Road to Indy

The Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires is a racecar driver development program, providing a scholarship-funded path to reach the IndyCar Series.[1] and Indianapolis 500. Sanctioned by IndyCar, the Road to Indy is owned and managed by Andersen Promotions. On December 9, 2010 it was announced that Mazda would become the title sponsor of the program and provide scholarships for series champions to advance to the next rung of the ladder[2] with all three series running on Cooper Tires.

Road to Indy logo

Since its launch in 2010, the Road to Indy ladder system has attracted competitors from around the globe. Drivers from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, France, Guatemala, Guyana, India, Ireland, Italy, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Singapore, Sweden, South Africa, Spain, United Kingdom, Venezuela and Zimbabwe have been part of the grids, showcasing their talents at premier venues on a mix of road courses, temporary street circuits and ovals.

Participating series (in order from lowest to highest "rung"):

  1. U.S. F2000 National Championship
  2. Indy Pro 2000 Championship (known as the Star Mazda Championship and Pro Mazda Championship prior to 2019)
  3. Indy Lights
  4. IndyCar Series

One of the season highlights is the Indy 500 weekend, with Indy Lights competing in the Freedom 100 on Carb Day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and USF2000 and Indy Pro 2000 racing at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis later that evening.

No driver has won the championship and thus scholarship at every rung of the ladder on their way to Indycar. However, both Sage Karam and Matthew Brabham won scholarships from U.S. F2000 and made it to IndyCar. Karam, Brabham, Tristan Vautier, and Spencer Pigot have all won two scholarships on their way to IndyCar. In 2017, Josef Newgarden became the first Road to Indy graduate and scholarship winner to win the IndyCar Series championship.

Mazda Road to Indy Shootout

For 2017 a shootout race for up and coming talents was announced. The Road to Indy has several partnerships with other development series. In a knock-out format the drivers will compete for a $200,000.00 scholarship to race in the USF2000 series.

Drivers from the following series can qualify to compete in the shootout:[3][4]

Shootout winners
YearTrackWinner
2016Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca Oliver Askew
2017Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park Keith Donegan
2018Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park Hunter McElrea

Champions
IndyCar Series Indy Lights Indy Pro 2000 U.S. F2000
2010 Dario Franchitti 2010 Jean-Karl Vernay 2010 Conor Daly 2010 Sage Karam
2011 Dario Franchitti 2011 Josef Newgarden 2011 Tristan Vautier 2011 Petri Suvanto
2012 Ryan Hunter-Reay 2012 Tristan Vautier 2012 Jack Hawksworth 2012 Matthew Brabham
2013 Scott Dixon 2013 Sage Karam 2013 Matthew Brabham 2013 Scott Hargrove
2014 Will Power 2014 Gabby Chaves 2014 Spencer Pigot 2014 Florian Latorre
2015 Scott Dixon 2015 Spencer Pigot 2015 Santiago Urrutia 2015 Nico Jamin
2016 Simon Pagenaud 2016 Ed Jones 2016 Aaron Telitz 2016 Anthony Martin
2017 Josef Newgarden 2017 Kyle Kaiser 2017 Victor Franzoni 2017 Oliver Askew
2018 Scott Dixon 2018 Patricio O'Ward 2018 Rinus VeeKay 2018 Kyle Kirkwood
2019 Josef Newgarden 2019 Oliver Askew 2019 Kyle Kirkwood 2019 Braden Eves
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References
  1. "Mazda Road to Indy". Retrieved 25 March 2014.
  2. Mazda to sponsor Road to Indy program Archived 2010-12-12 at the Wayback Machine, IndyCar, December 9, 2010, Retrieved 2010-12-09
  3. "Official Feeder Series of the Mazda Road to Indy". USF2000. Retrieved 20 September 2016.
  4. "MRTI USF2000 $200K Scholarship Shootout Dates/Venue Announced". usf2000.com. Retrieved 2017-09-13.
  5. "La FIA F4 Nacam participará en el MRTI Scholarship Shootout". Chicas Racing. Retrieved 2017-09-13.
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