USF2000 candidates set for MRTI scholarship shootout - MotorSportsTalk

From Dec. 6-7, the $200,000 shootout to win a Mazda scholarship into the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda will take place at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

A release on the candidates is below:

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A total of 18 drivers will congregate next week at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, Calif., to contest the inaugural Mazda Road to Indy USF2000 $200K Scholarship Shootout. The unprecedented event brings together talent from around the globe with the winner receiving a $200,000 prize from Mazda to assist in graduation to the 2017 Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda. USF2000 represents the first step on the acclaimed Mazda Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires which offers scholarships for talented young drivers to progress all the way from the grassroots of the sport to the Verizon IndyCar Series and the Indianapolis 500.

The Shootout was designed this year to include the champions of select junior level open-wheel and karting series. In total, 20 championships were granted Shootout “entry tickets” to award their champions, with an eligibility requirement that drivers be between the ages of 14 and 25 on September 30, 2016. Three drivers were unable to attend due to prior commitments.

The final slot on the driver roster was clinched this past weekend at the famed Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit in Victoria, Australia, where Will Brown, 18, from Toowoomba, Queensland (the same hometown as 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series champion Will Power) finished a close second in the Australian Formula Ford Championship. Brown had been obliged to miss the opening three races, allowing veteran Leanne Tander, who began her FF career one year before Brown was born, to establish a 56-point advantage, but the youngster fought back to finish just 12 points in arrears after sweeping the final three races. Brown also clinched this year’s CAMS Jayco Australian Formula 4 Championship Certified by FIA.

Australian Formula Ford is among a variety of feeder series from five different continents – Asia, Australia and Europe as well as North and South America – who will send representatives to the two-day Shootout.

Other recent nominees include Oliver White, 23, from Bath, England, who earned his place via the Mountney SuperSeries for Formula Ford 1600 in the UK; Team USA Scholarship winners Oliver Askew, 19, and Kyle Kirkwood, 18, both from Jupiter, Fla.; Skip Barber Race Series champion Timo Reger, 20, from Houston, Texas; U.S. Open Rotax Senior class winner Austin Garrison, 18, from Davie, Fla.; and Jonathan Sugianto, 20, of Alhambra, Calif., through the Formula Car Challenge Presented by Goodyear.

The competitors, representing nine different nations, will range in age from 14-year-old Marcel Coletta, from Sao Paulo, Brazil, who earned his nomination via a karting shootout in Brazil, to Matt Machiko, from Pittsburgh, Pa., who celebrated his 25th birthday just a few days after clinching the Formula Mazda championship at the 53rd annual SCCA Runoffs Presented by Garmin VIRB at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

The full list of scholarship Shootout contestants (with age and hometown) and their affiliation:

Oliver Askew, 19, Jupiter, Fla. – Team USA Scholarship
Will Brown, 18, Toowoomba, Australia – Australian Formula Ford Championship
Marcel Coletta, 14, Sao Paulo, Brazil – Seletiva de Kart Petrobras (Brazil)
Tim de Silva, 20, Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. – Pacific F2000 Championship
Trenton Estep, 16, San Antonio, Texas – Formula Tour 1600 (Canada)
Austin Garrison, 18, Davie, Fla. – U.S. Rotax MAX Challenge (U.S. Open Rotax Senior class)
Kyle Kirkwood, 18, Jupiter, Fla. – Team USA Scholarship
Matt Machiko, 25, Pittsburgh, Pa. – SCCA National Championship Runoffs (FM)
Neil Maclennan, 18, Inverness, Scotland – Beatson’s Scottish FF1600 Championship
Axel Matus, 18, Guadalajara, Mexico – Formula Panam
Niall Murray, 21, Dublin, Ireland – BRSCC Avon Tires FF1600 Championship
Peter Portante, 20, Plainville, Conn. – F1600 Formula F Championship Series
Timo Reger, 20, Houston, Texas – Skip Barber Race Series
Nigel Saurino, 21, Tulsa, Okla. – SCCA National Championship Runoffs (FC)
Michael Scott, 21, Te Puke, New Zealand – New Zealand Formula Ford Championship
Jonathan Sugianto, 20, Alhambra, Calif. – Formula Car Challenge Presented by Goodyear
Karthik Tharani, 22, Chennai, India – MMSC MRF F1600 Indian Championship
Oliver White, 23, Bath, England – Mountney SuperSeries for Formula Ford 1600

Full details of the judging panel, Shootout format and cars will be announced later this week as well as the schedule of events which includes an orientation day on December 5, followed by on-track activities on December 6/7.

“This is the next step in the worldwide growth of the Mazda Road to Indy,” said Kyle Kimball, Operations Manager at Mazda Motorsports. “It allows young drivers from around the world to see a direct path to the program, beginning with championships in their own country. Our hope is to continue to see the finest young drivers in the world choose the Mazda Road to Indy, and to represent their country on a path to the top rungs of open-wheel racing.”

FORT WORTH, Texas – Defending series champion Will Power’s name is off the board of potential IndyCar free agents, but there’s still much to be settled in the field – starting with the reigning Indy 500 winner.

Marcus Ericsson is waiting on a contract offer to remain with Chip Ganassi Racing beyond the 2023 season (his fourth with the team). The Swede said he’s made it clear to car owner Chip Ganassi that he wants to stay in the No. 8 Dallara-Honda, which has four victories since June 2021.

“Yeah, it’s up to him, basically,” Ericsson said Friday at Texas Motor Speedway. “He needs to give me an offer for ’24 onward. The ball is in his corner. I really enjoy it at Ganassi, and we’ve done a lot of great things together and would love to continue, but the ball is in his corner. He knows very well what I want.”

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Two days before Ericsson won the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg season opener March 5, Ganassi sang the praises of the emerging star driver to a small group of reporters.

“I want him here beyond this year,” Ganassi said of Ericsson. “He seems to have gotten more out of winning the Indy 500 than anyone else has of recent time, which is a good thing. He did a good job. He’s been everywhere. It’s been a really positive thing for Marcus, the team, the series. He’s grown with that as well.”

Ericsson didn’t sew up his current deal until late in his breakthrough 2021 season (after a memorable victory in the inaugural Music City Grand Prix). So he isn’t necessarily anxious about it but conceded he “was thinking a bit about it over the winner in the offseason and talking about it

“But now that the season has started, I told my managers and everyone I want to focus on the driving. They focus on those things. Now the season is on, and I want to try to win races, win another 500 and championship. That’s where my focus is. (A new contract) is one of those things that happens when it happens. But I’m happy where I am, and I want to do well.”

IndyCar’s two best teams, Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing, tend to be very tight-lipped about their drivers’ contract status.

Power confirmed Friday to journalist Bruce Martin that his new deal was for multiple seasons. That means all three of Penske’s drivers are in multiple-year contracts (unlike Power’s deal, Scott McLaughlin’s extension was announced by the team last year).

But there is more uncertainty at Ganassi’s four cars aside from Ericsson. While Scott Dixon has a ride for as long as he wants (and the six-time champion has given no indication of retiring), Ganassi’s other two other seats have yet to be solidified beyond 2023.

The No. 11 is being split this year by rookie Marcus Armstrong and veteran Takuma Sato this season. In the No. 10, Alex Palou is believed to be in his final year at Ganassi before heading to Arrow McLaren.

That expected move would cast doubt on the future of Felix Rosenqvist, who returned to Arrow McLaren when the team was unable to bring in Palou (who was embroiled in a contract dispute with Ganassi).

Aside from Penske, virtually every other IndyCar team (including Andretti Autosport, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and Meyer Shank Racing, which has Helio Castroneves in a contract year) has seats that potentially could open for next season, and even drivers who appear to be under contract for next year still could be on the move (via buyouts and option years).

Though Juncos Hollinger Racing announced a “long-term, multiyear contract partnership” last July with Callum Ilott, but the second-year driver was cagey Friday when asked about how long the extension ran.

“It’s for whatever I want it to be,” said Ilott, who finished a career-best fifth at St. Petersburg. “I’ll say that.”

Before returning to JHR, Ilott turned enough heads as a rookie to draw interest from several teams, and he indicated Friday that he still would be listening.

“I’d love to talk to some other big teams,” Ilott said. “Nothing stops me from talking. Look, you’ve got to be fair. I agreed to (the deal), but it’s pretty obvious that I’m quite interested as people are interested in me as a driver, but I need to focus on the job I’ve got here.

“I’m confident whether it’s in one year, two years, three years, four years, that if I’m wanted now, I’ll always be wanted. I’m a good enough driver that I don’t need to lack confidence in that side. … I’m not worried.”