Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) has announced that Estonian driver Juri Vips will return to NTT INDYCAR SERIES competition for his third start with the team at the BitNile.com Grand Prix of Portland on Aug. 25. He competed for the team in Portland and Laguna Seca in 2023 and will pilot the No. 75 AMADA Honda in the team’s fourth entry in Portland, along with those for Graham Rahal, Pietro Fittipaldi, and Christian Lundgaard.
The No. 75 AMADA Honda will also feature logos on the rear wing and front nose of the body promoting FABTECH, the largest event in North America for metal forming, fabricating, welding, and finishing. FABTECH 2024 will take place Oct. 15-17 in Orlando, Fla.
This will mark his second race at Portland International Raceway, where he made his series debut in 2023. He started and finished 18th and used that experience to run up front the following weekend at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, where he was sixth fastest in Practice 1 and a mere -0.05 from advancing to the Firestone Fast Six on Saturday, qualifying seventh. After a six-grid penalty in the race for an unapproved engine change, he started 13th and was collected in a multicar crash on the opening lap but went on to finish 24th.
Vips first tested an Indy car for RLL on Oct. 12, 2022, at Sebring International Raceway and again at Barber Motorsports Park on March 13, 2023, and has performed static simulator testing for RLL since 2023. AMADA was also the primary sponsor of the No. 75 Honda-powered entry for Takuma Sato at the 2024 Indianapolis 500.
The 2024 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season resumes with the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 on Aug. 17, which will be broadcast live on USA beginning at 6:00 p.m. ET. All on-track action can be seen on NBC’s Peacock Premium streaming service. For more information about the series or team, visit www.indycar.com and www.rahal.com.