Following a solid rookie campaign with BHA/BBM with Curb-Agajanian, Jack Hawksworth made the decision to move to A.J. Foyt Racing as AFR expands to a two-car operation in 2015.
“Very excited. Ready to get down to business,” Hawksworth told SpeedwayMedia.com. “Just very excited to start working with the whole crew. We have put a ton of work in over the off-season so I know the car is well prepared. Really looking forward to getting to the track and beginning to test, and start the process of trying to be very competitive this year. Hopefully we can get to the first race, we’ll be in a good shape.”
Hawksworth is coming off a season that he calls “an interesting year” that saw him finish 17th in points with a season-high third place finish at Houston.
“We had some good moments,” he commented. “We were particularly competitive at the beginning of the year at St. Pete. We weren’t very competitive at the end of the year, but we were able to pull a few results together. I enjoyed it. I really enjoyed Bryan and his crew and everything. He gave me a good grounding for this year. He gave me the opportunity to start, and the opportunity to move to A.J.’s team.
“Now it is the time to take it to another level and be really competitive, not just competitive once and a blue moon. It was a good year in terms of what it’s given me going into this year.”
Hawksworth said discussions surrounding this upcoming season began in the late stages of the 2014 season when it was apparent that Bryan Herta wouldn’t be able to offer anything “due to lack of sponsorship” as it didn’t seem as though BHA/BBM with Curb-Agajanian had “all their bases covered”. The search for a ride landed the English driver into conversation with AFR Team Director Larry Foyt.
“That’s when he told about his plans for the team, and where the team was heading,” Hawksworth explained. “It was really something that excited me a lot. It was really no brainer to join this team when I was given the opportunity, and I was just very impressed with where Larry was going with the team. It had a good sponsor with ABC Supply, and a really good set of guys that are good at what they do. It was good timing, and a real exciting opportunity. I think the best part is we really want to grow together and have a good season.”
The move for Hawksworth allows him to move from a single-car operation to a now two-car operation as he becomes a teammate to Takuma Sato. Sato has proven that AFR can win, having visited victory lane in 2013, and showed speed during the beginning of 2014.
“I talked to Takuma at the ABC presentation when we presented the team, and we spent a couple of days with the engineers discussing stuff for next year,” Hawksworth commented. “He seemed like a really switched on, very technical, really wants to do well and I think together we will well together. That was quite evident for me, so hopefully we can push the team forward.”
With coming into a new program, Hawksworth admits that it’s difficult to have expectations, but he believes that they can be competitive.
“I think we can be very quick and I want to be fighting for pole positions and fighting for race wins,” he said. “That’s the aim certainly from my side and the team’s side so we’re going to go out and get after it.”
Beyond the new team, though, the 23-year-old is faced with the new aero kits that IndyCar is introducing this year. That adds another unknown, as Hawksworth notes that neither manufacture knows what the other has.
“The cars are going to look very different; they’re going to be quicker – that’s for sure,” he added. “It’s going throw some of the set-ups out of the window from last year and make teams have to start kind of fresh because not only have you changed the aerodynamics of the car, but also the mechanical balance as well. It’s going to be a lot of development and learning, but as far as what will happen and who will benefit, it’s way too early to say. I guess we will find out when we get to the test in March.”
Once the year gets started, Hawksworth is excited for all of the races as “there’s not one on the schedule” that he’s not looking forward to. Some of the highlighted tracks on his mind, though, would be Brazil, St. Petersburg, Toronto, Indianapolis and New Orleans. The big key, for Hawksworth, entering this year is he has experience under him and knows some of thee tracks now. He added that last year allowed to understand the length of the races, and the strategies that occur during them.
“That was something that I didn’t have no experience with till I was in IndyCar,” he explained. “I think understanding the strategy a little more – that’s important. I know what I want in this car than I did at the beginning of last year. With every car, the driver is a little different and the particular way you want the car to handle. The more you drive that car, the more you understand what you want it to do, so now I need to aim to get the car in this window. Just having that one year of experience with this car and understanding what I want from it should be beneficial.”
