DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Camaraderie. Atmosphere. Racing at home.
They’re words Logan Sargeant didn’t reference frequently during his two-year sojourn into Formula 1, where he made waves as the United States’ most recent full-time driver from 2023 to 2024. He even scored a point on home soil at Circuit of The Americas in Austin – the first American to do so in the series in 30 years.
But what Sargeant went through in global presence he lacked in terms of competition, racing at the front of the field where he knows his talent belongs as the Williams team was a consistent midfield runner with only occasional points-scoring potential.
The Floridian took a self-imposed racing hiatus after he and Williams parted ways midway through 2024, and a would-be plan to run a Le Mans Prototype class car in Europe to start 2025 changed before the season even began.
It was thanks to a combination of rest and refreshment that revitalized Sargeant’s racing return, which will come in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks at the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Sargeant will share the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA LMP2 07 in LMP2 with Benjamin Pedersen and Naveen Rao.
The PR1 team has a championship-winning pedigree – five of them, in fact, in LMP2 – which sweetened the pot as Sargeant’s new management group, led by Corvette Racing driving veteran Oliver Gavin, connected the dots to put Sargeant in touch with team principal and co-owner Bobby Oergel’s squad for the final two races of the season.
A test at Indianapolis last month in advance brought back the juices and in Sargeant’s eyes, dusted off the cobwebs.
“The atmosphere within sports cars is really enjoyable,” said Sargeant, who’s driven multiple LMP2 and GT3 races several years ago. “You’re working with your teammates towards their common goal and have that camaraderie; that’s one of the parts I love about it.
“The part I’m most looking forward to going back is all of us working together, making compromises for each other. And here it’s just racing at a high level again, and that’s what I’m most looking forward to.
“I took that break, but it was a much needed one, and I feel super fresh coming into it. That test was super useful for me to find my feet again, and, yeah, I feel super ready and just grateful for the opportunity.”
Sargeant enters a lineup with good company. Pedersen set a record as the fastest qualifying rookie in the Indianapolis 500’s 100-plus year history and won Rookie of the Year honors there in 2023. His best finish in his first full IMSA season is third at the Rolex 24 At Daytona. Rao is set for his second start of 2025 and he has past IMSA paddock experience including a Prototype Challenge series championship in 2020.
Pedersen, who tested alongside Sargeant at Indianapolis, set the willingness to work together was immediately impressive.
“It was Logan’s first introduction and the first time I met him was actually at the seat fit, and we went straight to business right away!” Pedersen laughed. “He got in in my seat and everything was really close to start, but he asking, ‘Can I move the pedals a little bit?’ I was like, ‘Absolutely. How much do you need? Are we talking three inches or a millimeter?’ And it’s like, oh, just like a millimeter. And I was like, that’s no problem. That’s an easy compromise.
“It matters that you’re comfortable, but you’re not going to be completely perfect as if it were your own car, but luckily, we’re all pretty similar in height, which makes it easy and we can share the same seat base and there’s some other teams where that’s not the case. So I think we’re pretty well off and it was a pretty easy welcoming for Logan in that regard, I would say.”
Oergel is used to seeing his team at the front of the field and so 2025 has been an odd and rare “off year.” Some of that has been due to the midseason driver shift that saw Pedersen increase his presence from Michelin Endurance Cup third driver to now Rao entering as the team’s third primary Bronze-rated driver this season. The other part has been the strength of IMSA’s LMP2 class, where both the caliber and quantity of entries has increased.
“It has been a bit up and down for us, but not for lack of effort and having everything at our disposal to have good results,” Oergel said. “It’s just without that sprinkle of luck, sometimes it just doesn’t work. And at the end of the day, it’s been a lot of years since it’s been a rough one, but so be it, we move forward and go for W’s in the last two here.
“For me, the neat piece here is this group of drivers. It’s pretty unique, it’s neat to put them all together and we’re very fortunate to have been able to come together the way we are in the last few races.
“Benjamin rose to the occasion … and being able to bring Logan in to partake in the thing is absolutely fantastic in terms of the third role at this moment. So, it’s neat to have two, what I would call ‘gunslingers’ in the package. and be able to just rely on these guys are going to take care of whatever we need to do.”
Rao, an engineer by trade, added, “I would say that the game has really been raised on the Bronze side. I mean, some of the Bronze drivers are now faster than a lot of professional drivers. You’ve just got to be on top of your own game, your own mental game, all of that when you get in the car. So that challenge is what I really love here, and what brings me back.”
Alas, many eyes will be on Sargeant in the striking No. 52 car’s teal livery once the PR1 ORECA hits the track in Indianapolis. Inevitably, questions will follow about whether his two-race bow into LMP2 will portend a greater top-level prototype presence. He’s taking it race-by-race for now.
“Truthfully, I’m very nearsighted right now,” Sargeant explains. “I just want to, for one, get back in a car, you know, really, really find my rhythm again. which I feel like already was coming very naturally in the test.
“I don’t go into Indy feeling underprepared, I go into Indy feeling great, and that’s how I look at it. You know, I go in and I feel prepared, I feel good. And I’m just ready to, you know, deliver for the team, and hopefully produce good results and that in turn will result in doors opening for next year or so. That’s how I’m looking at it.”
