The junior single-seater ace chasing the American dream

Aside from having the perfect name for a successful career in the United States, 21-year-old Kyle Kirkwood seems pretty much destined for an IndyCar seat just now.

He collected multiple titles during his formative karting career before making a victorious transition to car racing in an F1600 part-season. On his maiden outing in the Formula Ford series, he won the season-opener at Road Atlanta and set the championship lap record in the process. A further six races followed and he wound up 16th in the standings.

Since then, he's swept all on his way up the ladder. Where US single-seaters really rather embarrass the European scene is in its tiered structure, whereby the champion of each formula is assured of a supported drive in the next level via the Road To Indy scheme.

That doesn't leave much time for cash-strapped drivers to adjust to each new car, but it does pave a realistic path to the top flight. Champion of US Formula 4, F3, USF2000 and Indy Pro 2000 in just three years, including nine wins from 16 races in the last of those series, Kirkwood is delivering.

"I'm going to keep on the path towards IndyCar," he tells Autosport. "I've already built a lot of contacts, I know most of the people in the paddock and I understand the cars pretty well already.

"That's where my focus is at the moment, but I never count stuff out and I never will."

'Not counting stuff out' comes as he points to the Formula E car in the garage behind him. Kirkwood was called up by BMW to run in the post-Marrakech E-Prix rookie test through his ties with Andretti Autosport, with which he'll contest the 2020 Indy Lights season. After a day's running, the hot-shot was fifth fastest overall and beat the time of temporary BMW team-mate Lucas Auer.

Some in the UK will remember Kirkwood's name from his FF1600 outings in 2016, when he was seventh in the Festival and fourth in the Walter Hayes Trophy. One place ahead of him in the Hayes at Silverstone was Oliver Askew, who won the 2019 Indy Lights title and will now graduate to IndyCar with McLaren SP this season. Kirkwood is two years his junior, so is in good shape to emulate his rival.

What's more, in the second pre-season Indy Lights test earlier this week on the Homestead-Miami Speedway he topped the times, having ranked third in the morning session. The pressure is non-stop, however. The very reason Kirkwood is so tied to the progression that the US market offers is because of tight purse strings so many junior drivers face.

Champion of US Formula 4, F3, USF2000 and Indy Pro 2000 in just three years, including nine wins from 16 races in the last of those series, Kirkwood is delivering

"I don't have the luxury to finish outside first place," he adds. "I have to keep winning and keep moving on. It pushes me to do the best that I can and at the same time it's very rewarding to do so."

But as much as he keeps chasing the cliched American dream, Kirkwood also has one eye on emulating Mario Andretti by making the switch to winning championships in Formula 1.

He has precedent on the other side of the Atlantic, too, having contested the Monza round of the European Formula Open championship last season with the RP Motorsport concern that ran him to the Indy Pro 2000 title.

He qualified 16th and 11th for the two Italian races respectively. As a headline, that's not as remarkable as his 20 wins from 30 races entered on the Road To Indy ladder. But, in at the deep end and without any testing, he progressed hugely in the races to climb to a ninth and a sixth-placed result.

For their breakout IndyCar campaigns last season, Colton Herta and Particio O'Ward have rightly been touted as the leading lights of the next generation of single-seater drivers that are plying their trade in America.

At his current rate, Kirkwood absolutely deserves to be in that company.