Santino Ferrucci made a significant breakthrough last week at the Chili Bowl Nationals, earning his first victory in a heat race at one of the most prestigious short-track events in the country.
Ferrucci (photo, above), who drives full time for AJ Foyt Racing in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, won the second heat Friday, Jan. 16 after drawing the pole position at the SageNet Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The big win came in his sixth attempt at the indoor race for midget cars and on the 91st birthday for his INDYCAR boss, legendary four-time Indianapolis 500 winner A.J. Foyt.
“Man, this is for A.J.,” Ferrucci said. “Happy birthday to my boss. I think he’d whoop my ass if I didn’t win this thing from pole.”
Ferrucci advanced through the “alphabet soup” of Main races that determines the field for the feature race, transferring from the J and I Mains in his Abacus Racing entry until being eliminated after finishing 11th in the H2 Main.
Emerson Axsom won the Golden Driller trophy as the feature winner Jan. 17.
Simona De Silvestro Qualifies for Winter Olympics
Former NTT INDYCAR SERIES driver Simona de Silvestro is fulfilling her need for speed on another track at the highest level, as she has qualified for the Winter Olympic Games in bobsledding. Swiss native De Silvestro will race for Italy, where her family is from, in the monobob and two-woman disciplines in the Winter Games, Feb. 6-22 at Milan-Cortina, Italy.
De Silvestro, 37, was named 2010 Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year (photo, above) after finishing 14th and recorded a best finish of second in 2013 at Houston in 71 career INDYCAR SERIES starts.
Drivers Visit Racing Day at Detroit Auto Show
Four NTT INDYCAR SERIES drivers appeared at Racing Day during the Detroit Auto Show on Jan. 20, with David Malukas of Team Penske, Rinus VeeKay of Juncos Hollinger Racing, Kyffin Simpson of Chip Ganassi Racing and Marcus Armstrong of Meyer Shank Racing on hand.
All four drivers will compete in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear on May 29-31 on the streets of downtown Detroit. On Jan. 20, the drivers provided ride-along experiences to select Detroit Auto Show visitors on the Detroit Grand Prix-inspired indoor track on the show floor in production vehicles, participated in question-and-answer sessions and signed autographs.
The Astor Challenge Cup awarded annually to the NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion also was on display.
