Thomas Nepveu Moves Up To The Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship With Cape Motorsports

OKA (Quebec, Canada) – 17 December 2020. Sixteen-year-old Thomas Nepveu announces today that he is moving up to the Cooper Tire USF2000 Championship single-seater series on the Road To Indy Presented by Cooper after a brilliant nine-year (9) career in karting with PSL Karting and Birel ART. Along the way, the young driver has competed in more than 300 races, accumulating countless victories, eight (8) championships and twenty-two (22) top-10 finishes in high-level international events and in various championships (Canada, United States, Italy, Sweden, Brazil, Finland). Thomas Nepveu will drive the #2 car for Cape Motorsports, the leading team in the series, having built up a remarkable record of nine straight championships in this category (for a total of 13 championships in all). Thomas Nepveu will compete in all eighteen (18) races in the 2021 season, two of which will be presented at the iconic Honda Toronto Indy on July 9-11, 2021.

“I am thrilled to be moving up to single seaters for the 2021 season, and especially with Cape Motorsports, one of the best team in the USF2000 series. Preseason testing with them has convinced me that their knowledge and winning experience will put me in the best possible position to quickly develop my racecraft and driving skills. I have a great professional team working to assist with my development, and I also want to thank my parents, Coy Arbour and all those who have helped me reach this point in my career,” declared the young driver.

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.

“We are extremely delighted to welcome Thomas into our program for 2021. Thomas’ skills come with a dedicated approach to the hard work needed, which is clearly what we are looking for at this level. We can’t wait to start preparing for the season ahead!”, shared Dominic and Nicholas Cape from Cape Motorsports.

Thomas Nepveu and the strategic team

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Thomas Nepveu and his strategic team and have developed a two-pronged career plan that focuses on IndyCar (North America’s foremost single-seater series), coupled with participation in international Kart championships with PSL Karting and Birel ART when time permits. The learning experience and the communications generated by these activities will always be optimized and promoted through the Road To Indy program as well as additional promotional and communications activities throughout the season.

Accompanied by Coy Arbour, his long-time technical manager and driving coach, Thomas Nepveu drove a single seater for the first time ever at the Querétaro, Mexico round of the NACAM Formula 4 series 2020 season. He won one race and reached two podiums in three races over that weekend while putting in some dominant drives. During post-season testing in USF2000, Thomas was able to learn the car quickly enough to put in lap times within a half-second of USF2000 veteran drivers.

Thomas Nepveu understands how important his education is to help build his professional career. He is successfully pursuing his studies using distance learning.

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 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires 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.

The first of the 18 races in the 2021 USF2000 season will take place on March 5 to 7, on the streets of St. Petersburg (Florida), on the same weekend as the opening race of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES.

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 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 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 TO DATE

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 Karting, first in the Montreal area, then on to provincial and national series, and to the United States and other continents.