Juncos Hollinger Racing has parted ways with two highly-rated members of engineering staff ahead of this weekend’s Mid-Ohio IndyCar race, in what it has described as a “restructuring” of its technical department.
The engineer behind Agustin Canapino’s sensational start to his rookie season, Charlie Ping, and the performance engineer on Callum Ilott’s car, Zack Porter, have both been released.
Canapino’s lead engineer Ping joined ahead of this season and has one of the most diverse resumes in the paddock.
He worked for Honda Performance Development and Pratt Miller on various projects including in IndyCar before heading to Australian Supercars, and has since worked in the World Endurance Championship, IndyCar and IMSA. As well as engineering, Ping has extensive experience in simulation.
Canapino switched to IndyCar from a career in tin-tops and has thrilled with an equal-best finish of 12th – on his oval debut no less, as well as in his first race – and 23rd in the standings as the second best rookie so far in 2023.
Porter came to IndyCar from a company called VI-Grade working on driver-in-loop simulators, lap simulation and seven-post simulators – shaker rigs used to simulate the effects of different tracks and conditions on the car to adjust components, notably suspension and dampers.
He was at AJ Foyt Racing before joining Juncos ahead of this campaign.
Porter has helped Ilott to reach 14th in the points in an impressive sophomore IndyCar campaign in which the Juncos team has expanded from one car in its first full-time season in 2022 to two in its second season with the addition of Canapino.
A statement issued to The Race from JHR read: “We, at Juncos Hollinger Racing, have decided to restructure our technical department for the remainder of the 2023 season.
“This is not a decision that we have taken lightly but looking forward we felt a change needed to be made to help us keep improving on the programme that we are building.
“We are very appreciative of all the effort and hard work contributed by Charlie Ping and Zack Porter to our programme this year.
“We wish them all the best in the future.”
It is not yet clear who will replace Ping and Porter, although it is no secret the team has been looking to add staff since expanding to two cars for this year.
