the end of the 2012 season)
  3. Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires
  4. Verizon 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 Pro Mazda racing at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis later that evening.

Mazda Road to Indy Shootout

For 2016 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 scholarship to race in the 2017 USF2000 series.

Drivers from the following series can qualify to compete in the 2016 shootout:[3]

Shootout winners

Year Track Winner
2016 Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca To be determined

Champions

IndyCar Series Indy Lights Pro Mazda 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

References

  1. ↑ "Mazda Road to Indy". Retrieved 25 March 2014.
  2. ↑ Mazda to sponsor Road to Indy program, IndyCar, December 9, 2010, Retrieved 2010-12-09
  3. ↑ "Official Feeder Series of the Mazda Road to Indy". USF2000. Retrieved 20 September 2016.
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