Catching Up with Victor
Since driving to six wins and the F2000 title in 2010, Victor Carbone has spent two seasons in Indy Lights, coming away with a pair of six place Championship finishes, poles, a race win, and a collection of podium finishes, not to mention leading strings of laps at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the Freedom 100 in May.
“Since 2010, the highlight has definitely been winning on the oval at Las Vegas in 2011,” said Carbone, who is spending December in Brazil. “Not many drivers have made the jump I did, and to win a race in the first year was something special.”
No wins would come in 2012, but Carbone looked like a much more rounded driver, consistently finishing on the podium and scoring a pole on the wet streets in Toronto.
Carbone is still a fixture in the F2000 paddock, talking to many of the players. In addition, he said he still talks to his F2000 team, Alegra Motorsports, all the time.
Not only was there a major horsepower bump going from the Zetec-powered F2000 Van Diemen to the Indy Lights car, but the transition required Carbone to build up his level of fitness.
“It wasn’t just one thing,” Carbone continued. “Everything is bigger in Indy Lights, from the tires to the level of competition and speed. The races are much longer, the cars are harder to drive and require more from the drivers – and the road courses, especially the bumpy street circuits, are even more physically demanding.”
During his spare time, Carbone has been karting with former F2000 teammate Fabio Orsolon, who has his own karting squad, Orsolon Racing. He has plans to kart in Brazil during the winter as well in a major karting competition that sees Indy and F1 drivers show up and compete.
Carbone added he plans to start college next year, having deferred to go racing.
“I am thinking of doing two or three classes,” he noted. “I can’t do it full time because of racing, but I kind of miss school, it will be good to occupy my mind.”
Carbone was quiet on his 2013 plans, but said he expects to be in a car, and wherever it will be, he will be there, improving as a driver.