INDYCARNATION

Throughout the 2011 season, Andretti Autosport driver Spencer Pigot will provide updates on his rookie season in the Cooper Tires presents the USF2000 National Championship powered by Mazda. This month, the 16-year-old Floridian gives us a behind-the-scenes look at USF2000 WinterFest – his debut event with Andretti Autosport.

In the past two weeks I’ve made a big jump in my career, completing my first few events in an USF2000 car and entering the first level of the ‘Mazda Road to Indy.’ 

Going into the Winterfest, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I knew it would be a totally different experience than the Skip Barber races I did last year, but I wasn’t sure just how much things would change. 

Everything was new to me: the car, the team, the tires, the engineers. I didn’t have any experience with the way things worked in a professional team. I was there to learn all that I could to be fully prepared for the opening weekend of the main series in March. 

I noticed the first big difference a few days before the opening rounds in Sebring when I got an email from my engineer Scott with four pages of pre-race notes to study.

That was a first! When I arrived at the track Monday morning I couldn’t wait to get in the car—it had been a long off-season. Since my car was brand new, I had to take it a bit easy the first session just to make sure there were no problems and everything was running properly. 

I was able to start pushing the car in the second session, and that’s when I found out how different this car was compared to anything I had driven before. The biggest thing I had to get used to was the downforce. It allows you to carry so much more speed through the corners than you originally think, another aspect of the car I was new to! I was getting more used to the car lap after lap and I qualified second for Race 1, about a tenth of a second off my teammate Zach Veach. 

I was confident of a good result in the race based on our qualifying pace. However, the race didn’t go according to plan. I dropped out about five laps into the race while leading due to a bolt in the shift linkage coming lose. It was unfortunate but it reminded us just how hard Sebring is on the cars because of its bumpy nature (which we won’t forget come March when we are back there for the first race of the main series).

The next day I started second again for Race 2. This time the race went much better and I finished second, taking my first podium finish in USF2000 and for Andretti Autosport. Overall, Sebring was very successful. I learned a lot about the car and really connected well with my engineers and mechanics. 

About a week later we were at Homestead-Miami Speedway for the second event of the Cooper Tires Winterfest. I was really looking forward to using everything I learned at Sebring to close the gap to my teammate. In the first practice session Wednesday morning I was P1 by almost half a second! 

We were able to get the setup just right in the two morning practice sessions in preparation for qualifying. Qualifying went perfectly and I scored my first USF2000 pole position! Thankfully, the race was very uneventful. I led every lap and won the race by almost eight seconds! It was great to get my first win in only my third race in the series. 

Qualifying for Race 2 on Thursday morning was a bit of a surprise. The car was perfect the day before, but for some reason in qualifying the car handled much differently to Race 1, and I was only able to qualify P4. We made a few changes on the car for the race but there was still no improvement. I did manage to gain one position in the race and finish third but the car still wasn’t where it was for Race 1. After a lot of talking with my engineers Andy and Scott, we decided to put the car exactly how it was the day before. 

With the same tires and setup on the car for Race 3, I was hoping for a much better result. I started on pole because I set the fastest lap in Race 1. On Lap 1, the drivers behind me started to fight, and I was able to pull a huge lead. But then a full course caution came out and my lead evaporated. My teammate Zach was right behind me when the race went green. He tried to pass me going into Turn 2, but he wasn’t able to make the move stick. After that I didn’t have any drama out front and won my second race of the event! 

Overall the Winterfest was a great start to the season, I was able to get comfortable with the car and with the team very easily. Hopefully we can carry the momentum of winning those two races to the main series in March. Can’t wait to get back in the car!

Windermere, Fla.’s Spencer Pigot is a rising star in American open-wheel racing. The 16-year old won 2010 Skip Barber National Champion and was one of the recipients of the Team USA Scholarship, which took him to England to race in the Walter Hayes Trophy and Formula Ford Festival. A racer since the age of 9, Pigot begins his climb up the Mazda Road to Indy ladder system driving the No. 8 car for Andretti Autosport.Outside of the car, Spencer enjoys a wide variety of sports, including football and soccer, while balancing high school and professional auto racing.For more information on Spencer, visit his website at www.spencerpigot.com 

 

 

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