St Petersburg Indy NXT pole winner Louis Foster heads to this weekend’s Barber race full of confidence ready for the second round of the series.
Foster, 19, won the 2022 Indy Pro 2000 championship and kicked off his debut with Andretti Autosport last month in Indy NXT in perfect fashion with a pole position at the place where he started his first race in the US one year earlier.
The Brit now heads to Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama hoping to turn his qualifying pace into big points for his championship bid.
“It’s been almost two months since we last had a race, so I’ve trained as hard as possible, but nothing replicates being out in our #26 Andretti Autosport car,” says Foster, who is backed by Copart, a global leader in online auto auctions.
“Barber is an event I can really look forward to. The style of the track is really fast and flowing, it reminds me of the tracks back home and some of the European tracks I’ve raced at in the past.
“Hopefully it’s somewhere we can have a strong weekend and my driving style suits the circuit. It’s a really cool track.
“It’s the perfect place to put some points on the board, and work hard with the team to improve on some of the areas we know we need to work on after St Pete.”
European drivers tend to do well at the 2.4-mile venue, so it’s another chance for Foster to put a good points haul on the board.
He is aware that Andretti's rivals have been strong at the venue in the past, but the Andretti team topped a recent road course test at Indianapolis with Foster setting the second quickest time of the day.
“The test was positive and hopefully we can use some of the things we’ve learned to make a step forward at Barber,” added Foster.
“One of the big things for everyone this year is that it’s a Firestone tire that no one has used before.
“Learning how to switch it on, making it last and extracting the maximum out of it is vital as the tire is the only part of the car touching the road.
“Ever since we came to race in the US, we’ve had different types of tires to learn about. Hopefully we can use that experience to our advantage.”
Barber schedule - Central Daylight Time (BST -6)
Friday, April 28 Practice 1 1340-1425 (1940-2025) Saturday, April 29 Practice 2 1000-1045 (1600-1645) Qualifying 1320-1340 (1920-1940) Sunday, April 30 Race 1200-1255 (1800-1855) Indy NXT is available to watch on Peacock TV in the USA and on Sky Sports for certain sessions. This Sunday the race will be shown on Sky Sports Sports F1 channel at 1755. In countries where Indy NXT is not scheduled to be broadcast, it is available 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)