Making the jump from the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda to Pro Mazda Presented by Cooper Tires, David Malukas was impressive during the Chris Griffis Memorial Test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway last month, posting the second quickest time of the weekend.

“Looking back, I was really surprised with how well we did,” Malukas told POPULAR OPEN WHEEL. “Obviously going to the new class of Pro Mazda, I was expecting to be there, but when we put new tires, we were first and second fastest the whole weekend so I was really happy with how it went. Especially with the team, because of being a new team, and everything went better than planned.”

The BN Racing driver got his feet wet last year in USF2000 competition, running nine races with two top-fives, including a runner-up at Road America.

“Looking back last year, we started mid-season. So first race was hectic,” he reflected. “After that, the next set of races were good and I learned a lot with the team.”

So far, the plan is coming together, which should be no surprise as Malukas has shown talent throughout his career to date with success at various levels in karting prior to Mazda Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires competition.

Malukas got his start in karting at the age seven, by going to a local track in Indiana and doing some club racing.

“One of the people there thought I was doing quite decent and wanted to coach me,” he said. “From there, I ended up going up and up and got a couple sponsors, and now here I am on Pro Mazda.”

Along the way, he has made plenty of memorable moments, including winning the Go-Kart World Finals in Junior in France in 2015 with a perfect clean sweep of the weekend.

Now he hopes to add more to the highlight reel in the upcoming season.

“Beginning last year in USF was a chance for me to learn the basics, whereas now in Pro Mazda, we’re more aiming to be up at the top and go full on,” he said. “Last year it was about a learning curve, but now is about full power.”

EMAIL ASHLEY AT ashley.mccubbin@popularspeed.com

FOLLOW ON TWITTER: @ladybug388

The thoughts and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of PopularOpenWheel.com, its owners, management or other contributors. Any links contained in this article should not be considered an endorsement.