By Steve Wittich

Juncos Racing rookie Rasmus Lindh was the quickest of the 14 Indy Pro 2000 drivers to take part in the first official practice on the 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course. A last-second lap at 80.489 seconds pushed the Swedish driver to the top of the timesheet.

RP Motorsport, who won on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course with Harrison Scott last year had their drivers turn in the second and third quickest times. Newcomer Ian Rodriguez led most of the session before settling for the second fastest lap. Kyle Kirkwood ended the session with the third fastest time, less than a tenth behind his teammate.

Phillippe Denes (Fatboy Racing!) and Sting Ray Robb (Juncos Racing) were the other drivers in the top five.

Only the top-six drivers were within one-second of the Swede.

Of note was championship leader Parker Thompson who turned the seventh quickest lap, over a second behind Lindh.

The Exclusive Autosport duo of Danial Frost and Nikita Lastochkin were unable to turn any laps in the 30-minute session. When we checked with the team, we were told that they were experiencing “technical issues.”

The dozen drivers that turned laps completed a total of 170 circuits of the 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course.

Lindh’s lap was not the quickest of the day though; his Juncos Racing teammate Robb turned a lap at 80.279 seconds during the second of two 50-minute test sessions earlier in the day.

Indy Pro 2000 Grand Prix of Indianapolis Presented by Cooper Tires Practice #1 Results

RANK

CAR NO.

DRIVER

TEAM

QUICK LAP

DIFFERENCE

TOTAL LAPS

1

10

Rasmus Lindh

Juncos Racing

1:20.489

–.—-

14

2

5

Ian Rodriguez

RP Motorsport Racing

1:20.761

0.2712

14

3

28

Kyle Kirkwood

RP Motorsport Racing

1:20.822

0.3328

15

4

98

Phillippe Denes

FatBoy Racing

1:21.011

0.5221

15

5

2

Sting Ray Robb

Juncos Racing

1:21.210

0.7206

16

6

7

Kory Enders

DEForce Racing

1:21.546

1.0561

9

7

8

Parker Thompson

Abel Motorsports

1:21.644

1.1550

16

8

11

Antonio Serravalle

Pserra Racing/Jay Howard Driver Development

1:21.684

1.1951

13

9

51

Jacob Abel

Abel Motorsports

1:21.755

1.2660

15

10

6

Moises de la Vara

DEForce Racing

1:21.761

1.2719

16

11

9

Jacob Loomis

JDL Racing

1:21.929

1.4399

12

12

83

Charles Finelli

FatBoy Racing

1:23.516

3.0265

15

13

68

Danial Frost

Exclusive Autosport

No Time

14

90

Nikita Lastochkin

Exclusive Autosport

No Time

Indy Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires drivers will have a busy Friday. They qualify at 8:35 am and 11:30 am, and the first race gets the green flag at 3:40 am.