Weiron Tan, Felix Rosenqvist and Felix Serralles are three names you might hear on the Mazda Road to Indy next season if funding comes to fruition.
Tan and Serralles both raced in the Mazda Road to Indy this year; Tan was with Andretti Autosport in the Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires and Serralles was with Belardi Auto Racing in the Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires.
Tan won four races and finished fourth in the Pro Mazda series this year. The 20-year-old Malaysian spent the year living in Houston, rooming with IndyCar driver Jack Hawksworth, who relocated there after switching from Bryan Herta Autosport to A.J. Foyt Enterprises. The two share the same management group, as well.
Tan told me post-Mazda Raceway he wants to return for another year in North America. Additionally, he told The Malaysian Star he’d like to move up into Indy Lights next year but needs to find roughly $1.2 million to make it happen.
Andretti, his Pro Mazda team, has announced Dalton Kellett for next year and will test its current driver, Shelby Blackstock, later this week at Road America.
“I need about US $1.25mil (RM 5.625mil) to race in the Indy Lights, which is the equivalent of Formula 3 in Europe,” Tan told the Star. “My family and a few sponsors have backed me for this year’s campaign but it’s so much tougher now with the lower rate of our currency.”
Switching to the pair of drivers named Felix, 23-year-old Serralles of Puerto Rico won once and finished seventh in Indy Lights this season. He’s planning to return to Indy Lights for 2016 although he has nothing concretely confirmed as yet.
“The plan next year is Indy Lights and LMP2 [in the IMSA SportsCar blue ribands] if I can,” Serralles told Autosport.
Rosenqvist, who won the prestigious Formula 3 European championship last weekend, may also be looking Stateside for his next career move. He said it’s a possibility in a Q&A with Autosport.
“You never know what happens in this world. I’m hoping for a lot of things. We just have to find the best solution and if that’s America, that’s America. We’ll see,” said Rosenqvist, the 23-year-old Swede, who’d be a good addition to either Indy Lights or Pro Mazda next year if his European options fall through.
The Mazda Road to Indy silly season won’t really ramp up until the Chris Griffis Memorial Road to Indy test November 21-22 at Circuit of The Americas, but bookmark this post now in case you see any or all of these three there, then.