Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. - Team BENIK returns from a successful weekend of testing, showing race-winning speed at the Chris Griffis Memorial test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. After running a select few rounds in the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda in 2017, BENIK started their 2018 program strong with drivers Rasmus Lindh and Jaden Conwright.
Swedish driver Rasmus Lindh completed his first ever outing at the “racing capital of the world” at the memorial test weekend. With only five days of testing in the car since his move from karting, Lindh showed his ability to learn and progress throughout the two-day test weekend. Lindh completed a total of 149 laps in the weekend sessions, running as high as third in the seventh session. He finished the test in fourth on day two, sitting at a strong fifth-place overall for the weekend.
“I am really happy with how the test went, and to end in such a strong position shows the progress we have made,” says Lindh. “I would like to thank BENIK for the great support all weekend. The car felt great from the start, and they really helped develop my skills to enable my rapid progress.”
Jaden Conwright began his test weekend at IMS with a big learning curve to overcome. As his first time at the IMS course, Conwright was required to learn a new track, along with a new car and tire compound. He completed a total of 156 laps during the weekend, scoring seventh in session one and eighth in the second session. After a strong start to the weekend, Conwright continued to impress, completing his best lap of the two days on old tires in session two, finishing in the eighth spot. He ended his test weekend 14th overall on the time sheets.
“It was a massive pleasure working with everyone at Team BENIK,” stated Conwright. “They made my introduction into the Mazda Road to Indy a very positive and smooth experience. I learned a lot in two days, and hope to learn even more from them in the near future and into the next year!”
Team BENIK’s Nick Mitchell commented, “We showed more potential than ever at the Chris Griffis Memorial test. We are proving that we can develop new drivers from karting to cars and put them right at the sharp end. To be in the top-five with a driver with so little track time under his belt was the perfect way to end the test. Driver development is key, and we are working on that focus to help kick start our BENIK Kart drivers into cars."