Ex-Red Bull Junior Team driver Juri Vips will return to IndyCar Series competition at Portland later this month in a fourth Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing entry.
Vips, a former reserve driver for the F1 world champions, will drive RLL’s No. 75 Honda-powered entry at the 12-turn, 1.964-mile road course – the site of his series debut a year ago when he finished 18th.
He will drive alongside team-mates Pietro Fittipaldi, Christian Lundgaard and Graham Rahal. The primary sponsor of the entry, AMADA, was part of two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Takuma Sato’s one-off entry in ‘The Greatest Spectacle in Racing’ earlier this year.
The outing will mark the 23-year-old Estonian’s third-ever IndyCar start, having also raced in last year’s season finale at Laguna Seca, where he almost advanced into the Firestone Fast Six before an unapproved engine change relegated him to 13th on the grid.
He was classified 24th after being collected in a multi-car crash on the opening lap.
“I’m very grateful to the team for giving me this opportunity,” Vips said. “I have been working closely with the team on the simulator program and it has been a year since I have been in the car, but I’m confident that the experience gained last year at Portland and Laguna Seca will help me to get up to speed quickly.
“It will still be a very big challenge and one I am very much looking forward to.”
Prior to his debut last year, Vips first tested an Indy car for RLL at Sebring International Raceway on 12 October, 2022, followed by another trial at Barber Motorsports Park on 12 March, 2023.
He has since been part of RLL’s driver roster, performing static simulator testing.
Team owner Bobby Rahal said: “For one, he showed at both Portland and Laguna Seca last year that he certainly has the pace to feature in any event he runs with us.
“He has done a lot of work for us in the simulator this year, which has helped us understand the hybrid system, so it’s nice to reward him for his effort. I’m hopeful that this will lead to more races for him with RLL.”
