Pro Mazda’s title tilt: Urrutia looks to honor fallen countryman, while Alberico seeks title on home soil

By Sep 8, 2015, 10:00 AM EDT
Urrutia, Alberico and Florian Latorre at St. Petersburg. Photos @ Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC Photography
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Both the Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires and Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires championships have four drivers mathematically eligible for this year’s titles at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, yet both of the two top rungs on the Mazda Road to Indy ladder also have less than four realistically eligible once you factor in the points gaps.

In Pro Mazda, Santiago Urrutia has used consistency to build a 29-point lead over Neil Alberico, with Timothe Buret and Weiron Tan 47 and 51 points in arrears, and needing a bit of help to pull things off. The winner receives a scholarship just shy of $600,000 ($590,300) to move to Indy Lights next season.

Urrutia (Mazda Road to Indy “Meet the Contenders” profile linked here) was a late arrival to North America, as he didn’t even participate in this year’s Cooper Tires Winterfest. But the Uruguayan took over seamlessly after Jack Aitken took Team Pelfrey to the Winterfest title.

He’s won three races this season, including one of the two at the most recent round at Mid-Ohio (others at NOLA, Grand Prix of Indianapolis). Coupled with only one finish outside the top-10 (Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis), Urrutia has been a regular points-scoring presence.

This is going to be an emotional weekend for the 19-year-old, who previously raced in GP3. Urrutia, in the No. 81 entry, will wear a helmet paying tribute to his racing hero and countryman Gonzalo Rodriguez, who was killed in 1999 in an accident at practice at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Even more surreal: this weekend will take place on the exact same weekend, 16 years later (Rodriguez was killed on September 11, 1999).

Alberico (Mazda Road to Indy “Meet the Contenders” profile linked here), the Rising Star Racing-backed driver of the No. 3 Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing entry, is a 22-year-old from Los Gatos, Calif. who has a longtime Mazda Road to Indy pedigree and is more or less in the same spot where Spencer Pigot was last year.

He’s a talented, confident shoe who was unlucky to get beat to the USF2000 championship by teammate Scott Hargrove in 2013 (another ace in the wings), then was outclassed again by Hargrove last year as both stepped up to Pro Mazda with Cape. Pigot had lost the USF2000 and Pro Mazda crowns to Matt Brabham in back-to-back years, but beat Hargrove to last year’s title in a thrilling weekend at Sonoma.

Alberico actually has four wins, one more than Urrutia, but has gone through a roller coaster campaign including three finishes of 14th or worse to offset the top-shelf results. Simply put, Alberico has been fast but fragile this year, and in order to account for the points deficit, he’ll likely need to win twice and hope Urrutia hits trouble in at least one of two races.

In third and fourth, Buret and Tan have both won races (Buret once, Tan four times) yet need both Urrutia and Alberico to fall off badly to have a realistic shot. If both are more than 33 points back after Saturday’s first race of the weekend, they’ll be eliminated.

Others have starred in various points this year, notably Garett Grist and Pato O’Ward in recent races, but it’s primarily been about the title-contending quartet this season.

With throaty roar, NASCAR Next Gen Camaro is taking Le Mans by storm on global stage

Associated PressJun 8, 2023, 4:00 PM EDT
Le Mans 24 Hour Race - Car Parade
Chris Graythen/Getty Images
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LE MANS, France — The V8 engine of the NASCAR Chevrolet Camaro has a distinct growl that cannot go unnoticed even among the most elite sports cars in the world at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

When the Hendrick Motorsports crew fired up the car inside Garage 56, NASCAR chairman Jim France broke into a huge grin and gave a thumbs up.

“The only guy who didn’t cover his ears,” laughed seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson.

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France has been waiting since 1962 – the year his father, NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., brought him to his first 24 Hours of Le Mans – to hear the roar of a stock car at the most prestigious endurance race in the world.

A path finally opened when NASCAR developed its Next Gen car, which debuted last year. France worked out a deal to enter a car in a specialized “Innovative Car” class designed to showcase technology and development. The effort would be part of NASCAR’s 75th celebration and it comes as Le Mans marks its 100th.

Once he had the approval, France persuaded Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet and Goodyear – NASCAR’s winningest team, manufacturer and tire supplier – to build a car capable of running the twice-around-the-clock race.

The race doesn’t start until Saturday, but NASCAR’s arrival has already been wildly embraced and France could not be more thrilled.

“Dad’s vision, to be able to follow it, it took awhile to follow it up, and my goal was to outdo what he accomplished,” France told The Associated Press. “I just hope we don’t fall on our ass.”

The car is in a class of its own and not racing anyone else in the 62-car field. But the lineup of 2010 Le Mans winner Mike Rockenfeller, 2009 Formula One champion Jenson Button and Johnson has been fast enough; Rockenfeller put down a qualifying lap that was faster than every car in the GTE AM class by a full three seconds.

The Hendrick Motorsports crew won its class in the pit stop competition and finished fifth overall as the only team using a manual jack against teams exclusively using air jacks. Rick Hendrick said he could not be prouder of the showing his organization has made even before race day.

“When we said we’re gonna do it, I said, ‘Look, we can’t do this half-assed. I want to be as sharp as anybody out there,” Hendrick told AP. “I don’t want to be any less than any other team here. And just to see the reaction from the crowd, people are so excited about this car. My granddaughter has been sending me all these TikTok things that fans are making about NASCAR being at Le Mans.”

This isn’t NASCAR’s first attempt to run Le Mans. The late France Sr. brokered a deal in 1976, as America celebrated its bicentennial, to bring two cars to compete in the Grand International class and NASCAR selected the teams. Herschel McGriff and his son, Doug, drove a Wedge-powered, Olympia Beer-sponsored Dodge Charger, and Junie Donlavey piloted a Ford Torino shared by Richard Brooks and Dick Hutcherson.

Neither car came close to finishing the race. McGriff, now 95 and inducted into NASCAR’s Hall of Fame in January, is in Le Mans as France’s guest, clad head-to-toe in the noticeable Garage 56 uniforms.

“I threw a lot of hints that I would like to come. And I’ve been treated as royalty,” McGriff said. “This is unbelievable to me. I recognize nothing but I’m anxious to see everything. I’ve been watching and seeing pictures and I can certainly see the fans love their NASCAR.”

The goal is to finish the full race Sunday and, just maybe, beat cars from other classes. Should they pull off the feat, the driver trio wants its own podium celebration.

“I think people will talk about this car for a long, long time,” said Rockenfeller, who along with sports car driver Jordan Taylor did much of the development alongside crew chief Chad Knaus and Greg Ives, a former crew chief who stepped into a projects role at Hendrick this year.

“When we started with the Cup car, we felt already there was so much potential,” Rockenfeller said. “And then we tweaked it. And we go faster, and faster, at Le Mans on the SIM. But you never know until you hit the real track, and to be actually faster than the SIM. Everybody in the paddock, all the drivers, they come up and they are, ‘Wow, this is so cool,’ and they were impressed by the pit stops. We’ve overachieved, almost, and now of course the goal is to run for 24 hours.”

The car completed a full 24-hour test at Sebring, Florida, earlier this year, Knaus said, and is capable of finishing the race. Button believes NASCAR will leave a lasting impression no matter what happens.

“If you haven’t seen this car live yet, it’s an absolute beast,” Button said. “When you see and hear it go by, it just puts a massive smile on your face.”

For Hendrick, the effort is the first in his newfound embrace of racing outside NASCAR, the stock car series founded long ago in the American South. Aside from the Le Mans project, he will own the Indy car that Kyle Larson drives for Arrow McLaren in next year’s Indianapolis 500 and it will be sponsored by his automotive company.

“If you’d have told me I’d be racing at Le Mans and Indianapolis within the same year, I’d never have believed you,” Hendrick told AP. “But we’re doing both and we’re going to do it right.”

Le Mans 24 Hour Race - Car Parade
Fans gather around the NASCAR Next Gen Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 that is the Garage 56 entry for the 100th 24 Hours of Le Mans at the Circuit de la Sarthe (Chris Graythen/Getty Images).

General Motors is celebrating the achievement with a 2024 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Garage 56 Edition and only 56 will be available to collectors later this year.

“Even though Chevrolet has been racing since its inception in 1911, we’ve never done anything quite like Garage 56,” said GM President Mark Reuss. “A NASCAR stock car running at Le Mans is something fans doubted they would see again.”

The race hasn’t even started yet, but Hendrick has enjoyed it so much that he doesn’t want the project to end.

“It’s like a shame to go through all this and do all this, and then Sunday it’s done,” Hendrick said. “It’s just really special to be here.”