FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Monterey, CA. – A season of growth and expansion for ABEL Motorsports during the 2023 INDY NXT by Firestone Championship has officially come to a close at the WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca with the final 2 races taking place at the Iconic open-wheel track.
Completing his sophomore season in INDY NXT championship, Jacob Abel, was ready to give it his all to gain as much ground on the championship leaders as possible and end his season on a high note. After completing a handful of laps in practice, Abel radioed to his crew that something felt off with his No. 51 ABEL Construction machine and after further inspection the ABEL Motorsports team knew that it would take some time to rectify the mechanical issue that Abel had discovered during the session.
As a new day dawned qualifying was the first order of business. With limited track time from the previous day’s practice session, qualifying was still a bit of an unknown for Abel. Abel managed to complete 6 laps putting in a time good enough for 9th on the chart. Besides qualifying, Abel also found some things that he and the team could fine tune during the 5-minute break between qualifying sessions. Qualifying for race 2 saw Abel find more speed from the previous session to put him 8th 4-tenths of a second quicker than the previous sessions time.
The opening laps of race 1 saw Abel move up from his 9th place starting position into 7th locked in a battle for 6th for the majority of the opening half of the race. On lap 18 as Abel completed a pass on Foster to move into the 6th position, Foster tried to hang on the outside through turn 6 resulting in him running off track. Race control deemed avoidable contact on Abel who then had to serve a drive through penalty. From that point on Abel knew he had to salvage as much of a finish as he could to keep the championship as tight as possible with 1 more race to go the following day. Abel would finish race 1 in 14th position.
Race 2 on the weekend got going quickly for Abel as on the opening lap he got right to business, working on the car in front of him to slide into 7th and begin his attack on the front of the pack. After a short yellow flag for a car stalled on track, Abel restarted on lap 8 running in 6th ready to get into his rhythm and see what he can do in the remainder of the 35-lap event. On lap 12, Abel made an incredible pass on Frost in the most harrowing part of the circuit, the Corkscrew, to take over 5th place where he would run for the remainder of the race to finish out his 2023 season.
“I’m happy to finish off the year back in the top-5 in the last race, it helps tremendously with the momentum and energy as we head into the off-season. The last few rounds weren’t great for us finishing towards the back so getting back to where we belong in the top-5 was great. I can’t say enough amazing things about ABEL Motorsports and the team that we have here. To go from 1 INDY NXT car at some races, to running 3 INDY NXT cars and an entry into the Indianapolis 500 all in 1 year is remarkable and goes to show what this team is capable of. I’ve never been more excited and optimistic as to what the future holds heading into an off-season as I am this year. I think I showed what I can do in a racecar this year and what ABEL Motorsports is capable of, so 2024 should be even better,” said Jacob Abel.
Coming off of his 1st top-10 in the INDY NXT by Firestone Series race at Portland International Raceway, Yuven Sundaramoorthy was looking forward to getting back to a track he hadn’t raced on since 2019 hoping to keep his momentum up as he looked to close out his racing season in a strong fashion.
With getting laps under his belt still the main objective for the young Indiana American driver, practice 1 went flawlessly for Sundaramoorthy who was able to complete 26 laps on his way to 13th on the timing charts. Qualifying saw even more speed for Sundaramoorthy who managed to drop his lap time for race 1 by over 3-tenths of a second to line up 13th for the race. In keeping with the trend, Sundaramoorthy dropped his lap time even further during qualifying for race 2 to put himself in 10th, dropping almost a full second from his best time in practice on Friday.
A tough start on the opening few laps dropped Sundaramoorthy down into 16th until the series rookie got into a rhythm and on lap 18 began to methodically and smartly work his way past the cars in front. With the way the cautions fell and the race ultimately ending under caution, Sundaramoorthy would finish in 13th with knowledge gained that he would use in the following race 2 on Sunday.
Race 2 on Sunday was much smoother for Sundaramoorthy who once again showed his pace amongst the more experienced field. Continuing to keep his No. 57 Dallara IL-15 out of trouble, Yuven Sundaramoorthy was able to capture his best finish to date in the INDY NXT series when he came home 9th. This was also his second top-10 finish in his 4 starts in the series.
“I’m really happy with how this year ended. ABEL Motorsports did an amazing job and I learned so much through the 4 INDY NXT races I did this year. I’m really excited to work hard this off-season to try and keep pushing into INDY NXT for 2024,” said Yuven Sundaramoorthy.
Rounding out the ABEL Motorsports lineup for the final 2 races of the year was 18-year-old Italian Francessco Pizzi, back for his 4th race with ABEL Motorsports in the INDY NXT Series. After a difficult outing in his last appearance at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Pizzi was looking forward to getting back on track in the INDY NXT car at one of the sport’s most revered venues.
Pizzi wasted no time getting up to speed in practice laying down a lap good enough for 10th on the board while at the same time completing 22 laps around the circuit gaining the much-needed track time. Qualifying for race 1 gave Pizzi his best starting spot of his short tenure in the INDY NXT series with 12th for race 1 and 14th for race 2.
Having to dodge some opening lap chaos with drivers running wide and running off track, Pizzi kept his composure and found himself running in 10th by the end of the 1st lap. At the end of lap 5, Pizzi had passed one more car to move into 9th position just two spots behind his teammate Abel in 7th. On the restart with 14 laps to go, Pizzi suffered an issue that would force him to pit for a new rear tire ultimately taking away his chance at a top-10 finish. Pizzi would ultimately finish race 1 in 12th.
Looking ahead to race 2 and trying to put the misfortune of race 1 behind him, Pizzi rolled off 14th on the grid for the final 35-laps of INDY NXT action in 2023. On lap 18, shades of a famous pass from years previous, Pizzi attempted to go around the outside of James Roe for 7th but ended up running wide through the corkscrew damaging his front wing. He would be able to maintain for a few laps until 6 laps remaining when the wing became damaged enough that he would have to pit to repair it. Pizzi would wind up finishing in 18th.
“This weekend didn’t go how we had hoped, especially with the speed I felt we had in the car. We had a top-10 car all weekend long but some contact and damage prevented us from achieving that. I can’t thank ABEL Motorsports and the guys on the No. 55 team for keeping me going all weekend and repairing the car so quickly. I think my first few races in INDY NXT gave me a good taste of the competition and the cars in INDY NXT so I head into 2024 with some good experience. I’m going to do everything I can this off-season to be back in the car in 2024, and hopefully challenging for wins,” said Francesco Pizzi.
While the racing season has officially come to a close, the work doesn’t stop for ABEL Motorsports as the team begins off-season testing and preparations for the 2024 season. Keep up with all things ABEL Motorsports and driver / team announcements by following @abelmotorsports on social media.
Abel Motorsports including team Principal, Bill Abel, has been competing since 1972. Abel Motorsports is now on to the third generation with Jacob Abel being the flagship driver for the team. The team was able to capture the inaugural F3 Americas Championship in 2018, and currently competes in the freshly rebranded INDY NXT by Firestone series, the official development series for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES. For more information visit the official team website at: www.abelmotorsports.com