Claman DeMelo ready for IndyCar or Indy Lights in 2018

The 19-year-old Canadian, who finished fifth in this year’s Indy Lights championship driving for Carlin, has been sponsored by Paysafe to race a second Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda this weekend. And while he hopes that could lead to a full or even part-time deal in IndyCar, he said he’d be OK with trying for the Lights title in 2018.

“I think IndyCar is my main goal at the moment,” he said. “I'm not opposed to doing another year of Indy Lights. If that's what I need to do, I'll definitely do it.

“I think winning the championship would be nice for me, nice for my résumé and just showing that I can win the championship and I do deserve to be in IndyCar. But IndyCar is still my goal.”

After winning multiple karting titles in Canada, Claman DeMelo won two races in the Skip Barber Winter Series, before spending a fractured year in Europe trying various Formula Renault series. Returning to North America, he drove for Juncos Racing in the 2016 Indy Lights championship before switching to Carlin.

He admitted: “I'd like to say I skipped a few steps – I don't always know if it was the right idea. But I've just always kind of done the best I can with it. It hasn't always been easy at points, but I've learned a lot throughout it. I'm really excited to be here. It's obviously a huge learning curve jumping up from Skip Barber to Indy Lights to this. I'm really excited and looking forward to showing that I deserve to be here.”

Claman DeMelo finished the day 1.2sec behind teammate Graham Rahal, but said he had set modest targets for the weekend.  

“My goal is probably to just learn as much as I can, come in with an open mind and prepare as best I can for next year,” he remarked. “I think it's tough to set a goal as a rookie, so I just want to learn as much as I can and obviously finish as high as I can because I'm very competitive. But if I can learn a lot for next year and progress every session, I'd be happy with that.”

Regarding adapting to the car, Claman DeMelo said: “There’s definitely a lot more downforce. It's a softer tire, so I think just realizing how much speed you can carry into the corner, how much later you can brake and how much you can really push this car has been a big adjustment.

“I think there's a few times where I didn't realize what I could do with the car and I'm still coming to grips with that, so every session I'm learning more and more and understanding what I can do.”