Liam Sceats is eyeing a big USF Pro 2000 debut in St. Petersburg after a successful two-day test with TJ Speed Motorsports at NOLA Motorsports Park in Avondale, Louisiana.
The New Zealand Grand Prix winner completed 74 laps of the 2.74-mile (4.4km), 13-turn road course across five sessions and featured in the top ten in three outings.
The Auckland-based teenager was sixth-quickest in his first outing at the circuit in Monday’s opening run, setting a best lap of 1:32.9985, four-tenths off the session-topping time from Nikita Johnson.
In Monday’s other outing, he completed another 20 laps to end 15th with a 1:32.3727.
“We were the only team to not run a new tyre on day one, but on the used tyres, our pace was strong,” said Sceats. “We were confident heading into day two at the end of it as our race pace was a strong point for us.”
He opened Tuesday’s testing with a 1:32.9928 for 13th before improving to eighth with a 1:32.5490 in the second outing. His best lap of the program came in the final run, with a 1:31.9630 good enough for ninth.
“Day two was frustrating,” Sceats said, “We had three sets of new tyres for me to get familiar with and experiment with how to extract the most out of the new Continental Tyres.
“Two of the three sessions were interrupted with red flags, so we lost the chance of push laps on two sets of new tyres. I understand that this can happen a lot in this championship, so it was positive to experience this situation, but it was still very frustrating.
“In the final session, we got our first crack on the new tyre, and although the pace wasn’t quite there on the timesheet, I was reasonably happy with my laps and how the car felt.
“We tried a softer bar, which was the first time the team tried it with this car as I was dealing with mid-corner understeer on the used tyre, and they wanted to experiment with what it would do for my new tyre run. For next time, we know this wasn’t best for producing lap time despite the car under me feeling better to drive.”
The Kiwi teenager now begins preparations for his debut round at IndyCar’s Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in Florida next weekend.
“I really enjoyed my test with TJ Speed Motorsports, and there are a lot of positives to take away and many new learnings to take away,” he adds.
“I’m content with how quickly I adapted to the USF Pro car, which is quite different to the Formula Regional car I have been driving for the last five weeks.
“NOLA Motorsport Park was a very bumpy track, which I had to get familiar with, too. It certainly was no Highlands.
“Overall, the team and I are happy with how the test went, and we’re in a good place heading into St Petersburg for Round 1 of the USF Pro 2000 championship for my first taste of a street circuit.”
