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IndyCar: Ben Hanley to drive for DragonSpeed in the 2019 season

By Asher Fair

LE MANS, FRANCE - JUNE 14: The DragonSpeed Oreca of Ben Hanley, Henrik Hedman and Felix Rosenqvist drives during practice for the Le Mans 24 Hour Race at Circuit de la Sarthe on June 14, 2017 in Le Mans, France. (Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images)
LE MANS, FRANCE - JUNE 14: The DragonSpeed Oreca of Ben Hanley, Henrik Hedman and Felix Rosenqvist drives during practice for the Le Mans 24 Hour Race at Circuit de la Sarthe on June 14, 2017 in Le Mans, France. (Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images) /
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Ben Hanley is set to drive for DragonSpeed when the team enter IndyCar for the first time on a part-time basis in the 2019 season.

DragonSpeed, the Jupiter, Florida-based racing team that currently compete in the European Le Mans Series, the FIA World Endurance Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, are set to compete part-time in IndyCar for the first time in the 2019 season.

The team are set to compete in five races throughout the 17-race season, including one oval race, one street course race and three road course races.

DragonSpeed founder and team principal Elton Julian confirmed this news, which was speculated in mid-July, on Monday, and he also confirmed that the team’s driver in each of these five races is set to be Ben Hanley, which was also speculated in mid-July.

Here is what Julian had to say about Hanley driving for the team in the 2019 season, according to IndyCar.

"“For the team, it’s a matter of our growing experience catching up to our ambitions. The last few seasons of endurance racing have given us an intensive platform for developing our preparation, race engineering, pit stop and strategy skills. There are some impressive open-wheel credentials up and down the team, and Ben’s pace and exceptional detail feel for setup and tires should be a great asset."

Hanley, the lead driver for DragonSpeed’s prototype racing who is a former member of Renault’s Formula 1 young driver program and has experience as a tire tester for Pirelli in Formula 2 as well as experience driving in Formula Renault 2.0 Italia, Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0, Formula Renault 2.0 UK, the Formula Renault 3.5 Series, the GP2 Series, the GP2 Asia Series, Euroseries 300, Superleague Formula and the European Le Mans Series, is set to drive the #81 Chevrolet in these five races.

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The first of the five races in which the 33-year-old Briton is set to drive is the season opener on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida. The second of these five races is the season’s third race at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama.

After that, Hanley is set to make his Indianapolis 500 debut in the season’s sixth race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana before making what is set to be his penultimate start of the season in the race at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, which is the 10th race of the season.

The 13th race of the season is the race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, and this race is set to be the fifth and final race in which Hanley competes in the 2019 season.

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How will Ben Hanley perform in his the first five IndyCar starts of his career driving for DragonSpeed in the 2019 season? He is set to make his IndyCar debut in the season opener, the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, which is scheduled to take place on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida on Sunday, March 10, 2019. Be sure not to miss this race or any of the other four races in which he is scheduled to compete in 2019.