BRASELTON, Ga. – Patrolling the Mazda Road to Indy paddock this past season for Road to Indy TV, Tristan Vautier quickly discerned a difference. Chiefly, he credits Andersen Promotions for bringing a spark to the three stepladder series.
Sanctioned by INDYCAR, the Mazda Road to Indy provides drivers and teams opportunities to gain experience on and off the track while following a clear-cut path of progression to the Verizon IndyCar Series.
Vautier was the 2011 Star Mazda champion and the next year earned the Indy Lights championship, which – along with a sizable scholarship – gave him a boost to the Verizon IndyCar Series in 2013 with Schmidt Peterson Hamilton Motorsports.
Vautier interspersed his duties as host of the Mazda Road to Indy TV shows with driving in the TUDOR United SportsCar Series endurance races for SpeedSource Engineering. He competed in the 17th Petit Le Mans this weekend at Road Atlanta.
“It was good for me to stay involved because the ladder series and the scholarships played so much in me being able to reach IndyCar,” said Vautier, 25. “I see the whole Mazda Road to Indy program growing and going the right way. Definitely, in Indy Lights, the new car is going to be a big step up.
“The new car is going to be much quicker and I think it’s going to attract many new drivers from Europe because it is a very good value and there are big scholarships here to move up.”
Vautier, a teammate of fellow Frenchman Simon Pagenaud in the Verizon IndyCar Series, said the Schmidt Peterson team “will be fine” for 2015 after Pagenaud announced last week that he signed a multi-year agreement with Team Penske.
“It’s a great opportunity for Simon. I think the three years at Schmidt have been a win-win for everybody,” said Vautier, who won the Indy Lights title with Sam Schmidt Motorsports. “Simon brought a lot to the team and the team brought a lot to Simon.”
Davison has sights set on second Indy 500 start
James Davison, who made his Indianapolis 500 debut in May, earned his fourth consecutive pole in the GT Daytona class in the No. 007 Aston Martin V12 Vantage for the Petit Le Mans.
“I’m unlike the majority of the IndyCar drivers; I run full season in the TUDOR United SportsCar Series and do the marquee Verizon IndyCar Series race – the Indy 500. I certainly feel blessed to these opportunities and I work very hard to put myself in such positions.”
Davison, a race winner in Indy Lights, already is working on a program for the 99th Running of the Indianapolis 500. He qualified 28th and finished 16th in a KV Racing Technology-prepared car.
“Indianapolis was the best experience of my life and it certainly makes you hungry to come back bigger and better,” he said. “We were the shortest (time) program due to budget and we were able to finish in the top half of the field. We achieved our goal.
“Next year I’d like to think I could do the full two weeks of testing and try to be in the running for a win; at minimum a top 10. Finishing that race is a key, and we did that so I have something to build on for 2015.”
Of note
The overall victory by the No. 10 Chevrolet Corvette DP in the Petit Le Mans came in the 100th event for Wayne Taylor Racing. It also came 16 years after Taylor was the winning co-driver at the first Petit Le Mans. ... Eddie Cheever III, the 21-year-old son of 1998 Indianapolis 500 winner and ABC-TV Verizon IndyCar Series analyst Eddie Cheever Jr., co-drove a Spirit of Race Ferrari 458 Italia in the Petit Le Mans. He is currently fifth in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series championship. … The Atlanta Hawks will unveil a statue of Pro Basketball Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins, who was a guest of Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing driver Charlie Kimball at the Milwaukee race in August, in March at Philips Arena.