Louis Foster is back where he feels he belongs, atop the field in the Indy NXT by Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
The Andretti Global driver, who won the pole for last year’s season-opening race of the Indy NXT by Firestone season, turned the quickest lap on the opening day of this season, too. Friday, Foster’s lap of 1m5.7384s in the No. 26 Copart/Novara Technologies entry was more than 0.4s quicker than series newcomer and Andretti Cape Indy NXT driver Michael d’Orlando.
Foster’s pole time last year on the 14-turn, 1.8-mile temporary street circuit was 1m05.1103s. This weekend’s qualifying session is at 1:05 p.m. ET Saturday.
Last year, Foster won two races and four poles, and he said Friday’s effort shows his season is off to a proper start.
“We were fast here last year; we had pole,” the 20-year-old Englishman said. “We just wanted to continue where we (left) off, really. That’s where we expected to be, where I wanted to be.
“So, we’ll just keep pushing and trying to stay (on top).”
Foster finished fourth in last year’s series standings, one spot behind Nolan Siegel, who returns to the series with HMD Motorsports.
D’Orlando was the last driver to be confirmed to this 21-car field, and he debuted in strong fashion in the No. 3 Andretti Cape Indy NXT entry. His fastest lap was 1m06.1681s. Last year, he won four races and six poles in finishing fourth in the USF Pro 2000 Championship standings.
HMD Motorsports is fielding 10 cars in this event, and the fastest of those – third overall – was Caio Collet, a 21-year-old Brazilian. His best lap of the session was 1m06.2604s.
Indy NXT by Firestone veterans Jamie Chadwick of Andretti Global (No. 28 VEXT) and Jacob Abel of Abel Motorsports (No. 51 Abel Construction) were fourth and fifth, respectively, at 1m06.4073s and 1m06.4207s. Abel had the fastest lap of last year’s first practice in St. Petersburg, and he led a race-high 27 laps before finishing third.
The weekend’s field includes 13 series rookies. Among the notables is Myles Rowe, the 23-year-old driver who won last year’s USF Pro 2000 title with five race wins. Driving the No. 99 HMD Motorsports with Force Indy entry, he was ninth on Friday’s speed chart at 1m06.6646s.
The second practice of the weekend is Saturday at 8:25 a.m. ET