Elkhart Lake, Wisc. – Darren Keane added another new road course to his racing resume this weekend as he continued his rookie season in Cooper Tires USF2000 presented by Mazda competition at Road America.
Driving for Newman Wachs Racing in the No. 36 Mazda powered entry, Keane earned his best finish of the year when he took 10th at the checkered flag on Friday.
That result didn’t come easily for the 17-year-old Florida racer, who visited the 4-mile circuit in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin in just his third-ever USF2000 event. Without having ever seen the track in person, Keane had a hill to climb as he raced against many competitive teams who had previously raced and tested at the track.
With just one practice session held ahead of qualifying, Keane hoped to get the most out of it, but he saw limited running ahead of the race.
“In practice on Thursday I only did about seven laps because I went out on wets but I came in because the track was too dry,” said Keane of the changing weather that affected the session. “Then I just started working with the slicks. But four laps in we had a problem with the left rear and the wheel was just moving left and right so I had to pit straight away and that wasted another 10 minutes with the red flag. I was a little bit off the pace and the track is really fast. It was tough to learn in difficult conditions with wet patches in places because I didn’t want to push and go off. It was more of the same at the beginning of qualifying but then the track really started to dry out toward the end. 13th was a good result considering I had 15 total laps on the track when everyone else had been testing here.”
Keane qualified 13th on Friday morning which slotted the No. 36 machine in on the inside of Row 7 for the start of the 30-minute race.
When the field went green, Keane found himself shuffled to the outside in Turn 1 which saw him drop to 18th in the line. But undeterred, he began to race his way forward.
Putting his head down, Keane began to click off quick time after quick time as he continued to improve with each lap. By the end of the 10th lap, Keane was running the same lap times as those in the lead group as he made forward progress through the field.
When the checkered flag flew after 13 laps, Keane had worked his way back up eight positions to take 10th.
“I lost two spots in the first corner and then into Turn 5 on the second lap someone came out of nowhere and pushed me off,” said Keane. “I was sent to 18th, and then I got comfortable and started picking up time and finished 10th. My pace was pretty close to that of the leaders so I’m happy.”
Keane continued to show improvement when the USF2000 field took to the track Friday afternoon for its second qualifying session of the day. With a fast lap of 2:11.8788-seconds – his fastest lap of the weekend – Keane put the No. 36 Newman Wachs entry 11th on the grid for Race 2.
Unfortunately, Keane’s hopes to repeat another top-10 result in Saturday’s Race 2 did not come to fruition when contact on Lap 2 saw his day end early.
Keane will continue to build his Cooper Tires USF2000 presented by Mazda experience when he returns to action through the streets of Toronto.