Cullingworth’s Jack Hawksworth proved himself to be ‘as good as any of the current top five championship drivers’ as he took to the track in an IndyCar with Dale Coyne Racing at Sebring International Raceway in Florida.
Having caught the eye with an outstanding IndyCar testing debut for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing there in September, he returned to the venue fired up to put that experience to good effect in a Honda manufacturer test.
With seven teams in attendance, Hawksworth raised more than a few eyebrows behind the wheel of Dale Coyne Racing’s 650bhp Dallara single-seater, lapping second-fastest among those drivers running the 2013-spec engine.
His best effort was a mere 0.14 seconds shy of the outright benchmark – set by 2012 IndyCar Series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay – and remarkably, the youngster outpaced no fewer than five race winners.
Race engineer John Dick said: “I would judge Jack’s ability to extract the most out of a given set-up to be as good as any of the current top five championship drivers.”
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