Things are somewhat better? It is a half-inch gain and still having five miles to go. Meanwhile, Lando Norris might have won on his IndyCar iRacing debut but Stefan Wilson was the big IndyCar winner last, with a comeback victory at Talladega in Thursday Night Blunder. A few drivers need to relax and just have fun with iRacing. Dario Franchitti made one of the dirtiest moves in his career. MotoGP has postponed its trip to Finland and the tentative season opener is August 9 at Brno. NASCAR could be adding a race at Darlington. Formula One is looking at an Austrian season opener in July and running through December. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.
Team Penske's Untested Driver
Something came to my attention early in this quarantine period and it was somewhat puzzling but not a stunner.
When looking through Acura Team Penske's driver lineup, one of these drivers is not like the other. No, it is not Juan Pablo Montoya with his Monaco Grand Prix victory and Formula One success. No, it is not Hélio Castroneves with three Indianapolis 500 victories and fence-climbing celebration. No, it is not Ricky Taylor with his 24 Hours of Daytona victory, championship with his brother Jordan and distinct racing bloodline with his father Wayne.
The one unlike the others is Dane Cameron and what separates him from the rest is he is the only one of the four Acura Team Penske drivers to not drive an IndyCar for Team Penske. In fact, Cameron has never slid behind the wheel of an IndyCar and he has been out of single-seater racing since exiting the Atlantics Championship in 2008.
Cameron put together a promising junior open-wheel career. It started in U.S. F2000 where Cameron was runner-up in the championship to J.R. Hildebrand. Hildebrand won 12 of 14 races but Cameron took the other two and was runner-up to Hildebrand on six occasions. While Hildebrand leaped to the Atlantics Championship for 2007, Cameron transitioned to Star Mazda and took the championship with three victories and eight podium finishes from 12 starts.
The Star Mazda title led to a promotion to the Atlantics Championship and a strong 2008 grid. Jonathan Bomarito, Jonathan Summerton, James Hinchcliffe, Junior Strous and Simona de Silvestro were a few of Cameron's contemporaries for the 2008 season. The success was not to the level of his U.S. F2000 or Star Mazda seasons but he was still seventh in the championship with a pair of podium finishes. This was a time before the Road to Indy ladder system and the ladder system was still separated despite IndyCar and Champ Car merging earlier that year. Weeks shy of 20 years old, Cameron's career, with no clear path to IndyCar, wandered into the land of sports car racing.
However, in the 12 years since Cameron moved to sports car racing he has put together one of the most decorated careers in American sports car racing in the 21st century. After slowing building up his career in Grand-Am's GT class with occasional appearances in American Le Mans Series' Prototype Challenge class, sports car reunification provided fertile ground for Cameron's rise to Team Penske.
After taking the GT Daytona championship in 2014 with Turner Motorsport, Cameron moved to Action Express Racing in the Prototype class, pairing with Eric Curran and in three seasons the drivers were third, first and second in the championship with five victories and 17 podium finishes from 30 starts. Then Team Penske came knocking and though Cameron and Montoya were winless their first year together, they shot to the top in 2019, claiming the Daytona Prototype international class championship with three victories and seven podium finishes.
Cameron's sports car success has not led to an IndyCar sampling. A month after Ricky Taylor won the 2017 24 Hours of Daytona, Taylor tested for Team Penske at Homestead. Later that year Taylor would win his first Prototype championship, a year after Cameron had taken the title.
Team Penske has had a number of drivers cycle through its IndyCars in recent years. Montoya and Castroneves have taken on one-off roles. Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin is transitioning into a one-off IndyCar role for Team Penske. Brad Keselowski has even tested an IndyCar for Team Penske. Cameron has done more than enough in his sports car career to receive a taste of an IndyCar.
Maybe Cameron doesn't want to give it a try and that is fine. He has made a decent career in sports car racing. He will continue to have a place in sports car racing. He doesn't need to make a career change but an outing in an IndyCar would be fitting and I hope Cameron gets a crack at it.
Team Penske is not shy at testing drivers in different areas. Simon Pagenaud runs as a third driver in the Acura for the endurance races. Sam Hornish, Jr. transitioned from IndyCar to NASCAR with the team. Ryan Briscoe went from the Porsche RS Spyder program to the IndyCar operation. We are seeing McLaughlin's career shift from Australia to IndyCar and the United States in front of our eyes. Penske is open-minded and Cameron receiving an opportunity to test an IndyCar would not be earth-shattering.
Cameron deserves it. He has been a reliable driver in sports car racing. Since 2014, Cameron has only had two retirements in 64 starts. He won races and a championship with a gentleman driver in Eric Curran and at Team Penske has been an equal to his co-driver Juan Pablo Montoya, who is one of the best drivers of his generation. Cameron's time away from single-seater racing appears it would not be a deterrent. McLaughlin last drove a single-seater in 2010 in Formula Ford and Penske felt comfortable giving him a test. McLaughlin turned that one outing into a race opportunity. As great as it would be to see Cameron get a shot at a race, a test would be a worthy prize for a splendid first half of his career.
For a few years, Cameron appeared to be one of the top open-wheel prospects but his junior formula career coincided with the recession and preceded the Road to Indy. He was one of too many American drivers who came up at a difficult time and was not in consideration for either open-wheel series.
If he was coming up today, Cameron would be primed for an IndyCar shot. With help from the Road to Indy system, domestically developed drivers have more seats on the grid today than they did ten years ago. Thirteen of the 26 entrants for the postponed St. Petersburg round were Americans. Of those 13 drivers, six had raced in Indy Lights the decade before.
Though IndyCar may have lost out on an American talent, at least the motorsports world has gotten to see a talented driver show all of his potential. Cameron has become one of the most consistent drivers in IMSA and at 31 years old he will have more than a decade to increase the accolades in an already bountiful career.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Stefan Wilson and Lando Norris but did you know...
Jenson Button and Petter Solberg split the Legends Trophy races from Nürburgring.
Alex Bowman won the NASCAR Cup iRacing event from Talladega. Landon Huffman won the non-Cup drivers race.
Coming Up This Weekend
IndyCar ends its iRacing series at Indianapolis.
Thursday Night Blunder runs Le Mans with chicanes but with Nissan GTP, off-road trucks, rally cars and winged sprint cars.
IMSA has an event at Mid-Ohio.
NASCAR should be at Dover.
Covering All Motorsports. From Indianapolis to Le Mans, Daytona to Monaco.
