The path has been set, now the rest is up to Hunter McElrea.
The 19-year-old California-born Australian is fresh off winning the Road to Indy USF2000 $200K Scholarship Shootout last month at the Bondurant Racing School in Chandler, Arizona. The award guarantees a seat on the grid this season in the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship – the first rung of the three-tier Road to Indy development ladder system, which creates a passage directly to the IndyCar Series.
“It was such an amazing experience,” McElrea said of the two-day shootout involving 19 talented young drivers. “I've never experienced anything quite like it. It's such a high-pressure environment. You're racing such professional guys, who are all champions in their own right.
“I've probably never raced at such a high level before – obviously, I have raced so many quick drivers – but to be racing everyone that has won a championship or won a series – they're all good drivers. You're up against some phenomenal competition, so just to be there in the first place was an amazing experience.”
McElrea earned his spot at the shootout by virtue of 13 wins, 16 podiums, three poles and seven fastest laps in 21 races to capture the 2018 Australian Formula Ford Championship.
While he is no stranger to success, that didn’t take away from the immense amount of anxiety throughout the shootout process that whittled the field to six finalists for a final qualifying session and simulated race.
“I never thought that I couldn't achieve it, but you can never sense that you've got it in the bag because there are so many good drivers out there,” he said.
“Every one of those guys in the top six that got through, and even everyone that was swallowed up, is a champion. … There's the normal nerves, but times that by two with what's at stake and how much everyone else wants to win this shootout and scholarship. It's a big deal, but to be honest I was probably a little bit more relaxed (the second day) than I was (the first).”
McElrea has enjoyed a bit of a head start on this year, having been on track with Pabst Racing in a USF2000 car twice this offseason. He led three of six sessions (never falling below second on the time sheet) at the Chris Griffis Memorial Test on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in September, and he followed that up pacing two of five sessions on the Homestead-Miami Speedway road course in early December.
While he concedes that Pabst is “an amazing team,” McElrea hasn’t confirmed which team he’ll drive for this year. Wherever McElrea lands, he will be the final driver to sport the iconic Soul Red colors of Mazda as it completed its final year sponsoring the shootout. A new sponsor will be named later.
“I can't wait, it's such an iconic livery,” McElrea said. “You look at Oliver Askew, he's probably someone that I really want to replicate. He won the shootout (in 2016) and then he went on and won the (2017 USF2000) championship. I'd love to do that as well. That's my goal.
“It's definitely not going to be easy at all. It's such a hard category, but I think that a lot of the right ingredients are in place.
“I'm just so excited to be wearing those Soul Red colors. I still can't believe it. Still sounds funny saying it, but to have won this scholarship and be wearing those Soul Red colors is just phenomenal.”
With a dream of one day racing in the IndyCar Series, the thought of sharing the INDYCAR paddock with the likes of five-time champion Scott Dixon is still something McElrea called “surreal.”
“It's still sinking in, but the fact that Scott Dixon is a hero of mine, he's achieved everything that I want to achieve. He's a phenomenal talent,” McElrea said. “I'm just so excited to get going, and to be sharing the paddock with those guys is just something special. I can't wait.”
All three Road to Indy levels – Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires, Indy Pro 2000 presented by Cooper Tires and USF2000 – open their 2019 seasons with doubleheader race weekends on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida, from March 8-10.