Louisville, Ky. - Top-tier Road to Indy team Abel Motorsports is already in high gear preparing for the 2020 Indy Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires season. The team will get back to business at the 2.44 mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course this coming weekend as part of the Road to Indy’s official Chris Griffis Memorial Test.
Abel Motorsports will field a revamped two-driver lineup in preparation for the upcoming campaign.
Team Leader Jacob Abel returns for his second season in Indy Pro 2000 competition. He’ll be joined at the test by 20-year-old Flinn Lazier of Vail, CO, who comes off his second consecutive SCCA National Championship Runoffs victory. Lazier won the Formula Atlantic title last weekend at Virginia International Raceway. He’s a third-generation racer; his grandfather Bob is a former Indy 500 Rookie of the Year and SCCA National Champion, and father Buddy is a former Indy 500 winner and IndyCar champion.
Jacob Abel, a freshman at Butler University in Indianapolis, recently completed a successful rookie year in Indy Pro 2000. Abel finished ninth in the 2019 Championship, with several top-five and top-ten finishes to his credit. “I can’t wait to get back into the race car,” noted the 18-year-old. “Even though it’s only been a month or so since Laguna, it seems like forever. We want to come out of the gate strong next spring at St. Pete, so these off-season tests are really important. I’m excited to get started!”
Team Principal Bill Abel is equally excited about the upcoming weekend. “We didn’t have our program quite ready to go for the Griffis test a year ago, so we were a bit behind the 8-ball this past season at the IMS road course. We’re hoping to further develop our cars so we can be closer to the front of the grid next May on Indy Grand Prix weekend. And having Flinn (Lazier) join us for this test will help us see where we stack up and what we need to work on over the winter months.”
For his part, the 20-year-old Lazier is thrilled. “I’m very excited to have the opportunity to test with Abel Motorsports at Indy this weekend,” said the third-generation driver. “I’ve visited the team a few times over the past year and have seen nothing but a very high level of professionalism from the crew and Jacob as well. It’ll be great to be in the Road to Indy paddock this weekend and I’m super happy to be running with Abel Motorsports.”
The Abel Motorsports cars and drivers will have three 45-minute sessions both Saturday and Sunday this week on the IMS road course.