There’s nothing like relative home turf to get a driver comfortable.
Such was the case for Spencer Pigot during Tuesday’s first of two days of testing at Sebring International Raceway.
The 2015 Indy Lights champion is a native of nearby Orlando, Florida. So when he came to Sebring, he was ready to have at it, especially with his debut in the Verizon IndyCar Series season-opening race coming across the state in St. Petersburg on March 13.
The 22-year-old driver for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing whipped around the 1.65-mile road course like he was dancing with a favorite partner, completing a stout 166 laps.
“The day was great,” said Pigot, who is taking part in additional testing today with teammate Graham Rahal. “Our approach was to just get me comfortable in the car and comfortable working with everyone on the team and I think that went very well, very smoothly.
“We were able to get going pretty well early on in the day and I immediately felt comfortable in the car. From then I just focused on getting used to it and improving my driving and improving the car as well. It was a great day; we made a lot of improvements in all areas. The guys worked really hard. It was definitely a very productive day that we can build on and learn more (Wednesday).”
Had a great first day testing with @RLLracing ! Kept improving all day. Ready to do the same tomorrow! pic.twitter.com/t81OLruIuy
— Spencer Pigot (@SpencerPigot) March 2, 2016
.@SpencerPigot driving his @IndyCar through the turns at Sebring 👇🏼🏎🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/0y6qu676cs
— Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (@RLLracing) March 2, 2016
Moving to a full-time ride in IndyCar is the next logical step for Pigot, who won six of 16 races, had 10 podium finishes and four pole positions en route to last year’s Indy Lights championship. He’d also won the 2014 Pro Mazda championship in dramatic fashion, even though he had six wins, five poles and seven podium appearances.
“Our goal for today was to get Spencer comfortable in the car and steadily get up to speed and he did a great job and ended with competitive lap times,” RLL team manager Ricardo Nault said. “He gave great feedback over the course of the day and we made several changes so that he could understand the impact they made.
“We were also able to practice pit stops which will be new for him this season and overall it was great experience.”
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