Palmetto, Fla. – Team Pelfrey today confirmed that talented young Australian Luke Gabin will take his first steps on the Mazda Road to Indy and complete its four-car assault on this year’s Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda.
USF2000 is the first official step on the Mazda Road to Indy – an initiative unique to North America which offers scholarships to drivers at every level to assist in progression from the grassroots of the sport and onward through the Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires and Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires to the Verizon IndyCar Series and the Indianapolis 500.
The 19-year-old from Perth, Western Australia, won the 2013 Skip Barber Racing Karting Scholarship Shootout and used that as a springboard to additional success, winning the 2014 Skip Barber Racing Summer Series and the SBRS Championship Shootout to earn a place on the MAZDASPEED Motorsports Development Program and another scholarship prize to graduate into USF2000 for 2015.
“Moving up to USF2000 is a really important step for me to continue my career in the USA and to start on the Mazda Road to Indy,” said Gabin. “I'm extremely thankful for the MAZDASPEED Scholarship as this enabled me to compete in the series. I'm really excited to sign with Team Pelfrey – their outfit is extremely professional and their results in the surrounding classes prove this.”
Gabin will join Ayla Agren, from Oslo, Norway, Nikita Lastochkin, from Moscow, Russia, and Garth Rickards, from Mechanicsburg, Pa., in Team Pelfrey’s truly international challenge. The foursome will continue preparations for the team’s initial foray into USF2000 by contesting the Cooper Tires Winterfest, a six-race preseason mini-series which begins this week with three races at NOLA Motorsports Park, near New Orleans, La., on February 19/20, then continues with three more races at Barber Motorsports Park, near Birmingham, Ala., on February 25/26.
The “regular season” championship will kick off on the streets of St. Petersburg, Fla., just a few miles from the team’s base in Palmetto, in conjunction with the Verizon Indy Car Series on March 28/29.
“It is fantastic news and a real privilege for Team Pelfrey to have been selected to provide a car for a MAZDASPEED scholarship driver of Luke Gabin's capabilities,” said Team Pelfrey’s Nigel Tuckey. “He has been blindingly fast in pre-season testing and has already showed himself to be a true team player. Besides that he is an all-around great person and fun to be around. All of us at Team Pelfrey are excited about the year ahead.”
ABOUT TEAM PELFREY:
Dale Pelfrey’s race team, based in Palmetto, Fla., is built upon the same principles he used more than 35 years ago when establishing his business career – hire the best, acquire the best and expect the best in order to achieve the most. After fielding cars in the IndyCar Series from 1998 until 2000, Team Pelfrey was reformed in 2011, winning on its Pro Mazda debut and going on to earn the Team Championship as well as second and third in the drivers’ title-chase with Connor De Phillippi and Nick Andries. Team Pelfrey went one better in 2012, guiding Jack Hawksworth to the Drivers’ Championship and earning a second successive Team Championship. An expansion into the F1600 Championship Series for 2014 saw Ayla Agren, Garth Rickards and Augie Lerch secure the top three positions in the points table. The 2015 season marks Team Pelfrey’s debut in the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda.