Andretti Autosport driver Louis Foster heads to Mid-Ohio this weekend as the Indy NXT season reaches its halfway point.
Reigning Indy Pro 2000 champion Foster has three poles out of the six races so far showing his elite pace, but would be the first to admit that his race results leave room for improvement as he sits seventh in the championship.
The standings don’t tell the full story, like Detroit where Foster was taken out by a competitor at the first corner having started from pole, a result that if it was reversed would leave Foster with four-straight top six finishes and likely three podiums in that span heading into the Ohio road course this weekend.
“Mid-Ohio is another track we won at last season on the way to the Indy Pro 2000 title, so we have to try and use our knowledge of 2022 to give us a boost heading into this weekend,” says Foster, who is backed by Copart, a global leader in online auto auctions.
“We’ve been the best qualifier in the field this year, so we’re doing well to maximise the difficult qualifying sessions, extracting the most from the tyre and the team is doing a great job to give me a really fast #26 Copart/USF Pro Championship car.
“Now we have to focus on scoring good points and chipping away at the lead of the drivers in front of us, one by one. We’re not going to do that by making all or nothing moves, but by continuing to focus on doing the absolute maximum in every single session and taking the maximum we can.
“Hopefully Mid-Ohio will be the start of a fresh run of strong race results for us and we’ll avoid adversity.”
The 2.258-mile road course is one of the American road racing classics with 13 Turns and was won by Andretti Autosport in Indy NXT last season, which gives Foster more hope that he and the team should be competitive in a tight field of strong entries. The team is looking for its first win in 2023, with Mid-Ohio being the perfect place to achieve it.
Mid-Ohio schedule - Eastern Time (BST -5)
Friday, June 30
Practice 1
1355-1440 (1855-1940)
Saturday, July 1
Practice 2
0835-0920 (1335-1420)
Qualifying
1405-1425 (1905-1925)
Sunday, July 2
Race
1130-1240 (1630-1740)
Indy NXT is available to watch on Peacock TV in the USA and on Sky Sports in the UK for certain sessions. The race on Sunday will be shown on Sky Sports Mix channel at 1625 and is also available free to view through the IndyCar Live streaming service.
Notes to editors
Louis Foster
Louis Foster is a 19-year-old British racing driver from Hampshire aiming to take the racing world by storm. He’s a member of the BRDC SuperStars and races for the Andretti Autosport team in Indy NXT by Firestone. Son of British Touring Car and GT racer Nick Foster, Louis has been around motorsport for the majority of his life. Foster had a successful karting career before making his debut in Ginetta Juniors where he won nine races and scored 19 podiums in his first season. A step up to the British F4 championship delivered six wins and 13 podiums in his first season of single-seater racing, while his debut BRDC British F3 campaign kept up a 100% winning record in his car racing career with three victories and six podiums. In 2021 Foster stepped up to racing in Europe and added three wins in Euroformula Open, took a further 10 podiums and two pole positions in a series which raced in front of Formula 1 on occasion this year. His performances led to a nomination for the prestigious Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award, an honour which was repeated a year later. The following year he made his debut in America and won half of the races on the way to the 2022 Indy Pro 2000 championship. He won on all three types of tracks, including on street courses and ovals which he hadn’t raced on before. Outside of motorsport Louis is a keen rugby and hockey player as well as enjoying off-road mountain biking and training in the gym. Foster is sponsored by auction giant Copart, which sells more than 300,000 cars per years in the UK and more than 3M cars per year worldwide. He is also backed by Chambers Recycling Solutions, Novara Technologies, One Sports Management Group and Poggesi. For media inquiries and interview requests, please contact barry@onesmgroup.com
Indy NXT by Firestone
Indy NXT (formerly Indy Lights before a major rebrand for 2023) is the top level of junior racing in the United States. It is organised and promoted by Penske Entertainment - which also owns NTT INDYCAR SERIES and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway - and is the premier route for drivers hoping to reach INDYCAR. It races on road courses, street circuits and ovals, just like the stars of INDYCAR. The series races with cars made by Dallara, with the distinctive Halo device used to help protect the drivers. The cars feature turbocharged, 2-litre engines producing 450bhp, and are tricky to control which gives drivers a good learning curve ahead of reaching IndyCar. Winning the series awards a prize fund worth a reported $1.4 million, and includes tests at Texas and Indianapolis, an Indy 500 start and an entry into one additional IndyCar race. Past champions of the series include Scott Dixon, Josef Newgarden and Pato O’Ward.
Indy NXT by Firestone calendar
March 5 St Petersburg April 30 Barber May 13 Indianapolis road course June 3-4 Detroit (doubleheader) June 18 Road America July 2 Mid-Ohio July 22 Iowa Aug 6 Nashville Aug 11 Indianapolis road course Aug 26 Gateway September 3 Portland September 9-10 Laguna Seca (double header)