Aaron Telitz: Round and Round

Chilling before the race.

Minneapolis, Minn. – Welcome back readers! We’ve already managed to burn through half of the season and it’s not even officially summer yet! The long haul of the season is about to get underway north of the border but first I wanted to get you caught up on how turning left fared for me this year.

I was feeling really positive about the oval race at Lucas Oil Raceway. I came away with a big win there last year and was definitely looking for a repeat! The Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing team had a oval test down in Georgia beforehand and my car was feeling great. It took me quite a while to get comfortable on an oval last year so I already felt like I was way ahead of the game this time around!

After our testing in Georgia wrapped up, Neil Alberico, Danny Burkett and myself had a little team bonding road trip back to Indianapolis. In order to stay awake the last hour of the drive we started playing all the greatest sing-along songs known to mankind. I’m talking about “Don’t Stop Believing,” “Sweet Caroline,” “Jesse’s Girl,” etc… We rocked out the rest of the drive and made it safe and sound to Indianapolis!

At speed on the five-eighths-mile LOR oval.

Our race weekend got underway on Thursday with three practice sessions at Lucas Oil Raceway. I got the jump on everyone and posted the fastest lap of testing by .2 seconds! On Friday we were treated with a day off from on track activities at Lucas Oil Raceway. So what did I do? Headed over to Indianapolis Motor Speedway of course to take in the sights and sounds of “Carb Day” and the Freedom 100 Indy Lights race!

Carb Day is an interesting phenomenon during the Month of May at IMS. First of all, the cars no longer have carburetors. So my only conclusion for the name sticking is the fact that almost everyone attending Carb Day is drinking like it’s the end of the world. (Alcohol is high in Carbohydrates). Upon trying to enter the pit grandstands for the “Pit Stop Challenge” the yellow shirts seemed seriously concerned that we weren’t carrying at least a six-pack in.

The Freedom 100 was extremely interesting to watch as it was the inaugural oval race in the new Dallara IL-15 chassis! The race was pretty dang exciting for having a low car count. The lead changed a number of times and there were passes further down the order as well. The race ended under caution so we didn’t get the chance to see an exciting finish like the past two years.

Saturday was the day of the main event for the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda. I was feeling good as I went out second to last for single-car qualifying. I really enjoy the extra suspense of single-car qualifying. All eyes on you for two laps and that’s it! You’ve got to be on it right away. As I got my car wound up on my warm-up lap I noticed a small understeer. Sadly, it didn’t improve as the laps went on and I knew I was scrubbing quite a bit of speed. I still ended up third in qualifying. Taking into account I started from sixth and won the year before I was still feeling pretty good about my chances in the race!

A podium finish is always good.

I got a clean start and slotted into third on the opening lap and felt out my car. It was working really well on the preferred top line and could tell I had a little more speed than the leaders. The problem was when I went low to make passes I couldn’t quite carry enough momentum. That, coupled with hitting some lapped traffic at the wrong time kept me in third for the entire race!

I’ve been extremely consistent in the past few race weekends but I’m looking forward to taking the top step back in a big way in Toronto! It is time to start “Risking it for the Biscuit” if you will.

It has been a good first half of the season. Let’s go make the second half awesome! Thank you to all of my supporters, Rice Lake Weighing Systems, Mazda, Cooper Tire, Team USA Scholarship, SAFE Is Fast!, and all of you!

You guys rock,
Aaron