Tag: Louis Foster

Road America- Birthplace of Rookies on Pole

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Louis Foster took the pole for tomorrow’s XPel Grand Prix in the car that he crashed last Sunday night. It was the second straight year that a rookie has won the pole at Road America. Linus Lundqvist won the pole in 2024.

Foster earned the first pole for RLL Racing since 2023 in Portland when Graham Rahal started at the point. Rahal was also in the Fast Six today, and he will start sixth.

RLL drivers have flirted with the pole before in 2025. Rahal nearly started first in the Sonsio Grand Prix at IMS.

With Robert Shwartzman winning the pole for the Indianapolis 500, two rookies have poles halfway through the season. I am sure someone will find another time that this has occurred.

Notes

It was not the day Team Penske hoped for. Scott McLaughlin was the only driver to advance to the Fast Six while Will Power will start eighth and Josef Newgarden will start 10th. Newgarden got intom the second round when Scott Dixon received a penalty for impeding another driver.

Points leader Alex Palou starts second and Kyle Kirkwood, thiSaturday usually draws a large rd in points, starts third. Second place Pato O’Ward starts 11th.

Today’s attendance was arguably the largest Saturday crowd I’ve seen here. I watched qualifying from the top of hte hill at turn five. The area looked like it normally does on race day.

Results

Qualifying Wrap Up- Same Old Story

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I was okay with Alex Palou winning three of the first four races. I’m not sure if I feel that way about him winning three fourths of the poles too. The Chip Ganassi driver won the top starting spot for tomorrow’s Sonsio Grand Prix in a dramatic qualifying which saw numerous lead changes throughout the last two rounds.

Palou took the pole on his final lap, edging Graham Rahal by four tenths of a second. The Fast 12 was a mix of regular suspects and some new faces. Louis Foster and Kyffin Simpson joined the group.

A Great Day for RLL

Rahal Letterman Lanigan burst fourth in Practice 2, taking the top three spots. Rahal led Louis Foster and Devlin DeFrancesco. Would they back it up in qualifying?
Foster led a lot of Round 2 and was on top for some of the Fast Six. Rahal took the lead in the Fast Six, but Palou’s last lap knocked him off the pole.

Three very happy drivers

The race might be another matter, though. Palou has run away and hid from the field. I hope tomorrow is a bit different.

Early knockout disappointments- Colton Herta just =missed the second round. Scott Dixon was uncompetetive, and Rinus VeeKay, usually quick on the road course, had issues in the morning.

Pato O’Ward was quick in practice, qualified eighth. he complained afterwards of being slow on the straights.

The question for race day is how the special tire rule will work. Does it give Palou more of an advantage or will it allow the racing up front to be more competitive?

That will do it for me for Friday. See you all tomorrow.

 Iconic Blue Envelopes Containing Indy 500 Tickets Mailed to Fans across Globe 

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It’s that time of year.

From IMS:

 INDIANAPOLIS (Wednesday, March 12, 2025) – Indianapolis 500 fans will watch their mailboxes after the highly anticipated blue envelopes featuring Race Day tickets were mailed Wednesday, March 12 from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Ticket Office.
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Devlin DeFrancesco and Louis Foster and Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist were on hand to assist with the initial mailing, which included shipments to all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia and 38 countries around the world as race fans eagerly await the 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge on Sunday, May 25.
“I just like to do this to kind of amp myself up a bit for the ‘500,’” Rosenqvist said. “It feels like you’re actually kind of starting May when you’re here. I love it.
“It’s cool to see the manual processes. It gives you a good perspective when you see all the tickets and everything, and the logistics behind everything.”
DeFrancesco, Foster and Rosenqvist also took time to write notes and signatures on a few envelopes, with these special messages going to ticket buyers from their native countries.
DeFrancesco hails from Canada, with Foster from Great Britain and Rosenqvist from Sweden.
“It’s hugely rewarding and very grateful to be here, helping loading the tickets for them to get shipped out,” DeFrancesco said.
“So many fans from my country in Canada, to be able to see passes already going out today and people’s anticipation for this race in May is great.”
It takes approximately nine weeks to package all pre-ordered tickets for mailing, from orders the day after the previous year’s race up to current orders. Hard work from employees in the Ticket Office and other Penske Entertainment Corp. departments ensures the ticketing process runs smoothly and on schedule.

A few facts and figures about this year’s initial ticket mailing:
Number of tickets sent: More than 215,000 items (includes 170,000 Indy 500 Race Day tickets, parking, qualification and practice tickets, concert tickets, etc.
)Number of blue envelopes sent: More than 32,000
Number of U.S. Postal Service trays to accommodate envelopes: More than 650
Weight of all ticket envelopes and trays in first mailing: More than 6,600 pounds
Hours needed to fill envelopes by hand: More than 1,000 person-hours
Number of working days to package envelopes: 46
Number of Penske Entertainment employees who fill envelopes: 56
Number of states distributed: 50
Number of countries distributed: 38 (including United States)

Federal postal inspectors came to IMS with a large truck for the first mailing. DeFrancesco, Foster and Rosenqvist joined several IMS employees in helping to load the trucks.
“It’s pretty impressive,” NTT INDYCAR SERIES and Indianapolis 500 rookie Foster said. “I didn’t know exactly what to expect, but it’s super cool to see all the guys and girls here working super hard and getting fans ready who have probably been waiting for this day since Monday after the ‘500’ last year. It’s a super-cool event, and I’m super happy that we’ve been invited to be here.”
Receiving an eagerly awaited blue envelope in the mail is a rite of spring for thousands of fans of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.” But why are the envelopes blue?
In the 1970s, Indianapolis 500 tickets were mailed in brown envelopes with the IMS return address in the upper left corner. In the 1980s, a heavier-stock, gray-colored envelope was introduced to mail the tickets, with just the IMS Post Office box number in the upper left corner. A computerized printer also was used for the first time in the 1980s to print ticket customers’ name and address on each envelope.
When the NASCAR Cup Series was added to the IMS schedule in 1994, the Ticket Office needed a way to distinguish between the envelopes containing tickets for the Indianapolis 500 and the annual NASCAR race, especially if the Postal Service returned the envelope as non-deliverable.
So, the IMS Ticket Office decided to color-code the ticket envelopes for each event. Indianapolis 500 ticket envelopes became blue, Brickyard Weekend envelopes became purple, Sonsio Grand Prix envelopes became green, and ticket envelopes for other IMS events use a variety of colors, including red, cream, gray and yellow.
Tickets for the 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge on Sunday, May 25, the Sonsio Grand Prix on Saturday, May 10 and all other Month of May events are available at IMS.com/Tickets or via the IMS Ticket Office at 317-492-6700.

RLL Signs Indy NXT Champ Foster

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Rahal Lanigan Racing has signed 2024 Indy NXT champions Louis Foster to a multiyear full-time deal. It is nice to see the Indy NXT champion get a season long ride again.

The announcement from RLL:

ZIONSVILLE, Ind. (October 9, 2024) – Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) announced today that 2024 INDY NXT by Firestone champion Louis Foster, who just completed a dominant run to his second open wheel title in three years, will make his NTT INDYCAR SERIES debut with the team in 2025 as part of a multi-year deal. Details on the sponsorship for the entry will be announced at a later date.

Foster, 21, won a series-high eight of the 14 races this season in the INDY NXT Championship for Andretti Global. He led the series in wins (8), poles (7), podiums (12), laps led (362/640) and completed every lap of competition to beat Abel Motorsports’ Jacob Abel to the title by 122 points. His previous title came in the 2022 Indy Pro 2000 Series, where he won seven races en route to being named the champion in the season finale.

Foster tested an Indy car for the first time in September of 2023 with Andretti Global at Road America. RLL is currently working to solidify Foster’s test program in preparation for the 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season and that may include a test later this year.

The 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season opens Sunday, March 2 on the Streets of St. Petersburg, Florida, for the 21st Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. North America’s premier open-wheel series will crisscross the United States, including a stop for the 109th Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, May 26, before culminating in Nashville for the championship finale Sunday, August 31. All on-track action can be seen live on FOX and the INDYCAR Radio Network. For more information about the series or team, visit http://www.indycar.com and http://www.rahal.com.

QUOTEBOARD:

LOUIS FOSTER, driver for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing: “I am really looking forward to working with the team. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing have Indy 500 victories, obviously Bobby has won an Indy 500 and there is a great wealth of knowledge with the team. I want to thank Bobby, David and Mike for their faith in my abilities and I want to thank all my sponsors who have helped me achieve my dream of driving in INDYCAR, in particular Copart. I can’t wait to start my INDYCAR career with the team and hopefully we can have a long and successful career together. I’m hoping that coming off the experience gained from winning the INDY NXT championship, that will leave me in a good stance to get the ball rolling. This is where the hard work starts. We will start the preparations and make sure we get hit the ground running in St. Pete.”

BOBBY RAHAL, co-owner of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing: “We are very pleased that we have been able to come to an agreement with Louis to have him drive for the team for the next several years. He obviously dominated INDY NXT in 2024 and we feel he has a big future ahead of him and are happy to support the ladder system INDYCAR has created. We look at this as a long-term relationship that will go beyond the existing terms and are very excited to get started on preparations for the 2025 season and his series debut.”

MIKE LANIGAN, co-owner of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing: “We are very excited to have Louis Foster drive for us over the next few years. I look forward to watching him grow into a future INDYCAR star. He reminds me of another driver — the late, great Justin Wilson.”

About Louis Foster
Louis Foster, 21, will make his NTT INDYCAR SERIES debut in 2025. Foster was born on July 27, 2003 in Odiham, England and inherited his passion for motorsport from his father Nick, who was a former British Touring Car Championship driver. Foster began karting at the age of nine at local karting circuits Camberley Kart Club and Forest Edge Kart Club and won championships at each, in 2013 and 2015 respectively.

He made his car racing debut in the final three meetings of the 2017 Ginette Junior Championship, driving for Elite Motorsport and went on to compete in that year’s Ginetta Junior Winter Series, where he won the rookie championship.

He returned to the championship in 2018 and was a persistent title contender throughout the season. Foster claimed 19 podiums, including 9 victories, plus four pole positions and two fastest laps on his way to second place in the championship and was the top rookie. He scored the most points of any driver but lost out on the title by just eight points to teammate Adam Smalley after dropped scores were accounted for. During the campaign, Foster accrued several records: the first rookie to win three races in one weekend, the first driver to win five races in succession and the youngest driver to score an outright victory.

Following his successful stint in Ginetta Juniors, Foster moved to single-seaters when he joined Double R Racing for the 2019 F4 British Championship. He was immediately on the pace, taking victory in only the second race of the season and followed that with a strong weekend in Donington, winning two races and scoring a third-place finish in the other to give him a 17-point lead in the championship. Across the rest of the season, Foster accrued another three wins and nine podium finishes – dominating at Silverstone – to finish the year third in the championship, remaining in the title hunt until the season finale weekend at Brands Hatch.

In 2020, Louis returned to Double R Racing and stepped up to the BRDC British F3 Championship where an impressive season-long performance, including three wins, earned him the rookie championship and third place overall. For 2021, Louis raced in Europe with Motopark in Euroformula Open and finished runner up in the championship during which he won a record three wins over the event at Spa Francorchamps. His performance garnered attention and a nomination for the Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award.

The 2022 season saw Louis move to the United States and race in the Indy Pro 2000 series with Exclusive Autosport. Despite racing on street circuits and ovals for the first time, Louis impressed all season long and won the championship in dominant fashion on the strength of seven wins which earned him back-to-back nominations for the Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award.

He moved up to the INDY NXT by Firestone series in 2023 with Andretti Autosport and earned two wins and four poles in his rookie season. In September of that year, he also drove an Indy car for the first time at Road America. His series-high eight wins, seven poles and 12 podiums en route to the 2024 INDY NXT Championship netted a record-setting average finish of 2.07 during the season and his 10 total wins over his INDY NXT career moved him to a tie for second place to Greg Moore, who had 13. In 2023, he was selected to join the BRDC SuperStars program and remained part of this in 2024.

Champions Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing Honored Again at Victory Lap Celebration

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From Indycar:

Foster Celebrated for INDY NXT by Firestone Title

INDIANAPOLIS (Monday, Sept. 30, 2024) – Alex Palou was honored for his third NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship in the past four years during the Victory Lap Celebration on Sept. 30, the headline of an incomparable 2024 season for Chip Ganassi Racing.
Palou won two races in the No. 10 DHL Honda and scored 13 top-five finishes in 17 races to become just the 13th driver in history to earn at least three INDYCAR SERIES championships. He is just the seventh driver to win three titles in four years and first since Dario Franchitti won three straight from 2009-11 – also for Chip Ganassi Racing.
Spanish driver Palou won the Astor Challenge Cup for the title by 31 points over Andretti Global with Curb-Agajanian’s Colton Herta, earning the 16th INDYCAR SERIES championship for Chip Ganassi Racing and the organization’s fourth in the last five seasons.
Palou was one of four members of Chip Ganassi Racing to receive special honors at the ceremony, which took place in the Gallagher Pavilion at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Linus Lundqvist of Sweden received the Rookie of the Year Award as the top-finishing first-year driver in the standings. The 2022 INDY NXT by Firestone champion recorded a pole, two podiums and four top-10 finishes in the No. 8 The American Legion Honda to surpass Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Kyffin Simpson by 97 points in the standings.
Team owner Chip Ganassi accepted the Championship Owner Award, and Palou’s chief mechanic, Ricky Davis, was presented the Pennzoil Chief Mechanic Award. Additional season honors for the Ganassi team included the NTT INDYCAR SERIES Team Manager award to Blair Julian and Mike LeGallic.
The awards haul was a reward for a dominant year by Indianapolis-based Chip Ganassi Racing. The team took the top spot in the driver standings and the Rookie of the Year title in the same season for the second straight year.
Much like the NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship and Rookie of the Year, the Manufacturers Award race had a familiar result. Chevrolet edged Honda by just 132 points to win its third consecutive engine manufacturer title and ninth overall since it returned to the series in 2012.
Eric Warren, General Motors executive director of global motorsports competition, accepted the award on behalf of the Chevrolet team. Team Penske took home a pair of end-of-season awards. Scott McLaughlin claimed the season-long NTT P1 Award, while Will Power accepted the Firestone Pit Performance Award on behalf of his No. 12 Team Penske crew.
INDYCAR’s development series was also recognized at the Victory Lap Celebration, as Louis Foster of Andretti Global was honored as 2024 INDY NXT by Firestone champion, capping a dominant season.
Foster won a series-high eight of the 14 races this season in the No. 26 Copart / Novara Technologies entry. He led the series in wins, poles, podiums, laps led and completed every lap of competition to beat Abel Motorsports’ Jacob Abel to the title by 122 points.HMD Motorsports’ Caio Collet was named INDY NXT by Firestone Rookie of the Year. Collet, from Sao Palou, Brazil, finished third in the series standings with a victory. 

Foster Drives to Top of Tight Griffis Test at IMS

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From Indycar:

  INDIANAPOLIS (Friday, Oct. 20, 2023) – If the Chris Griffis Memorial Test is any indication, there won’t be much room between the top drivers in INDY NXT by Firestone during the 2024 season.

Veteran Louis Foster was the quickest driver Friday in the all-day test on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, turning a top lap of 1 minute, 14.8432 seconds in the No. 26 Andretti Global car. British driver Foster finished fourth in the series standings as a rookie in 2023, with two victories.

“Hopefully, we can keep our form like last year into 2024,” Foster said. “Looking forward to the rest of the offseason and doing some more testing so we can improve on what we did today.”

Just .1728 of a second separated the top five drivers in the test on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course that incorporates parts of the iconic IMS oval

.Series veteran Jacob Abel was second at 1:14.9201 in the No. 51 Abel Motorsports machine. 2023 USF Pro 2000 champion Myles Rowe was the quickest of the newcomers, third overall at 1:14.9487 in the No. 99 HMD Motorsports car.2023 INDY NXT by Firestone

Rookie of the Year Nolan Siegel was fourth at 1:14.9918 in the No. 39 HMD Motorsports car.

Brazilian rookie Caio Collet will be a driver to watch after he rounded out the top five at 1:15.0160 in the No. 18 HMD Motorsports machine. Collet has raced the last three seasons in the FIA Formula 3 Championship, with three victories.

Twenty-one drivers – two more than the full-time grid in 2023 for the growing INDYCAR development series – combined to turn 1,145 laps despite wet track conditions in the morning session.

The only major incident occurred in the final 20 minutes of the day when Rowe went off track in Turn 12 and hit the tire barrier near the pit entrance. He was unhurt.

Today’s test is named in memory of Chris Griffis, the team manager of Schmidt Peterson Motorsports who passed away suddenly in September 2011.

The 2024 INDY NXT by Firestone season starts Sunday, March 10 on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florid


 

Results: