Whilst attention turns to the British Touring Car Championship in the UK this weekend over in the United States attentions turn to the start of the IndyCar season.

Sevenoaks racer Mike Conway will be lining up on the grid for the Firestone Grand Prix of St Petersburg on Sunday.

For Conway it represents a return to the race series that he enjoys as he makes his debut for Ed Carpenter Racing, Mike will race in the street circuit races for the team with Ed Carpenter taking over for the oval races.

Speaking exclusively to Kent Sports News, Mike can’t wait for the season to get underway, he said: “Obviously I am very excited about the first race coming up, it’s one of my favourite tracks but I have had horrid luck there in the past so I want to turn that around.”

Mike has been able to spend some time with the team and in the car ahead of the season opener this weekend, the first time he has been able to test an IndyCar ahead of the season.

He added: “We have had about five days or so now and all though it’s been good mileage in the car we haven’t been far enough up the time sheets so we still need to find some speed.”

The fact that he hasn’t been up the timesheets in testing so far, will be a concern going into the season opener this weekend, but there are so many big names in the championship that it is going to be a competitive season for Mike come what may.

He said: “There’s always good names that are always going to be hard to beat so nothing has changed there.

“I haven’t found a sweet spot yet but everyone is working hard on that and hopefully we find it at St Petersburg.”

Finally we asked Mike whether having four street races first up in the season if that made a difference and whether he had set himself any targets for the coming season.

“To be honest I haven’t looked at the schedule like that, we should be competitive wherever it is and will take it race by race

“I want to win races for ECR this year, it will be extremely tough as always but anything is possible.”

We will be following Mike’s progress this season not only in the IndyCar Championship but also in the World Endurance Championship where he will be competing once again in the LMP2 class.