Canada F1600 Champion Cowden Set for Debut at Barber

The Blue Marble Radical Cup has been attracting new and younger prospects in the past few years and as the season grows, another future star is set to make their series debut this weekend.

Joining the already long list of young guns competing this season, Canadian driver Jake Cowden is set to run his first career Blue Marble Radical Cup North American event at the upcoming Barber Motorsports Park with RySpec Racing.

Racing alongside the NTT IndyCar Series, Cowden is piggybacking off his championship win in the 2022 Toyo Tires F1600 class, racing in the No. 66 Mygale with Britain West and producing some incredible statistics with 100 percent of his finishes over the 2022 season on the podium.

Additionally, Jake competed in the 2022 Team Canada Scholarship shootout and was selected to compete for Team Canada in England in the Formula Ford Festival and the Walter Hayes Trophy race.

Cowden, an 18-year-old from Aurora, Ontario, Canada who started in karting at the age of ten, is focused on achieving his goal of becoming an INDYCAR driver and hopes joining the Blue Marble Radical Cup will catapult him in the right direction.

“I am very excited to be competing in the Blue Marble Radical Cup weekend at Barber Motorsports Park,” said Cowden. “This will be my first taste of wheel-to-wheel Radical racing, and I couldn’t be more excited.

“Seat time is so important before I compete for the FEL ERCC championship back home in Canada, and the Blue Marble Radical Cup is the best possible way to prepare.

“Additionally, it gives me a chance to experience the intensity of an Indy environment before both series come together at the Honda Indy Toronto in July.”

Young guns looking to advance their careers and hone in on their skills find the Radical Cup North America a good development series, as the competition provided by the other young competitors, as well as the ‘gentlemen drivers’ is high.

Conversely, the drivers who started with the Radical Cup program a little later on in life have taken well to the added challenge of competing against the younger generation of racers.

“This year we’re seeing participation grow by Canadian racers in the U.S. series following last year’s success of Racing With Autism’s Austin Riley,” expressed Tom Drewer.

“He won the outright Championship, as well as the Pro 1340 title after a hard-fought battle with veteran Mike Anzaldi all year.

“Also, Riley has taken a step up to the Pro 1500 class this year battling amongst other young guns such as 15-year-old Danny Dyzelski, and series stalwart Gregg Gorski, who proves you don’t have to be in your teens, twenties, thirties, or forties to reach the Radical Cup podium.”

Cowden is set to take part in the remainder of the season with RySpec Racing and gets to compete in his home country again in mid-July when the Radical Cup program journeys north of the border to compete on the Street of Toronto for the first time.

Additionally, four of the remaining five event weekends share the track with IndyCar.