Although letting others do the Heavy lifting…
Indy NXT competitors return to action with a
Double Header weekend at Mother Speedway beginning today, after a month’s
hiatus. Which currently is a battle of the “Young guns”, with Cape Motorsports
Powered by ECR’s rookie Nikita Johnson leading the championship ahead of
Andretti global rookie Max Taylr.
AJ Foyt Enterprises rookie driver Alessandro de
Tullio is making some noise Himself. Having finally “Broke His Duck” last time out at thee Oh, so Beautiful
Barbers’, nee Barber Motorsports Park, scoring His maiden Indy NXT win. Currently
fifth overall, de Tullio’s been quick, having scored three poles in the first
four races, albeit currently 60 markers adrift of Johnson.
Interestingly, Foyt has decided to beef-up its
Junior Open Wheel Racing involvement with the decision to partner with
Crosslink Motorsports in Formula four U.S. and Formula regional(FR) Americas
Championship feeder series, to strengthen its driver development ladder.
Crosslink Motorsports, a Dallas, Texas racing
organization is a “Powerhouse” itself. Claiming to have won the most F4 U.S.
races, plus two F4 U.S. titles. Since the team’s official website mentions
their known as Crosslink Kiwi Motorsports. Whilst I’ve also seen this written
as Crosslink with Kiwi Motorsports and Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsports, Corfuzed?
Having won the U.S. formula 4 title in 2019 and
2023. While Kiwi Motorsports won last year’s championship.
Crosslin Kiwi Motorsports won the2023-2024 FR
Americas titles with drivers Callum Hedge and Patrick Woods-Toth respectively.
Crosslink Motorsports won a third consecutive FR
Americas Championship with Titus Sherlock last year. Although I’m still not
sure how the FR Americas Championship fits into the grand scheme of Feeder
Series?
Since I’m Arse-suming nobody’s heard of either
Woods-Toth or Sherlock, and I cannot find what they’re currently doing? With
Sherlock garnering a measly $100,000 cash prize for winning the championship,
Youch!
SCCA
Pro Racing’s Alternate Single Seaters Feeder series
By my rudimentary records, Kiwi’ Hedge is the
latest FR Americas driver to graduate to Indy NXT, having raced two years for
HMD Motorsports and Abel Motorsports between 2024-2025, with a best finish of
fourth overall in 2024.
Although the Road to Indy and now USF Pro
championships run by Anderson Promotions still seemingly is the preferred
pathway to Indy NXT.
America’s
preferred Open wheel Racing ladder system
Currently four FR Americas Alumni; Kyle
Kirkwood, David Malukas, Kyffin Simpson and Jacob Abel are IndyCar drivers.
Kirkwood and Simpson are past champions, with Malukas finishing runner-up.
While Abel will race in His first Indy 500 this year, after failing to qualify
in 2025.
Yet being a champion of both series doesn’t
guarantee a long term IndyCar career. As just ask Linus Lundqvist about that!
Having won the 2020 FR Americas and 2022 Indy NXT Championships, who's still trying
to return to IndyCar…
Crosslink appears to be mimicking Indy NXT
juggernaut HMD Motorsports by having the most cars on the grid with six. With
rookies Alejandro Bobadilla, (#8) Kekai Hauanio, (#29( Evagoras Papasavvas
(#71) and Aidan Schuh driving the storied No. 14. Plus Barrett Wolfe (#13) and Kevin
Janzen. (#24)
While Kiwi Motorsports has just two entries for
rookies Harbir Dass and Cooper Shipman.
Papasavvas briefly made waves in Indy NXT last
year upon debut driving for HMD Motorsports. Qualifying third and finishing
runner-up to Dennis Hauger at Barber in the vacated No. 24 seat Sophia
Florsch occupied for one round. Having signed
for a partial season, before finishing P21 overall after five races.
Perusing the entry list for drivers, another
Indy NXT Journeyman’s name jumped out to Mwah. Noticing that Christian Bogle is
driving for Toney Driver Development this year. Having raced four seasons in
Indy NXT, beginning with Carlin, remember them Y’all? And then a further three
seasons with HMD Motorsports, but I digress…
Crosslink’s drivers will be welcomed into the
Foyt program to interact with Engineers and other team personnel to help them
advance their careers, while giving Foyt access to more talented, potential
future drivers…
Further muddying the waters, when trying to
find out more about Kiwi Motorsports, I learned that Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR)
formed the same “strategic” partnership alliance with New Zealand Kiwi
Motorsports them late 2024. Seeing Kiwi Motorsports and Crosslink become fully
separate entities for 2025.
Along with learning that Kiwi Motorsports are
Toyota’s entry in the Formula Oceania series.
Thus giving us two FR Americas operations with clearly defined links to Indy NXT, and possibly IndyCar.
