The stage is set. A total of 20 aspiring young drivers representing nine different nations and no fewer than six continents will congregate this weekend, December 8-9, at the Bondurant Racing School in Chandler, Ariz. One of them will leave with a $200,000 Mazda Scholarship to enter next season’s Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship.

The second day of the final Mazda Road to Indy Open Test of the 2018 season was brought to a premature conclusion by a heavy rainstorm which completely drenched the 2.21-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway road course in south Florida this afternoon.

Hot and humid conditions blighted the first of two days that will comprise the final Mazda Road to Indy Open Test of the season held at Homestead-Miami Speedway, but even though lap times in all three open-wheel categories – Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires, the Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires and the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda – were well shy of the existing track records, that didn’t stop David Malukas (BN Racing), Rasmus Lindh (Pabst Racing) and Cameron Shields (Cape Motorsports) from gaining some early bragging rights.

Jay Howard's Driver Development program (JHDD) has signed Christian Bogle for the 2019 racing season

A (semi) weekly look at driver and team activities during the off-season