From an Exclusive Autosport press release:
The impressive pairing of Exclusive Autosport and Parker Thompson has delivered much success over the past three years, locking race wins in the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda, the F1600 Super Series, the Toyo Tires F1600 Championship in Ontario and the Formula Tour 1600 series in Quebec. Thompson drove to major home country wins for Exclusive Autosport in both F1600 at the F1 Grand Prix in Montreal and USF2000 in Toronto in 2017. This year, he will aim to extend this streak into the Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires. Exclusive Autosport has signed the 19-year-old Canadian to lead their rookie charge into the series, which is the second rung of the Mazda Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires. Exclusive Autosport debuted in the USF2000 series in 2017 and promptly won three races en route to third in the Drivers’ Championship. With teams in F1600 and USF2000, Pro Mazda is the logical progression in their expansion and development and Thompson represents the first of two driver announcements for this level of their program.
This, as the title states, is exactly how it’s supposed to work.
I don’t cover the Mazda Road to Indy at The Apex any longer but that doesn’t mean I don’t still maintain an intense interest in all three series and the young drivers that are given a chance to shine because of it.
While it’s drivers that are most often in the spotlight, teams deserve recognition too. Exclusive Autosport embraced its first season in USF2000 with gusto and Thompson’s sweep of both Toronto races vindicated those efforts.
Credit also goes to Andersen Promotions for bringing new cars to both USF2000 and Pro Mazda and ensuring that moving between the series is as easy as possible by using the same base chassis for both the Tatuus USF-17 and PM-18.
I feel like this is one of many great stories to come out of the Mazda Road to Indy this year and St. Petersburg is still over a month away.