An improvement that brings Thomas Nepveu up towards the leaders. 12th in race 1 - 7th in race 2 - Streets of St. Petersburg (Florida)

Thomas Nepveu is more than happy with his past weekend performance in the Cooper Tires USF2000 Series on the St. Petersburg urban track. Driving his #2 Cromwell | Karting Excellence | Home Hardware car, Thomas Nepveu showed his potential, especially in the second race with a very combative 7th place finish in a group of eight cars running nose to tail after a restart on the 15th of the 20 laps.

The first race of the day was full of action and resulted in four caution periods (using up 11 of the 20-lap race). Thomas Nepveu was able to avoid the last incident and finished in 12^th place after a comeback from the back of the pack (20^th on lap 4). Thomas Nepveu was able to achieve his goal of another top-10 finish with a well-run 7^th place in the second race after starting 9^th on the grid. The challenge was to learn a bumpy and slippery urban track, to continue to familiarize himself with his car amongst the increasingly tough drivers in the top-10 group and to reduce his lap-time gap to the leaders.  

Weekend Schedule

The organizers put on three track sessions for the USF2000 cars on Friday: a test session and two qualifying periods in preparation for the two races scheduled for Saturday. On Friday morning, Thomas Nepveu was faced with an imposing workload: familiarizing himself with the car while learning every detail of the track he was visiting for the first time.

Thomas Nepveu talks about what happened on the track 

Practice

"I had a lot to do in the 30-minute morning practice - learn the track, understand the behaviour of the car - all on a dirty and slippery surface - so my lap time was not as good as we expected. On the other hand, I learned a lot on the used tires." 

Qualifying (Q1 and Q2)

"In preparation for Q1, I reviewed my notes and watched videos to analyse my lap times and trajectories by section and compared them to those of my teammates, to identify exactly where I could improve. I managed 14^th place on the grid, less than a second off pole, a good improvement on the morning practice, but still not good enough. The same procedure in preparation for Q2 paid off with a 9th place on the grid for the second race, 0.5 second off pole. The team is continuing to work on the car's set-up in parallel. I'm in a good position to achieve my goal: a top-10 finish." 

Races (R1 and R2)

"We made a good start from 14^th in race one, taking two positions out of turn one. A traffic jam on the first straight caused an incident and a car in front of me cut my front left tire with its bodywork. After a pitstop for a new tire, I was back in the race in 20^th position for the restart on lap 4. I then move up to 12^th by 16, when the race is again yellow-flagged until the end on lap 20."

"The good thing about my result is that my Cromwell | Karting Excellence | Home Hardware Cromwell | Karting Excellence | Home Hardware car was running almost perfectly and I believed in my chances to finish in the top-10 or better before the puncture on lap one. On top of that, I was able to move up after the pit stop from 20^th on lap 4 to 12^th despite three more caution periods, so I couldn't overtake during the three stoppages on eight of the last 16 laps."

"In addition, I changed the tire strategy this morning and fitted four used tires for the first race. The aim was to save my last set of new tires for the second race, where I would start from ninth place with less work to do to catch the leaders. Chance and this decision worked out well, as two new tires on the left for the first race would not have had the impact I was hoping for as I struggled through the slower traffic at the back of the field. Now I have four good tires for race two. A few more tweaks to the set-up and we are ready to go!"

"I was looking for a good second race with a new set of tires and a good car. A minor mistake on the first lap caused me to lose a position (from 9^th to 10^th) and I managed to get back to 9^th place with a decisive move on lap 9. An incident in front of me then allowed me to move up to 7th on lap 12, where I finished the race. I'm now running with fast drivers who make very few mistakes, which makes overtaking very difficult, even though my fastest lap time in the race is only 0.4 seconds off the fastest lap in the race. We got the car back in good shape and collected points in the championship so everyone on the team was happy," concluded a Thomas Nepveu happy with his performance.

Observations

After only four races in the Cooper Tires USF2000 series, we can see Thomas Nepveu's driving skills, his determination to do better every time out and the efficiency with which he learns and cuts fractions of a second off his lap times relative to the leaders. We are talking about tenths of a second that are becoming increasingly difficult to find. No doubt this improvement will continue and allow him to qualify further ahead and simplify his task in the race.

Breakfast Club of Canada 

Thomas Nepveu is honoured to join to the Breakfast Club of Canada cause. He will add his name to a list of ambassadors dedicated to highlighting food insecurity among Canadian children and will participate in various fundraising events.

To make a donation on Thomas Nepveu's page: https://give.breakfastclubcanada.org/thomas-nepveu-pilote-de-course-professionnel-et-ambassadeur-du-club

Thomas Nepveu 2021 Results - Cooper Tires USF2000 Series

 Photo Credit: CoForce

Partners - Brief Outlines
(Click on links for additional information) 

Cromwell

Cromwell is a private real-estate company active since 1986 in the multi-residential, office and commercial/ shopping centre segments. 

Karting Excellence

A major reseller of sophisticated, up-to-date kart simulators, as well as offering driving courses for simulated racing, and kart track software development, based on liDAR technology.

Richelieu Hardware

Richelieu Hardware is the leading distributor of hardware products in North America, with over 80 points-of-sale across the continent. 

Pétrole Bélanger

Transport, maintenance and delivery of petroleum and propane gas products to residential, commercial, and agriculture customers in the major Quebec regions for more than 65 years!

Home Hardware

With more than 1,000 independently owned outlets, Home Hardware is the most important distributor of renovation products in Canada. 

Hamster

The largest Canadian-owned distributor of office products, which includes the Novexco commercial division.

PL-100

PL-100 with anti-friction treatment is the best all-purpose penetrating lubricant on the market. Its action is faster, longer lasting and more efficient than that of its competitors. PL-100 is a product from Prolab, a family-owned Quebec company established in 1985. 

Ionik

This Quebec-based maker of sports-oriented clothing places a special emphasis on respect for the environment.

Centre de Médecine sportive de Laval

The Centre de Médecine sportive de Laval uses over 100 health professionals to deliver personalized medical services of the highest order to athletes of all levels.

King Canada

Canada's leading distributor of woodworking, metalworking, automotive and material handling machinery, tools, equipment and accessories.

Festidrag Development

Under the leadership of Martin D'Anjou, this production and promotion house assist in the development of Canadian drivers' careers, on as well as off the tracks.

Additional Information

The Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship

Managed and promoted by Andersen Promotions, LCC, the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship is the first step in the Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires, and leads on to more advanced stages in quicker, more competitive series: the Indy Pro F2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires, the Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires and the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, including the Indianapolis 500 and the top level in single-seater car racing in America. The champions of the three lower series earn major scholarships each year to help fund their next season in the Road to Indy program.

The Road to Indy Program

The Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires program offers an entry level series into professional racing, the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship. From there, drivers move on to the Indy Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires, which uses a more refined and quicker version of the USF2000 car. The drivers then move on to the Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires Series, using a much more powerful, much quicker and more complex car to set up and drive, in preparation for their move to America's top single-seaters, the super-fast NTT INDYCAR SERIES.

The Cooper Tires USF2000 Car

This series uses a standardized Tatuus USF-17 chassis which delivers an exciting level of performance and is a logical step up from the lower learner series to continue the development of young drivers.

The car features:

• A carbon fibre and aluminum honeycomb safety cell for the driver and the fuel tank, and carbon-fibre bodywork and wings
• A sealed two-litre (175 HP) engine and a six-speed sequential gearbox with steering-mounted paddle shifters 
• Adjustable suspensions and front-rear brake bias
• Bespoke Cooper Tires
• A dry weight of 500 kg 

Thomas Nepveu Career Path and Results

Born in Oka (Quebec), Thomas Nepveu has always shown a great interest in extreme sports, starting with small motorcycles on dirt tracks. He quickly moved on to karts first in the Montreal area, then on to provincial and national series in Canada, on to the United States, Europe and other continents.

2020

• Single seater debut in the Mexican F4 series at the Autodromo de Querétaro, Mexico
• 1 victory and 2 podiums out of 3 F4 races
• Victory in the ROK Fest East series - Charlotte (NC) (ROK Senior class)
• 6^th out of 52 entries, one pole from 3 races in ROK Cup Florida Winter Tour
• 6^th and 1 podium (3^rd) out of 4 races in the SKUSA Winter Series
• 8^th and 2 poles out of 6 races in the SKUSA Pro Tour

2019

• Transition to Rotax Senior class
• Canadian Karting Champion
• Canadian Shifter Open Champion
• Two top-5 finishes in the SKUSA Pro Tour (Senior class)
• Qualified for the Final in the WSK Euro Series (Sarno, Italy)

2018

• US Open Champion
• 3^rd in the ROK Cup USA Florida Winter Tour series
• 4^th in the Max Challenge class at the Rotax Grand Final (Brazil)
• 15^th in the CIK-FIA World Championship OKJ (Sweden)
• 5^th in the ROK the Rio (Las Vegas)

2017

• Transition year to the Junior class (12 to 16)
• 1st in the Florida Winter Tour (2^nd round)
• 2^nd in the Eastern Canadian Karting Championship  

2016

• Debut with PSL Karting
• Youngest driver (11) on the Canadian Karting Team
• Champion in the Eastern Canadian Karting Championship with 7 victories in 7 races, a first in this event
• Champion at the Mini Swift Super Nationals
• Runner-up in the Mini Max world championship
• Team Canada finishes first of 54 countries in the Rotax World Championships with Thomas Nepveu the top Canadian finisher in the Mini-Max class

2015

• Transition year (11 to 13 age group)
• Quebec Cup runner-up
• 4^th in the Eastern Canada Championship
• 3^rd in the Canadian Championship

2014

• Quebec Cup champion
• Eastern Canada champion
• 3^rd in the Canadian Championship
• 3^rd in the Florida Winter Series (first podium for Thomas Nepveu in the United States) 

2013

• Wins all Canadian championships in the 9-year-old class
• Quebec Cup champion
• Western Canada champion
• Eastern Canada champion
• 6^th in the Micro Max class at the Rotax Grand Finals in New Orleans, Louisiana

2012

• First year in racing, in the Micro Max class, in Quebec and Ontario
• 5^th in the Quebec Cup