Juncos Hollinger Racing is set to race in the final three races of the 2021 IndyCar season, beginning with this weekend’s race from Portland International Raceway.
It will be the first time the team has contested an IndyCar race since 2019, and team owner Ricardo Juncos is planning to use the races as a way to get back up to speed before next season.
The team is set to run the full 2022 season, finally putting into place the plan that was originally set for last year until the pandemic put a pause on the expansion.
“It’s very important,” said Ricardo Juncos when asked about getting a head start into next season.
“We could do nothing at all [at the beginning of] this year, then a lot of questions going for next year, credibility for the sponsors.
“We are talking with many, many companies, a continuation of 2019 of what we did. We have to do these three races, have to put the team back together.
“We have to learn from the new Aeroscreen as much as possible. We need to start activating for all the sponsors to be in the position we are today.
“I think it’s super important to participate this year in these three races. Then after that obviously we have much more time to put the proper thing together the way I want it for 2022.
“That was actually surprise for me the amount of people that want to race with us and contacted us.
“Clearly we all know the drivers that are praising IndyCar in the last two years, for example [Spencer] Pigot, [Gabby] Chaves, all those guys. We know them, right? Actually some of them raced for us.
“We are looking to see top young drivers like Callum [Ilott]. We also talking to many from Europe, as well. I think the list is past 20 drivers, to be honest.”
Juncos has employed the services of Ferrari Academy driver Callum Ilott for this weekend, with the British driver making his stateside debut in a one-race deal.
Drivers for the final two races on the 2021 schedule have not yet been announced, but clearly there are many options available to the team.
The Grand Prix of Portland takes place this Sunday at 3:00 PM Eastern Time, with Laguna Seca and Long Beach rounding out the season in the following two consecutive weeks.
