What a month of May! We had a successful end to the month with our one and only oval race of the season, some great events, and “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.” May is amazing in Indy, and it was refreshing to get back to the Brickyard for another Indianapolis 500. My oval race weekend started on Friday with the Carb Night Classic at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, just a few miles from home.    As I mentioned, this is the only oval race on the calendar. It’s an opportunity for the USF2000 drivers to learn the basics of an oval before moving up and taking on more ovals in higher classes. While they might look simple, they certainly are not easy. The car is on the limit the entire time and a mistake can be very costly. I enjoy the ovals a ton. My family has a lot of history with oval racing, so I enjoy going back to their roots for one weekend a year. Unfortunately, I had a tough qualifying run. For oval qualifying, the order is decided on a two-lap average. My first lap was pretty strong, but unfortunately, on my second lap, I had a big snap where the car tried to spin. This put me in the 13th starting spot. This particular oval is difficult to pass on. When the track was built, they designed it to have two fast lanes you can race on. They did this by making the top of the race track have more degrees of banking than the bottom. But they went too aggressive with this, so the fast way around the track is around the top. This makes it extremely difficult to make any passes. This is because when you dive for the low line to pass, instead of forcing the driver you’re passing onto a section with less grip, you’re the one that has less grip. So you have to be way faster to complete the pass. During the race, I was able to make one pass up to the 12th spot. But this took more time than I would have liked so I lost the pack ahead of me. I was able to catch back up, but by that time there wasn’t much I could do to make passes- resulting in a P12 finish. It was an improvement on my 18th place finish and a lap down result from last year. I easily stayed on the lead lap this year. I had the eighth fastest lap and I think I could have stayed up there without the moment in qualifying. I enjoy the oval a lot and I can’t wait until next year to try again. We have also had the opportunity to host some cool events to support some great causes. The Prime 47 Burger Bash supporting the IU Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center was a great success that brought out many IndyCar drivers, including the 2022 winner Marcus Ericsson, on the Monday before the 500. We raised over $16,000 for the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center at the Burger Bash. We were also able to raise nearly $8,000 during a suite auction for Race for RP during the IndyGP weekend and over $1,000 for Homes for our Troops on Carb Night. Thank you to all who joined us and contributed! |
And, to wrap up the Month of May, it was another great Indy 500! I was happy to see a new winner this year in Marcus Ericsson. I saw him recently at the Burger Bash, and we also had the chance to chat last summer before an event benefiting Dr. Chernoff’s Survivors of Violence Foundation. Marcus is a great guy!  I was also happy to see another strong run from fellow Hoosier and Team USA Scholarship winner Conor Daly. Now, it’s on to Road America for our next two races on the June 9th through 12th IndyCar weekend. Both of my races are on Saturday the 11th. I have always enjoyed Road America, so I can’t wait to see what we can do. As always, thank you for your support. Stay Fast! Jackson |