Home Featured Lundqvist the latest to get IndyCar test with Andretti

Lundqvist the latest to get IndyCar test with Andretti

by Ida Wood

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography/Road to Indy

Indy Lights race-winner Linus Lundqvist will make his IndyCar test debut this week on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course with Andretti Autosport.

He’s the third member of this year’s Indy Lights grid to test with the team in recent weeks, following champion Kyle Kirkwood and Andretti Steinbrenner entry Devlin DeFrancesco, and will get at the wheel in the official Chris Griffis Test.

His test bow on October 29 will only be half a day, as shares the car with Kirkwood who has already been testing with the team at Barber Motorsports Park since Monday.

The pair, along with David Malukas, have earned berths at the Chris Griffis Test as a result of filling the top three places in the Indy Lights points. Malukas, who has recently driven for Dale Coyne Racing, will be run by Team Penske at Indianapolis.

The Road to Indy will be testing in the days immediately after, with several teams having already announced drivers.

TJ Speed will run Kyffin Simpson in one of its Indy Lights cars as they prepare to enter the series together next year, Exclusive Autosport will run Euroformula title runner-up Louis Foster in Indy Pro 2000, while DEForce Racing fields its USF2000 champion Kiko Porto and Nolan Siegel. It will also run two USF2000 cars for United States Formula 4 title runner-up Mac Clark and Thomas Nepveu.

US F4 racer Weir breaks back

Circuit of the Americas was pretty punishing on the cars at the United States Gand Prix, and even more so on the drivers with injuries in W Series and US F4. In the latter, Gonella Racing driver Christian Weir broke his back.

“After a fantastic start to the weekend, Christain Weir’s day yesterday did not end as we had hoped,” said the Turn 3 Motorsport team that supported Gonella over last weekend.

“In race two, he was forced off the track in turn one and went over a large kerb causing his car to go almost straight up in the air and slam down very hard.

“He has a compression fracture in his back at T4 & T5. He spent the night in the hospital and will be in a back brace for eight weeks. The good news is that he is expected to make a full recovery!”

Weir had finished third in race one of the weekend, while team-mate Clark came third in race two on Sunday. Despite entering little over 10% of the season, Weir came 13th in the championship standings.

He also competed part-time in USF2000 with Turn 3, claiming a best finish of sixth from eight races.a

W Series racer Abbie Eaton also picked up a T4 fracture from a similar incident during the weekend, with her crash occurring during racing on Saturday.