OKA, Que., Canada – Thomas Nepveu and his Cape Motorsports team are launching the driver's first full season in a single-seater this coming weekend (April 15-17) at Barber Motorsports Park. The young Oka native is making a return to this now-familiar track for him, after having driven his #2 Cromwell| Karting Excellence | Home Hardware car there during Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship pre-season test days last week, in addition to his off-track preparation using advanced simulation at Cape Motorsports.

Nepveu is looking forward to an intense weekend on this technical layout. “We had a few good days of testing last week. We will work some more until the first race with the data and video to gain a bit of speed. But it’s been a good experience. With all the elevation changes and blind corners, you really need to trust the car and trust that the road is there! You have to have 100% confidence. It’s great to work with Cape Motorsports: I have good data and good teammates, and that helps me on and off the track,” explains Thomas Nepveu.

“The USF2000 car is more complex than the kart with more settings to analyze with the team. However, the feeling of racing is the same in karts as in USF2000. Tire management is important because we only have three sets of tires for two qualifying sessions and two races. We will run on used tires for practice and new ones for each qualifying session. It's important to start as far forward as possible on the grid and drive as few laps as possible in qualifying to save the tires for a race if necessary. A top-10 finish would make me happy for my first USF2000 races,” said the newly appointed Breakfast Club of Canada ambassador.

Barber Motorsports Park
This Alabama layout is a technical one perfectly suited to cars such as the USF2000, with the current lap record set at 99.748 mph. The combination of tight and faster corners poses a challenge for the driver and team to determine the correct suspension and aerodynamic settings. It is always a question of finding an ideal compromise between mechanical grip for the slower corners, aerodynamic downforce for the faster corners and minimal drag to promote maximum speed on the straights.