Hot and humid conditions blighted the first of two days that will comprise the final Mazda Road to Indy Open Test of the season held at Homestead-Miami Speedway, but even though lap times in all three open-wheel categories – Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires, the Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires and the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda – were well shy of the existing track records, that didn’t stop David Malukas (BN Racing), Rasmus Lindh (Pabst Racing) and Cameron Shields (Cape Motorsports) from gaining some early bragging rights.
A total of 21 drivers turned 1,078 laps round the 2.21-mile road course during the course of a largely incident-free day.
As was the case during the Chris Griffis Memorial Test at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in September, an Australian-based driver today posted the fastest time among 10 Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship contenders at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
This time it was Cameron Shields, from Toowoomba, Queensland, who emerged on top of the charts after three 40-minute sessions, recording a best time of 1:24.8199, an average speed of 93.799mph, for the defending champion team Cape Motorsports.
“I am testing with Cape Motorsports and so far it has gone very well,” said Shields. “We were fastest on the first day. There’s still one more day to go but we are showing good signs and I am getting on with the team very well. It’s been a very positive first day.”
Shields, 17, who finished a close second in this year’s Australian Formula 3 Championship and fourth in Australian Formula 4, despite missing the final six races, narrowly edged out Gold Coast, Australia-based New Zealander Hunter McElrea, who was a scant 0.0709s adrift in the final session for Pabst Racing.
Braden Eves, aboard a second Cape Motorsports Tatuus-Mazda USF-17, also was close behind on 1:25.0184. Eves, from New Albany, Ohio, was fastest in the second session, making an impressive return to the cockpit after recovering from surgery which had forced him to forego an opportunity to represent the Team USA Scholarship in England last month.
Another pair of Pabst Racing cars, driven by USF2000 veteran Colin Kaminsky, from Homer Glen, Ill., and Yuven Sundaramoorthy, from Oconomowoc, Wis., rounded out the top five, while Kyle Dupell, from Portland, Ore,., turned the fastest time in the opening session this morning for BN Racing. Dupell’s time of 1:25.6134 remained good enough for sixth on the day ahead of Houston, Texas, native Nikko Reger, who made an impressive transition to open-wheel cars for Cape Motorsports after winning this year’s Battery Tender Global Mazda MX-5 Cup championship.
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