A pair of DEForce Racing drivers, Kory Enders, and Moisés de la Vara sandwiched current points leader Rasmus Lindh at the top of the Indy Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires timing screen after the first and only practice session. 

Parker Thompson and Kyle Kirkwood, who are also in championship contention had the fourth and fifth quickest laps. 

The air temperature when the lone 30-minute practice session for the Cooper Tires Indy Pro 2000 Oval Challenge of St. Louis was 84F. The track temperature of the 1.25-mile egg-shaped oval was 115F. 

Each entry received two new sets of Cooper Tires and were allowed to carry over one set from the recent World Wide Technology Raceway At Gateway test. Drivers have to start the race on the same set of Cooper Tires they qualify on. 

The leader at the half-way point of the sessions was Moisés de la Vara. The DEForce Racing driver’s quick lap was 143.177mph. The rest of the top five were points leader Lindh, Kory Enders, Parker Thompson and Danial Frost. 

With ten minutes remaining in the session, newcomer Artem Petrov moved into the top three.

With eight minutes remaining, Lindh went to the top of the timing screens with a lap at 143.514mph. 

With five of 30 minutes, remaining times started to drop as drivers made qualifying simulations. Lindh was the first driver to go quicker, but the Swede was quickly supplanted on the top of the timing screens by Enders.

The entire 30-minute session was run under green flag conditions, and the dozen drivers turned a total of 423 laps. Nikita Lastochkin was the busiest pilot, turning 49 laps.

Cooper Tires Indy Pro 2000 Oval Challenge of St. Louis practice #1 results 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RANK CAR NO. DRIVER FASTEST LAP (mph) TOTAL LAPS
1 7 Kory Enders 143.786 35
2 10 Rasmus Lindh 143.780 36
3 6 Moises de la Vara 143.665 34
4 8 Parker Thompson 143.000 37
5 28 Kyle Kirkwood 142.741 30
6 51 Jacob Abel 142.637 36
7 68 Danial Frost 142.270 34
8 5 Artem Petrov 141.668 30
9 2 Sting Ray Robb 141.598 26
10 90 Nikita Lastochkin 139.899 49
11 3 Antoine Comeau 138.488 32
12 83 Charles Finelli 137.703 44

The middle rung of the Road To Indy Presented by Cooper Tires will be back for qualifying at 6:30 pm (Central).