LONG BEACH, California – James Jakes soaked up the sun as he enjoyed the warmth of a beautiful Southern California day. It was time for the annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach Media Luncheon and the driver for Schmidt-Peterson Motorsports was still smiling from his third-place finish in last Sunday’s Indy Grand Prix of Louisiana at a very wet NOLA Motorsports Park.

It’s nice to see the sunshine again,” Jakes said. “I’ve just about dried out from New Orleans and that is nice. But this is an awesome place to come – one of, if not the best street course on the calendar. Everybody loves coming here. What is there to not love about coming to West Coast?”

Jakes is back for his fourth Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach and with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports taking two of the top three podium positions including James Hinchcliffe’s victory the best is yet to come for the Honda team in the Verizon IndyCar Series.

“I think so because the team is moving in the right direction,” Jakes said. “There is still some work to do but I think we can definitely take this momentum and ride the horns as the top Honda team in the series.”

The driver from Leeds, England is starting to make a name for himself in the series.

“I’d like to think so but there is a long way to go yet,” Jakes said. “We have only done two races but it’s nice to be in the top eight in the championship and hopefully we’ll keep the momentum up and stay there the rest of the year. It will be a nice return if we could do that after a year out of the series.”

In his previous time in the Verizon IndyCar Series at Dale Coyne Racing in 2011-2012 Jakes was a back-marker but at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in 2013 he showed flashes of competitiveness, including a second-place finish at Belle Isle in Detroit sometimes showing a faster pace than the team’s primary driver, Graham Rahal.

He knows the secret to his turnaround in his second chance at the series.

“Consistency is a big part of it especially if you are going to finish well in the championship at the end of the year,” Jakes said. “You have to be consistent. Even if you aren’t the strongest on the weekend just get some points. What was frustrating in the season-opener at St. Petersburg is we were running well; on a good strategy and would have got some top-10 points. That is what you should aim to do if you aren’t completely competitive on those weekends.

“I need to be consistent in the year and it should reward you toward the end of the season.”

With his confidence buoyed by a podium finish in the Southern Louisiana Swamp he is ready to tackle the very fast but extremely tight street course in Long Beach set against the glamour of the Pacific Ocean.

“It’s difficult to pass here so you have to do it at the end of each straight,” Jakes said. “So that means the first corner and third to last corner are the best opportunities. But the way the races have been going strategy wise anything can happen. There seems to be a lot of tire degradation so if you are on a new set of boots and somebody is on a really old set it should make it a lot easier to overtake.

“Hopefully, we can carry on the momentum. Get some more solid points and keep the momentum going.”