Claman DeMelo closes with impressive speed

A quick look at lap times posted during the final stint from Sunday's GoPro Grand Prix at Sonoma reveals a piece of encouraging news: rookie Zachary Claman DeMelo was keeping pace with teammate Graham Rahal and title contender Scott Dixon in the run to the checkered flag.

The recent Indy Lights graduate made his Verizon IndyCar Series debut last weekend in the No. 13 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda, and like Rahal and Dixon, the French-Canadian opted for brand-new Firestone red tires to close the race. During that stint, the rookie was definitely worth following on the timing and scoring monitors.

Contact at the start relegated Claman DeMelo to the back of the field, but he rallied to finish an unheralded 17th, all while trading fastest laps with his Honda stablemates.

Over the last 19 laps in this group of three, Dixon was the pace-setter nine times in his No. 9 Chip Ganassi Racing entry, Rahal led the trio once, and the other nine went to the 19-year-old Montreal native.

Naturally, there were a few mitigating circumstances to consider; Rahal was chasing Helio Castroneves for fifth, just as Dixon was in pursuit of Will Power for fourth, and the two were not necessarily afforded the clean air Claman DeMelo had to exploit. Nonetheless, the sight of a rookie gassing it hard to close the race and make a statement – albeit far removed from the limelight – portends well for his future.

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"The start wasn't ideal; we had to make a pit stop, and lost positions which ruined the finishing position, but for the rest of the race, I stuck to my own strategy to try and make up positions on the reds," Claman DeMelo told RACER. "At first I didn't know how good my pace was, but the team said I was doing a good job."

The winner of the second Indy Lights race during June's visit to Road America was able to gauge his performance on Sunday after pulling out of the pits between Team Penske's Power and Castroneves.

"I didn't know what to expect, so I went out and moved over so Power could go by; I didn't want to get in the way of the championship, and had Helio behind me, and expected him to catch me quickly," he said.

"Then, Power wasn't really pulling away and Helio wasn't catching me, so I guess the lap times were pretty good. I was pushing really hard, the car felt great, and it's too bad we couldn't finish better because of the start."

Claman DeMelo will head into the offseason in pursuit of a full budget to return next season and wage a complete rookie campaign. Based on all he learned with RLLR at Sonoma, confidence is running high within the Mazda Road to Indy product.

"I think I showed I do have the speed to belong in IndyCar with more experience," he added. "I left Sonoma thinking I've learned a lot, and if I can find the budget for next year, I'll be better prepared. I know I need to work on qualifying, on getting more from the tires, and all the teams are good, so whoever I can come back with, I know I can fight for top 10s and top fives at some point.

"I left the weekend thinking IndyCar is what I need to do, and I'll be working hard in the next weeks and months to get a budget secured."