Offseason events confirmed for Mazda Road to Indy divisions - MotorSportsTalk

Over the last week Andersen Promotions has confirmed two of the now-annual events on the Mazda Road to Indy ladder.

Last Thursday Andersen confirmed the third annual Chris Griffis Memorial Mazda Road to Indy Open Test will occur December 9 and 10 at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Ala. The test features all three ladder series – Indy Lights, Pro Mazda and USF2000 – and the event is named for the late Chris Griffis, a longtime crewmember and team manager for Sam Schmidt’s Lights team who died unexpectedly in September 2011.

Each of the first two years the test was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, but it shifts this year due to the necessary track alterations ahead of the IndyCar road race there next May.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, the promotional organization also announced details of the Cooper Tires Winterfest Championship, opening it up to Pro Mazda and Indy Lights after it had just been for USF2000 the last two years. $30,000 in prize money is on offer for both series.

USF2000 will race two tripleheaders (six races) and Pro Mazda two doubleheaders (four races). The first event will be at NOLA Motorsports Park in New Orleans, Feb. 21/22, and a few days later the two series shift to Barber on Feb. 25/26. All four days will also feature open testing for Indy Lights.

This is all the latest steps the Andersen Promotions group, led by Dan Andersen, is taking to unify and market the Mazda Road to Indy as one cohesive unit under a single umbrella. All three series will also race on Cooper tires next year; Cooper replaces Firestone for Indy Lights in 2014.

“It’s amazing what Dan Andersen has created in such a short time,” Chris Pantani, Director of Motorsports for Cooper Tire said in a release. “By unifying the Mazda Road to Indy, the growth and awareness of the entire open-wheel program seems to be at an all-time high, but we all know that it’s just the beginning and Cooper Tire is proud to be part of that growth.”

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INDIANAPOLIS – Roger Penske spoke with Dallara executives Monday morning about the loose tire that went flying over the Indianapolis Motor Speedway catchfence and into a Turn 2 parking lot.

The left-rear wheel from Kyle Kirkwood’s No. 27 Dallara-Honda was sheared off in a collision at speed as Kirkwood tried to avoid the skidding No. 6 Dallara-Chevrolet of Felix Rosenqvist on Lap 183 of the 107^th Indianapolis 500.

No one seriously was hurt in the incident (including Kirkwood, whose car went upside down and slid for several hundred feet), though an Indianapolis woman’s Chevy Cruze was struck by the tire. The Indy Star reported a fan was seen and released from the care center after sustaining minor injuries from flying debris in the crash.

During a photo shoot Monday morning with Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden at the IMS Yard of Bricks, Penske met with Dallara founder and owner Gian Paolo Dallara and Dallara USA CEO Stefano dePonti. The Italian company has been the exclusive supplier of the current DW12 chassis to the NTT IndyCar series for 11 years.

“The good news is we didn’t have real trouble with that tire going out (of the track),” Penske, who bought Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2020, told a few reporters shortly afterward. “I saw it hit. When it went out, I saw we were OK. I talked to the Dallara guys today. We’re going to look at that, but I guess the shear (force) from when (Rosenqvist’s) car was sitting, (Kirkwood’s car) went over and just that shear force tore that tether. Because we have tethers on there, and I’ve never seen a wheel come off.

“That to me was probably the scariest thing. We’ve got to fix that. We’ve got to fix that so that doesn’t happen again.”

Asked by NBC Sports if IndyCar would be able to address it before Sunday’s Detroit Grand Prix or before the next oval race at Iowa Speedway, Penske said, “The technical guys should look at it. I think the speed here, a couple of hundred (mph) when you hit it vs. 80 or 90 or whatever it might be, but that was a pinch point on the race.”

In a statement released Monday to WTHR and other media outlets, IndyCar said that it was “in possession of the tire in Sunday’s incident and found that the tether did not fail. This is an isolated incident, and the series is reviewing to make sure it does not happen again. IndyCar takes the safety of the drivers and fans very seriously. We are pleased and thankful that no one was hurt.”

IndyCar provided no further explanation for how the wheel was separated from the car without the tether failing.

IndyCar began mandating wheel suspension tethers using high-performance Zylon material after a flying tire killed three fans at Charlotte Motor Speedway during a May 1, 1999 race. Three fans also were struck and killed by a tire at Michigan International Speedway during a July 26, 1998 race.

The IndyCar tethers can withstand a force of more than 22,000 pounds, and the rear wheel tethers were strengthened before the 2023 season.