Fford Festival winner grasps US chance

JAMES RAVEN WILL COMPETE IN the Pro Mazda Championship in 2018 after agreeing a deal with Deforce Racing.

The 23-year-old, who won the 2014 Formula Ford Festival, recently drove one of the squad’s US F4 Championship cars at the series’ official test, where he recorded the fastest time.

The driver and team have been working on a deal since. Raven will join fellow Brit Harrison Scott in the Road to Indy affiliated Pro Mazda for the first two rounds, at St Petersburg (March 10-11) and Barber Motorsports Park (April 21-22). Deforce will compete in Pro Mazda for the first time.

“I’ve got nothing to lose,” said Raven (left). “I know I have two, maybe three rounds at the most, so I’m going to try to win and I’ll push for the win on every occasion.”

“Hopefully I can be quick in the test and that will give us an idea of where we stand.”

Raven will test for the first time this weekend at Homestead track and will be engineered by either multiple Formula

Ford 1600 champion Peter Dempsey or ex-fortec

Motorsport man Alex Ridge.

Pro Mazda has a new

Tatuus PM-18 chassis for this year, after consigning its previous workhorse to history at the end of last season.

The winner of the championship earns a subsidised entry into the following year’s Indy Lights Championship.