Armaan Ebrahim ready for Indy splash

CHENNAI: Armaan Ebrahim's US racing stint is set to begin at the Streets of St Petersburg in Florida with the opening race of the 2012 Indy Lights season on Saturday.The23-year-old Chennai lad is the first Indian to race in the Lights, the feedercompetition to the famed Indy Car series.On Saturday, Armaan'sinternational racing career will go into unchartered roads, and the Indian willbe trying to adapt quickly to racing in the US, which also involves action onoval circuits, something new for the young Indian for he was racing in Europe inthe last three years, plying his trade in Formula 2.He also has aslight handicap going into the season opener, having not taken part in all thepre-season tests and Armaan will have only two practice sessions in his FanForce United car on Friday ahead of qualifying and the race.But theformer F2 driver topped the charts in the final session of his only officialtest outing at the Barber Circuit in Alabama on Tuesday and that has got hisspirits revved up. And the festive racing atmosphere in the US has even madeArmaan feel he should have made the US shift earlier."Racing inAmerica is definitely an eye opener and the question I ask myself is that why Idid not move here earlier," said Armaan. "It is a handicap not to have had theopportunity to do all the pre season tests and learn the car as well as thecircuits. But this has never been an opportunity for me and I have learned howto live with it."Armaan explained the good timing at Barber is whathe needed going into the first race of his US career."The test atBarber was good and that has given me the confidence that I can do well in theseason opener at St Petes despite lack of critical testing. The circuit is amixture of tarmac and concrete which will give different grip levels," saidArmaan, explaining the difficulty of racing in the 1.8-mile, 14-turn circuit,which incorporates streets of downtown St. Petersburg and a section of runway ofAlbert Whitted Airport."The street course too has its own characterand for sure the race will be extremely physical as it is a 45 lap race. We gointo the official practice sessions tomorrow with the qualifying and racefollowing on Saturday. If I can finish in the top 5 this weekend, it willprovide a solid base for me to do well in the next race at Barber the followingweekend where I tested last week," he added.Armaan feels theclose-knit family atmosphere at Fan Force United, a relatively smaller team, andthe team's passion and commitment towards forming a winning package will pushthem towards the top of the pile as the season progresses."Ours is a small team and due to the small budget that we are operating in, it is obvious that we are the poor souls in the paddock. But to more than make up for that is the team's passion and experience in the Indy Racing League and the Indy Lights. The people in the team are very hard working and with a lot of experience and that more than makes up for all the fan fare that is missing," he added.