IRLblog.com

photo: Ron McQueeny

When I was at Homestead Miami Speedway, I had the opportunity to catch up with Pippa Mann of Panther Racing after the Firestone Indy Lights open test session had ended and ask her a few questions.

IRLblog: How did the opportunity for you drive in the Firestone Indy Lights come about and how does it compare to driving in the World Series by Renault?

Pippa:  I have been looking over to coming over to the states since I ran in the World Series by Renault.  That is pretty much as high as you can go in Europe unless you have money behind you.  In Europe it is still pretty closed off for woman drivers as well.  My manager was speaking to a few people to see if there was anything out there.  The opportunity came up to meet with Panther Racing.  Panther was encrusted on having another European driver over and actually wound up with two of us.  They had me over to Sonoma and I met John Barnes as well as other members of Panther Racing.  They called me up and offered me a contract and here I am.

IRLblog: How does it feel to be one of the higher anticipated rookies in a Firestone Indy Lights with this seasons rookie class as large as it is?

Pippa: I just hope that I can do a really good job for these guys.  They have a great oval car.  It’s a fantastic car.  I hope to do really well on the ovals.  I am still very new at it.  Riding in traffic is still something that I have to get used to.  Last year these guys had a slightly tougher time with road courses, so we have been working really hard over the winter and we now feel we have a much better road course car for this year.  Everyone is really looking forward to this season.

IRLblog: Since Homestead is your first time driving on an oval, how does it compare to road courses in the sense of ease to learn?  Is it harder to learn road course driving or oval driving?

Pippa: Back in Europe when you drive road courses, you have these very big 180 degree turns on tracks such as Monza called parabolics which are very fast fifth and sixth gear, pretty much flat out corners, and so for a road course driver it is easier to learn ovals because it is really two parabolics put together.  It’s actually flat out and the way the car reacts and behaves is very similar.

IRLblog: How does it feel to be picked up by a team such as Panther Racing?

Pippa: It is an incredible oppurtunity for me and you have to look at their past success and how many races they won on ovals last season.  I am looking forward to the first oval race as well as the first race in St. Petersburg.