Wayside, N.J. – After the highs of his most successful weekend of the season, including his first-ever Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda podium the last time out at Mid-Ohio, expectations were high for Trent Hindman going into one of everyone’s favorite track on the schedule, Road America. Hobbled by a mechanical gremlin that wasn’t tracked down until well into the weekend, Hindman got behind the curve and while he recorded a fourth-place finish in Race 1, he never really caught up.
“It was one of those weekends you have every once in a while”, said Hindman from his Wayside, N.J. home. “The car was down on power out of the trailer. While we eventually traced the problem to a fuel pump, it cost us time to work on the balance of the car.”
After being as high as second in Thursday’s practice sessions, Hindman settled for eighth in a tight qualifying session Friday morning, just under a second behind polesitter Scott Anderson. Avoiding an opening lap incident that eliminated several cars that started around him, Hindman drove a steady race, avoiding mistakes and finishing the yellow-shortened first race fourth behind his Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing teammate Matthew Brabham, Matthew Di Leo and Anderson. His 2:10.849 sec. best race lap was good enough for fifth on the Race 2 grid, .845 sec. behind Brabham.
As the lead pack pulled away from the field in Race 2, Hindman fell into in a three-way battle for fifth with Neil Alberico and Luigi Biangardi for the duration. Alberico won the battle taking fifth while Hindman nipped Biangardi for sixth-place by 7/10ths, his 2:10.795 sec. quickest lap putting him eighth on the grid for Race 3, 1.139 sec. behind polesitter and new track record holder Anderson.
Race 3 was emblematic of Hindman’s weekend, a game of catch up. After making a poor start and losing positions on the opening lap, he spent the race making up the lost positions and by the final checkered flag of the weekend he was back where he started, in eighth.
“Overall the weekend was a good one, but not a great one. We finished all three races and between them gained three positions, but we never found the sweet spot with the car and on a track as large as Road America, it shows.”
Despite the mixed results, Hindman tightens his grip on sixth place in the championship standings, which he holds by 34 points over Shelby Blackstock with four races remaining on the schedule. Still, Hindman is eager to put Road America behind him and move on.
“Baltimore is going to be exciting.”
Standings, 2012 Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda after 10 of 14 Rounds
1. Matthew Brabham, 248 points
2. Spencer Pigot -14
3. Scott Anderson, -50
4. Matthew Di Leo, -82
5. Roman Lagudi, -90
6. Trent Hindman, -95
Next up Trent Hindman and the rest of the USF2000 circus continues its busy second half of the season the weekend of September 1-2, where it joins the Star Mazda, the American Le Mans Series and the IZOD IndyCar Series on the streets of Baltimore, Maryland’s Inner Harbor for the penultimate rounds of its 2012 season. Follow the action with Live Timing and Scoring at www.usf2000.com/livetiming, and follow the action semi-live on Twitter by following @altemus_prime.
About Trent Hindman
Wayside, N.J. native Trent Hindman comes to the 2012 Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda off a diverse season of racing that includes winning the Ontario Formula Ford Championship, a runner-up finish in the BFGoodrich/Skip Barber National Presented by Mazda and selection to the prestigious Team USA Scholarship. Hindman will return to the U.K. in 2012 with Cliff Dempsey Racing to contest the Formula Renault BARC Championship. A former Skip Barber Karting Scholarship Shoot-out winner, Hindman’s goal is to progress through the “Mazda Road to Indy” program, culminating in a ride in the IZOD IndyCar Series. Hindman is racing with defending USF2000 champions Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing and would like to thank Sparco, Racelite Protection and Altemus Prime Communications for their support.
Away from the track, Hindman attends Ocean Township High School in Oakhurst, N.J. He resides in Wayside with his parents Doug and Kim and his sister Sloane.
Learn more about Trent Hindman at www.trenthindman.com.