A Weekend at New Jersey Motorsports Park: The Road to Indy goes through Millville

This past weekend I covered the “Road to Indy” races at New Jersey Motorsports Park in Millville, NJ (aka That Place Mike Trout is From).  The “Road to Indy” is a collection of three developmental series meant to lead to a career in IndyCar (see, not everyone there is an F1 washout!).  The two series running at NJMP were US F2000 (step one) and the confusingly similarly-named Indy Pro 2000 (step two).  These two series typically compete together at smaller road racing venues—the final step before IndyCar is the better-know Indy Lights Series, which runs companion events to IndyCar (like Xfinity but with less Kyle Busch).  Below are the pictures, but CLICK HERE for some EXCLUSIVE videos on my YouTube channel!

The weather varied from overcast to drizzly, so rain tires were at the ready.  Ironic considering that between the two days of racing, we had the 3 lap parade in F1

Most of the teams had Nascar/Indy-style haulers, varying from Cup powerhouse-level rigs to "I bought this at the MWR auction" trailers

A standard US F2000 car--and no, "F2000" doesn't mean that it's 1999 steps below F1

I felt like I should've been seeing this closer to Halloween

The crews are small (and so are the drivers)

A car crosses the start/finish line in qualifying.  Notice the high-tech soft wall in the background

Pace laps in misty conditions, although I'm much more used to "MSTie" conditions

The Road to Indy has a decent online streaming presence, but nowhere near what Nascar has for Xfinity, Trucks, ARCA, East/West and even SimRacing for that matter.  Still, its miles better than sprint cars.

Always great to see a first-time winner--Myles Rowe in victory lane after Race 2 of the US F2000 series

Myles Rowe's race-winning car, possibly paying tribute to Jeff Burton and/or Carl Edwards

Things aren't exactly state-of-the-art in the lower ranks

Myles' parents

Champagne shower in Victory Lane

Millville! Home of NJMP, Mike Trout...and not much else

Indy Pro 2000 Race #2 winner Artem Petrov (second from right)