The month of May in IndyCar is recognised as one of the most critical on the calendar, with teams setting up base in Indianapolis ahead of this weekend’s GMR Grand Prix on the Indy Road Course before the world-famous Indy 500 in a fortnight’s time.
It’s not just IndyCar who have a blockbuster schedule, however, with USF2000 set to race at both those events with Kiwi teenager Jacob Douglas having momentum on his side ahead of the two massive weekends.
“I’m pretty excited heading into May, it’s pretty cool to be able to live in Indy while it’s going on because it’s a pretty big deal,” the Cantabrian told Velocity News. “Our schedule aligns with IndyCar, we have our oval the same weekend as the Indy 500.
“It’s very exciting. It’s going pretty good so far. We had a prep day at IMS [yesterday] which was good, with a track walk and all that and got everything set up.”
USF2000 will race three times on the Indy Road Course this weekend, with Douglas entering the round seventh in the standings off the back of his maiden podium in the last round at Sebring.
“It definitely gives us a lot of motivation. We want to get back up on the podium, especially at IMS which would be pretty cool. It’s almost like a home race,” Douglas said from his US home, near the famed circuit. “We want to get on to the top step next, which would be amazing.
“We have a really good car. We were the fastest here in pre-season testing so I think we’re on for a pretty good weekend.”
At just 17 years old Douglas is two years into a journey on the Road to Indy ladder with the ultimate goal of IndyCar inching closer race-by-race. The rub of the green hasn’t always gone his way, but the Kiwi is holding firm as he hunts down his dream.
“I’m trying to take every weekend as it comes,” he said. “I try not to think about all the outside things like the championship. We’ve had some tough races this year, and some bad luck, so that’s hard but we caught a bit of a break at Sebring, we had some good luck which was great for a change so we just want to carry that momentum through.
“The team has been working really hard so it’d be great to get a good result for them.”
This weekend’s round in Indianapolis may present a new challenge for Douglas, however, with rain forecast to hit the region over the entire weekend. It will be another learning experience for him, however, it has an element of familiarity for any New Zealand racer.
“It looks like it’s going to be raining. [Today] should be dry for testing but for qualifying it’s going to be raining which it looks like it’s going to for the races too. That should mix things up, but we want to hit the ground running and use the time on the track as best we can and learn as much as possible as a driver, and as a team.
“I haven’t done any wet driving over here. This would only be my second car race in the rain. I had one in Formula Ford which didn’t go too badly so based on that hopefully our pace in the rain isn’t too bad. I did quite a bit of karting in the rain, so I hope it works out.”
USF2000 qualifying takes place at 2.00 am tomorrow with the first race following at 6.05 am. Race 2 begins at 2.00 am on Sunday ahead of the finale at 6.00 am that same morning.
All races will be live-streamed on the USF2000 website.
