Canadian sophomore driver maintains lead in Mazda Road to Indy championship
INDIANAPOLIS, IN – It is well documented that it takes consistency to win championships, and emerging Canadian star Parker Thompson is determined to make this one of his calling cards as he chases the lucrative title in the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda. The Red Deer, Alberta resident entered last weekend’s Carb Night Classic Freedom 75 at the 5/8-mile banked Lucas Oil Raceway in Clermont, Indiana with the series points lead thanks to a streak of three wins in four races, and he turned in yet another impressive performance in taking second at the end of the 75-lap main event. The result marks his fifth straight podium and his sixth consecutive top-five finish in the ultra-competitive first rung of the Mazda Road to Indy. Thompson, 18, left the only oval event on the USF2000 schedule with a 26-point lead in the standings.
Thompson was on-track at Lucas Oil Raceway on Thursday, May 26 for testing and official practice and was quick from the get-go, sitting second after the first session and placing himself on top of the time charts for the early evening run, which came after the track was dried following a hard rain storm that hit the track.
On Friday afternoon, Parker put his #2 Cape Motorsports / Weyburn Energy / Uber Van Diemen on the pole position following a great two-lap run in the timed qualifying session, and after leading for the first 65 laps of the 75-lap race, he got caught out by slower cars that he and his teammate Anthony Martin were attempting to get through without incident. As Parker ran the high line heading into Turn 1 to move around the slower car, the driver pushed up the track into Thompson’s line, which allowed Martin to move through the bottom and take the inside line for Turn 3. Parker tried to make it three-wide going down the backstraight, but made a veteran decision to back out of it and remove the risk of a wreck.
“The Freedom 75 was a tough one to swallow,” admitted Thompson, showing a racer’s pure desire to win. “Some people would think pole and a runner-up finish is a good day. Honestly, most days it would be. But to be 10 laps away from victory, only to get held up by a lapped car and lose the lead hurts. I still have a nice lead in the championship, so it's time to push harder than ever in the second half of the war! Without my supporters, I wouldn't be able to do what I do, so I’d like to say thank you to Weyburn Energy, Uber, Sylvan Lake RV, OMP, Bell Helmets, Mazda, Cooper Tires and the entire Cape Motorsports crew for all their hard work!”
The Freedom 75 was the kickoff to the Carb Night Classic, which is part of the Mazda Road to Indy component of the Indianapolis 500 weekend. On Friday afternoon, Cape Motorsports had Parker’s car at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway so that he could lead the Indy Lights field on their initial pace lap around the 2.5-mile oval for the Freedom 100.
The point leader in the USF2000 and Pro Mazda series are given this unique opportunity, and you can be sure that Parker is aiming to be in one of the actual race cars for the Freedom 100 in the very near future. The Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires program is the top rung of the Mazda Road to Indy and is just one step away from the Verizon IndyCar Series.
Parker is thankful for the opportunities provided to him by his valued partners, including Weyburn Energy, Uber, Sylvan Lake RV, Bell Helmets, OMP Racing, Lapizta Watches, Openhwy, Mazda and Cooper Tires.
The next event of the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda will be held at the storied Road America facility in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin on June 24-26. The on-track sessions from Road America be broadcast live on roadtoindy.tv and can be streamed through the Mazda Road to Indy app, which is available on iTunes and Google Play for Android devices. Parker Thompson fans can also find these shows available on Apple TV, Amazon Fire and Roku TV on the new Road to Indy channel.
PARKER THOMPSON – SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS:
Website: www.parkerthompsonracing.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ParkerThompsonRacing
Twitter: @parkertracing
Instagram: @parkertracing
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About Parker Thompson:
Parker was born and raised in Red Deer, Alberta and got behind the wheel of his first kart at the age of eight. He went from being a weekend warrior rolling a kart and toolbox in the back of a family half-ton in Calgary, to a championship-winning fixture in many of the world’s top karting events. In 2012, Parker was the first ever North American to make it to the podium in the Junior Rotax category at the Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals in Portimao, Portugal where he was awarded the third ranking in the world. At the age of 14, Thompson went on to live in Italy, leaving family and friends behind to race in Europe full-time with the Energy Corse Factory team. This move helped accelerate his dream of becoming a professional racecar driver. He had a record-breaking season for a Canadian, producing results yet to be seen by a North American competing at the world stage in Europe. Currently, the accomplished 18-year-old looks to make it one step closer to his dream of a professional racecar driver and make the jump to racing formula cars. After finishing fifth overall in the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda last year, for 2016, Thompson has signed a deal with championship-winning Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing.