CALLUM Hedge is on the verge of his first meeting with America’s famed Brickyard.
The Kiwi teen is set to test with Indy NXT squad Cape Motorsports at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on Friday (US time).
Indy NXT is the new name for what was previously known as Indy Lights, IndyCar’s second-tier series.
The opportunity comes as Hedge navigates a double championship campaign in 2023, leading both the Porsche Carrera Cup Australia and Formula Regional Americas Championship standings heading into crunch time.
He’s already sewn up a berth in the global Porsche Junior Shootout later this year, and can secure another career opportunity if he clinches the FRAC title.
Hedge leads by 51 points with just the finale at Circuit of the Americas (November 2-5) to come.
“He’s really close to winning the championship prize of a Super Formula ride, so getting him some higher horsepower time is important,” Hedge’s manager Steve Horne told V8 Sleuth of the Indy NXT test.
Asked if Indy NXT could be where he actually ends up in 2024, Horne replied: “Well, the championship award that has been put up by Honda and Parella Holdings who run the championship is in Japan.
“So, we have got to win the thing first and then see what happens.”
Hedge’s busy schedule will see him fly from Indianapolis back home to Auckland, and then onto the Gold Coast for the penultimate round of Carrera Cup next week.
Hedge’s buffer over Jackson Walls in Carrera Cup was slashed to six points after he missed the recent Bathurst round, due to a calendar clash.
“He’s a good kid. He just speaks with the steering wheel and the pedals, we do all the rest,” added Horne.
“Porsche New Zealand have been really good to him and also the Tony Quinn Foundation, so that’s enabling some of this higher-level stuff to happen.
“Without those people, he just wouldn’t be where he is at the moment.”
