Thomas Nepveu happy with USF2000 learning season at Cape Motorsports. Second in the Rookie of the Year Championship

Thomas Nepveu and his #2 Cromwell | Karting Excellence | Home Hardware car prepared by Cape Motorsports were at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course this weekend for the two-race weekend that closed out the 2021 Cooper Tires USF2000 Series. After finishing seventh and eight in the Saturday and the Sunday races respectively, Thomas Nepveu finished in second position in the Rookie of the Year championship. 

Overall, the young driver was satisfied with his season (One win, three top-5s, ten top-10s). "We had a good season with the victory at Road America and the tough battle for the Rookie of the Year title. I learned a lot about racing in various track conditions and on different layouts. My bad weekend at New Jersey Motorsports Park cost me a lot in points, but we had a good season with its ups-and-downs. In the end, I am certainly happy with what we learned and our performance," shares Thomas Nepveu.

Thomas Nepveu's Point of View 

Race 1 - 7^th Place Finish
The Saturday morning practice session, held on a very cold track, went according to plan given that the team was using tires from a previous event to help set up the car in race situation. With no track time on Friday, there was limited track-time, and everyone had to push right from the start. Qualifying went as expected, as Thomas Nepveu and his #2 Cromwell | Karting Excellence | Home Hardware team ended up 9^th, only 0,4722 sec off the pole position time.

"I was pleased with the results of the morning practice session. It took me a few laps to get back into my comfort zone after a month away from the USF2000 car, before starting to push harder. It was really cold as everybody had trouble getting some heat into the tires so they would get the correct temperature and the car was handling properly. In the end, we did not work on the settings as it was too cold, but I did see a few things that we needed to work on for the qualifying session. We used two sets of new tires in qualifying, like all the other front runners, and worked my way into 9^th place for the start of the race in the middle of a very tight pack. In the race, I gained one position and dropped two in an early restart and stayed in 10^th spot from lap 3 to 10, putting in quicker and quicker lap times until a caution came out on lap 11. I restarted from P8 and moved to P7 where I finished with cars less than 0.5 sec in front and behind me. I am happy with how things went for me on this very cold day", said the rookie after Race 1. 

Race 2 - 8^th Place Finish
The wet Sunday morning qualifying session was cancelled because of the time it took to repair the track after an accident on the third lap of the session. This meant that the times from the session did not represent reality in terms of pace of drivers as they were still feeling out their cars and the wet surface, as well as the effectiveness of any "wet" suspension settings they may have chosen.

The organisers thus decided to set the grid positions based on the lap times set during the Saturday race, a smart decision given the circumstances, and placing Thomas Nepveu 11^th on the grid for Race 2. 

"After an extra formation lap to give us a chance to see where any puddles were, I had a good start that moved me to 8^th place from an early restart. I moved up to 7^th and then lost places as I went off the road on lap 10 and managed to get back on the track in 11^th spot. An incident and a late-race caution allowed me to move back up to 8^th place, where I finished the race, I spent the race in bad to horrible visibility conditions driving over 200 kph while always looking from side to side for a better view in front of me and judging my position based on the bright lights from the cars in front of me when I caught a glimpse of them," added Thomas Nepveu after the race.

Thomas Nepveu's Progress Over the 2021 Season

Thomas Nepveu made excellent progress over the season according to Dominic Cape, the leader of Cape Motorsports, and Coy Arbour, his Sporting Manager, who has accompanied Thomas Nepveu in his development for over 7 years now, first in karts and this year into single seaters.

"We expected a lot from Thomas Nepveu for this first single seater season. The rookie kept a positive attitude throughout the 18 races, striving to attain and exceed the goals that were set for him over the season, such as successively top-15, then top-10 and top-5 finishes which he delivered over the season. The team also scored a victory, an important milestone in his development, and perhaps a balm that makes up for finishing second to one of his teammates in the Rookie of the Year competition. We know that Thomas needs to improve on his qualifying runs, as passing is difficult in the USF2000 cars, and better grid spots will put him in a much better position to finish regularly in the top-5 and on the podium." said Coy Arbour after the race. 

Cape Motorsports president, Dominic Cape, was also happy with Thomas Nepveu's performance. "Thomas had a hard-fought season. He got his first win at Road America and has fought tooth-and-nail in every race. He always moves forward. I think it was a great learning year for him and with the proper winter testing program, I believe he will be challenging for wins next year."     

Next Event

Karting - November 3 to 7 - ROK Vegas (Las Vegas, Nevada)
In the meantime, Thomas Nepveu will head to the Las Vegas to compete in the ROK Vegas event. He knows the track well, after turning in the second-quickest race lap there against 30 competitors in a previous visit. 

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

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.

Evirum
A North American waste management broker offering a wide range of integrated environmental services to clients in the residential, commercial, industrial, institutional and event sectors.

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.

Cape Motorsports
Cape Motorsports prepares cars and provides trackside stewardship for drivers who rent one of their cars (Up to four) in the Cooper Tires USF2000 series. The team offers an unparalleled driver development program that includes training with simulators, as well as teaching driving techniques and race strategies. It is always difficult for a young driver to get into a professional series and make his mark, let alone win, no matter how talented he or she may be. With the coaching and mentoring provided by Cape Motorsports, new drivers acquire all the knowledge required to achieve maximum success quickly and efficiently.

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