The Unsuspecting Yet Unsurprising Champion: Santi Urrutia

When the Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires season began in earnest on the streets of St. Petersburg, there was one driver who emerged on the scene that left me with just one question on my mind: Who? When the press release hit my inbox shortly before the start of the season, I had never before heard of the young Uruguayan pilot Santiago Urrutia until Team Pelfrey announced he would be partnering Pato O’Ward in the yellow and black Team Pelfrey entries in 2015. Soon, though, we would all know a whole lot more about the young man who would be your 2015 Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires champion and the next contender for the Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires championship.

Urrutia arrived in St. Petersburg an unknown commodity on a deal so hastily arranged that he was still wearing the uniform he used in 2014 for Koirainen GP in GP3, with the required series patches sewed on in a way that it appeared they might actually fall off. For Team Pelfrey, who usually have quite the attention to detail, it was a departure from the expected.

Before we delve further, I think it’s important to recap Team Pelfrey’s 2014 season in Pro Mazda: pretty bad. If not for the mid-season swoop to put Nicolas Costa in one of their cars, the season likely would have been awful. Costa was able to snare one win and three further podium finishes, giving Team Pelfrey some hope. This came on the back of a 2013 season that was also pretty rough, given that they had Spencer Pigot leading the charge and had dominated the 2012 Pro Mazda season with Jack Hawksworth.

2015 was the season to turn their fortunes around in Pro Mazda, and it got off to a promising start during the Cooper Tires WinterFest, when Jack Aitken pedaled the sole Pelfrey entry to three wins and the WinterFest Championship. Heading to St. Petersburg, Team Pelfrey knew that in the hands of the right driver, they had cars quick enough to claim wins and challenge for the championship. After a middling start in practice, Urrutia qualified third and was able to move up to second in the first race of the weekend. All interested parties had to learn how to properly pronounce Urrutia’s last name, and soon also learned that he preferred to go by “Santi.” Urrutia was less fortunate in race two, but still brought the car home in fourth.

Urrutia made the entire field stand up and take notice during the sole soggy Sunday race at NOLA. In dreadful conditions, Urrutia swept past Weiron Tan at the start and then controlled the race masterfully, leading Tan to the line by three seconds. At Barber, Urrutia was quick and consistent, finishing on the podium in both races and sitting just nine points behind championship favorite Neil Alberico heading to IMS. In three races at IMS, Urrutia narrowly avoided chaos in the first race, but still managed to charge to fourth at the end. Race two saw Urrutia back on the podium and on top of the points, a position he would not relent for the rest of the season. In race three he claimed his second victory of the year, converting pole position into a tightly contested win and widening his points advantage to 24 points over Alberico.

The first oval of the year was less kind to Urrutia, where he qualified tenth but was forced to retire after only 11 laps with damaged suspension following a brush with the wall. Alberico was unable to turn Urrutia’s worst performance of the year into a major advantage as he finished third in the race, some 20 seconds behind race-winner Tan. Urrutia was disappointed to finish seventh in the first race at Toronto after qualifying fourth—the sign of a true champion. He rebounded to finish fourth in race two, and with Alberico involved in early race incidents in both races of the weekend, Urrutia left Canada with a 30 point advantage and serious hopes of the championship.

Another oval at Iowa was less than kind to Urrutia. Although he qualified second, he didn’t have the race pace to contend for the win and settled for fifth on the day. Better news, though, was Alberico finishing behind him in the running order, so his points lead still grew. With the ovals done, it was on to Mid-Ohio, where Urrutia took his third and final win of the season after Alberico was adjudged to have jumped the start and ordered to yield the lead to Urrutia. In the second race, Alberico claimed the win, but Urrutia was yet again on the podium and moved on to the final race weekend at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca with a 29 point advantage over Alberico.

It was a dream weekend for Urrutia in the season finale. Racing at the track where his racing hero, fellow Uruguayan Gonzalo Rodriguez, was killed in a tragic accident competing for Penske Racing in 1999, and wearing a special tribute helmet, Urrutia started second for the first race and was more than happy to allow Garett Grist to take the win as he finished second. Alberico was involved in a first corner fracas, and thus Urrutia was crowned champion on that Saturday, proudly waving the Uruguayan flag as he celebrated. On Sunday, it was a pole position start but a second place finish yet again to Grist, with Alberico in third. A 49-point championship-winning advantage was his, to go along with the trophy and the Mazda Road to Indy scholarship check to help him advance to Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires in 2016.

Pace, presence, consistency. Santi has all the tools necessary to continue to be successful.

Very few of us may have known Santi Urrutia in St. Petersburg, but by the time the Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires had crisscrossed North America, we would know him well and call him champion.