By Steve Wittich

Juncos Racing rookie Rasmus Lindh, with a lap of 68.893 seconds, will start on pole for the first of two Indy Pro 2000 Grand Prix of Indianapolis Presented by Cooper Tires. The scorching lap lowered the Indy Pro 2000 track record that was set by Oliver Askew in 2018.

This afternoon’s race will be the fourth time in his Road To Indy Presented by Cooper Tires career that the 17-year-old will start on the pole.

Lindh will be joined on the front row by fellow rookie Danial Frost (Exclusive Autosport) with a lap of 69.171 seconds, which was also below the track record.

Kyle Kirkwood (RP Motorsport) and Phillippe Denes (Fatboy Racing!) will start on the second row.

Surprisingly, current championship leader Parker Thompson could only manage the 13th quickest time and will start on the back row. It should be fun to see him try and come through the field.

Lindh joins Timothe Buret, Victor Franzoni and Spencer Pigot as pole winners for Juncos Racing on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. The Speedway, Ind. team now has six poles in 12 attempts at their home track.

The session began under overcast skies and cold temperatures with drivers getting heat in their Cooper Tire slicks during the first half of the session.

At the half-way point of the 20-minute session, Lindh, who led the single practice session on Thursday was the quickest driver by almost a half-second with a track record-setting lap of 68.995 seconds.

Frost, Robb, Kirkwood, and Rodriguez made up the remainder of the top five at that point.

With five minutes remaining the session it was still Lindh leading the way, followed by the same four drivers in the top five. At this point in the session, seven of the 14 entries were within one second of Lindh.

Lindh was able to go even quicker on his ninth lap of the session with four minutes remaining. Fatboy Racing! driver Denes jumped up to third, with Kory Enders and Jacob Abel moving to within one second of Lindh.

Denes was quickly supplanted by defending USF2000 champion Kirkwood.

Frost, on his ninth lap of the session, was able to go quicker but was still more than four-tenths adrift of Lindh. The Exclusive Autosport rookie went quicker on the next lap, moving to within 0.27 seconds of his fellow rookie.

Indy Pro 2000 Grand Prix of Indianapolis Presented by Cooper Tires Qualifying #1 (Unofficial) Results

RANK

CAR NO.

DRIVER

TEAM

QUICK LAP

DIFFERENCE

TOTAL LAPS

1

10

Rasmus Lindh

Juncos Racing

1:18.893

–.—-

11

2

68

Danial Frost

Exclusive Autosport

1:19.171

0.2784

11

3

28

Kyle Kirkwood

RP Motorsport Racing

1:19.481

0.5880

11

4

98

Phillippe Denes

FatBoy Racing!

1:19.630

0.7370

12

5

5

Ian Rodriguez

RP Motorsport Racing

1:19.661

0.7681

11

6

2

Sting Ray Robb

Juncos Racing

1:19.670

0.7768

13

7

7

Kory Enders

DEForce Racing

1:19.982

1.0890

14

8

51

Jacob Abel

Abel Motorsports

1:19.996

1.1028

14

9

6

Moises de la Vara

DEForce Racing

1:20.015

1.1216

13

10

90

Nikita Lastochkin

Exclusive Autosport

1:20.123

1.2297

12

11

11

Antonio Serravalle

Pserra Racing/Jay Howard Driver Development

1:20.342

1.4485

9

12

9

Jacob Loomis

JDL Racing

1:20.381

1.4878

5

13

8

Parker Thompson

Abel Motorsports

1:20.414

1.5206

14

14

83

Charles Finelli

Fatboy Racing!

No Time

 

Teams will have just over two hours to prepare for the second Indy Pro 2000 qualifying session that will start at 11:30 am.