Indianapolis 500 champion Ryan Hunter-Reay will represent the Verizon IndyCar Series in the annual Race of Champions, slated to take place at the Bushy Park Circuit in Barbados on December 13-14.
“I’m absolutely thrilled to be returning to the Race of Champions for the second time,” said Hunter-Reay, who previously raced in the Race of Champions when it was held in Thailand following his 2012 series championship. “My first ROC in Bangkok was an amazing experience, going head-to-head with some of the best drivers from every different motor sport discipline from around the world.”
Hunter-Reay is the most successful American driver currently racing in open-wheel competition and one of the most versatile drivers in the sport. He has 14 career Indy car victories in addition to race wins in the American Le Mans Series and Grand-Am. Hunter-Reay captured three victories during the 2014 season (Barber, Indianapolis and Iowa) and finished sixth in the Verizon IndyCar Series points standings driving the No. 28 DHL Honda for Andretti Autosport.
“Experience really helps with the short amount of seat time in each of the different types of ROC race car,” Hunter-Reay said. “When it’s time to head to Barbados for the race weekend, I’ll be focused on winning. It’s an honor to represent America, INDYCAR and the Indy 500 in such a prestigious event.”
The ROC features drivers from all different types of motorsports disciplines in a head-to-head knockout competition in a variety of equally-matched vehicles. Hunter-Reay is the third driver confirmed for ROC along with Formula One driver Romain Grojean, the winner of the event when it was last held in 2012, and sports car legend Tom Kristensen.
“It’s great news that Ryan is coming back to the Race of Champions,” ROC organizer Fredrik Johnsson said. “This year’s Indianapolis 500 was a true classic and Ryan did brilliantly to hold off his rivals by such a tiny margin after that thrilling dice to the checkered flag. We can now look forward to seeing Ryan take on greats from all over the world of motorsport in December. He’s right at the top of his game and now that he’s already had a taste of the ROC machinery he’s sure to be a big threat to all the other drivers.”
CFH Racing gets to know one another
There weren’t any name badges, but the two-day Firestone test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway allowed members of CFH Racing to get to know each other at the track.
In August, the Indianapolis-based Ed Carpenter Racing and Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing announced they would be merging for 2015 and operate as CFH Racing.
And a week after announcing it would utilize Chevrolet engines and aero kits in 2015, personnel for both teams were working under one roof in support of two-time Indianapolis 500 pole winner Ed Carpenter at IMS.
“It seems normal so far,” Carpenter said during the test on Sept. 23. “Everyone is still trying to figure out how it’s going to be. Josef (Newgarden) and I have been spending a lot of time together, but it’s nice for everyone to see how everyone else works. We’re running one car here to ease our way into it and next week we’ll run both cars at Mid-Ohio.”
Newgarden and Mike Conway will test for the team on Sept. 30 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. It will be Newgarden’s first experience driving a car with Chevrolet power.
“That will be more representative of what a (race) weekend will be like for us,” Carpenter said. “Just excited to get the process going and head into a direction that we think will be good for all of us.”
Power, Dixon among third-quarter Driver of the Year top finishers
Verizon IndyCar Series champion Will Power and Scott Dixon finished second and third, respectively, in the third-quarter vote for Driver of the Year.
Power, who claimed his first series championship, earned seven first-place votes in the poll of 17 American broadcasters and journalists, but finished 10 points behind winner Jeff Gordon. Dixon, who won at Mid-Ohio and Sonoma during the quarter, earned a first-place vote to finish with 47 points.