The IndyNXT by Firestone series queued up its first oval race of the year this past weekend, with a tilt around World Wide Technology Raceway just outside of St. Louis. The 1.25-mile course features vastly different corners on each end of the track, which makes for a unique challenge for drivers and crew.
Both Cape Motorsports powered by ECR drivers had not contested an oval event in IndyNXT before, and they got up to speed quickly against a field almost completely comprised of more experienced oval racers.
Nikita Johnson started in fifth place, and was immediately racing side by side for position. The newly-turned 18-year-old was wheel to wheel with one of his main competitors for the championship lead Tymek Kucharczyk for four full laps before winning the position with an outside pass in Turn 3. He then made another outside pass a few laps later and assumed the fourth position.
Johnson then settled into a rhythm for much of the rest of the 75 lap event. However, a late restart with only eight laps remaining set up an exceedingly tight multi-car battle that blocked Johnson and forced him back to seventh before the checkered flags flew.
Unfortunately for Matteo Nannini, a fuel cell leak was discovered on his #20 entry while the car was being prepared on the grid. The Cape crew reacted quickly and brought the car back behind pit wall to complete emergency repairs. A fix was implemented in short order, but the car was not quite ready in time for the start of the race.
Nannini was able to join the race seven laps after the rest of the field had taken the green flag, and the 22-year-old put his full effort in for the remaining laps. Nannini kept pace with those on the lead lap, and moved up four positions as other drivers exited the race. He crossed the line in the 20th position and gained valuable oval racing experience along the way.
Johnson’s seventh place performance was enough to allow him to regain the points lead after HMD Motorsports’ Enzo Fittipaldi, the points leader coming into the weekend, suffered a similar fuel cell issue to the one that affected Nannini’s car.
The Cape team has a one week break before traveling to the historic Road America circuit in central Wisconsin for the third double-header weekend of the season.
Nikita Johnson:
First oval of the year went pretty well. We had good pace up front but got messed up by the yellows. They just came at a bad time for us and we had our corner exits compromised on the final restart. If we didn’t have the yellows, I think we would have been able to secure a top five or even a top three.
Still a pretty good weekend and we gained points on the other guys in the championship. Solid first weekend on an oval for me. We’re going to review what we did right and what went wrong for the next ovals, and looking forward to turning left again later in the season.
Matteo Nannini:
Not the result we expected, especially because in the test we were doing pretty good. But between qualifying then of course the issues for the race, it was just a disappointing weekend. Hopefully we can switch our luck around for the next one in Road America.
