No off weekend for Pigot, with sports car race at Mid-Ohio

LEXINGTON, Ohio — Ed Carpenter Racing driver Spencer Pigot has appeared in various endurance sports car races for Mazda over the last few seasons and is doing so again at this weekend's Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

Pigot will start fourth with co-driver Jonathan Bomarito in the No. 55 Mazda Team Joest Mazda DPi in the top-level Prototype class. With the sister Mazda DPi starting third, it’s the best qualifying result this season for the two-car IMS WeatherTech SportsCar Championship team.

“We seem to be fairly quick,” Pigot said. "We seem to be the next cars behind the Penske cars, so that’s been encouraging and hopefully we can take advantage of anything in the race to move up. There’s a lot of fast cars behind us as well, so we’re going to have to fight hard to keep ourselves there."

Pigot is the winningest driver in the Mazda Road to Indy presented by Cooper Tires development ladder as he moved his way up to the Verizon IndyCar Series. Pigot has extensive experience at Mid-Ohio but this weekend is his first sports car race at the 2.258-mile natural terrain road course. The 2015 Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires champion has 12 starts at Mid-Ohio throughout his open-wheel career, winning once in 2012 driving in USF2000.

“It’s different, obviously the cornering speeds are slower,” Pigot said about the differences between the sports car and the Indy car. “Also, the time of year, it’s probably the first real race they’ve had after winter so the track is pretty green, doesn’t have much rubber. When we come back here for INDYCAR, it’s had a lot of action, a lot of rubber’s built up.”

While Pigot’s experience around Mid-Ohio is very current, co-driver Bomarito’s is more dated. Bomarito raced at Mid-Ohio four times in 2003 in USF2000 with two wins. Bomarito has three sports car races to draw experience from, but hasn’t raced at Mid-Ohio since 2012.

“The track is pretty unique in some places, how the grip kind of builds and the lines can kind of change throughout the weekend,” Pigot said. “So it’s something I was trying to share with my teammates to kind of look out for.”

Multiple car classes at Mid-Ohio throws an interesting variable into the mix because there are two slower GT classes for Prototype drivers to maneuver around. At a track like Mid-Ohio with several single-line areas, handling traffic is critical to success.

“The later you can get (past) a GT car, that gives a greater possibility that the DPi behind you isn’t going to be able to get him so you can kind of throw a pick in there,” said Pigot.

To date, Pigot has only driven in endurance sports car races. Today’s event will be a two-hour, 40-minute.

“I guess you can be a little bit more aggressive,” said Pigot. “Track position is important because you don’t have as much time to get it back if you do lose some spots or if you have some issues. You just want to get by as many guys as quick as possible and it’s the same kind of mentality you always have, but it’s a greater penalty if something goes wrong.”

Former full time Verizon IndyCar Series driver Helio Castroneves will start on pole position in the No. 6 Acura Team Penske DPi after being fastest in qualifying on Saturday. A full-time sports-car driver now, Castroneves returns to the Verizon IndyCar Series next week to race in the INDYCAR Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, following by the 102nd of the Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil.