Meyer Shank Racing team co-owner Mike Shank says that Tom Blomqvist has down everything the team has asked of him as he fills in for Simon Pagenaud in this weekend’s Honda Indy Toronto.
The British born Swede was extremely impressive in what were extremely tricky conditions in qualifying for Sunday’s 85-lap race.
Blomqvist took it all in his stride however, and starts the race from 20th place with a time of 01:16.0415s which is extremely impressive.
Mike Shank said:
I put him in the car as a test, I wanted to see how he adapted to something that was totally different. “I know he can be hard on himself – all drivers want to be up front – but we are happy with where he is at. He is progressing just like we wanted him to and making all the right strides to keep improving. We’ve definitely thrown a lot at him and it’s been like drinking from a fire hose for him, but he’s doing great, and just where we thought he would be.”
For Blomqvist, the qualifying session was fantastic given the fact he is starting the race ahead of former Indianapolis 500 winners in Ryan Hunter-Reay and Alexander Rossi and speaking following the action he said:
The rain definitely spiced things up for my baptism of fire, let’s say. “I survived, which is the most important thing. I am learning every step of the way. I think now I have about two hours and 10-minutes of driving in the car, so it’s always a steep learning curve for me.”
Blomqvist has been able to learn a lot from Conor Daly who is on hand for Meyer Shank Racing this weekend and also from his teammate, veteran NTT INDYCAR SERIES driver Helio Castroneves who starts Sunday’s race from 13th.
Speaking following qualifying the Brazilian commented saying:
I have to say, INDYCAR is the most competitive series in the world that I have competed in, in a long time.
Speaking about Tom Blomqvist, Castroneves said:
“He’s [Tom] done an incredible job jumping in, not hitting the walls, giving feedback and most importantly getting the experience. Now, throwing in the rain during qualifying he has really shown his potential. I know the team doesn’t have expectations for him this weekend, they just want to see him improve and take in as much as he can, and I think he is doing just that. I’m really happy to see him get this experience and do what he’s doing and I think he’s only going to improve during the race tomorrow