Artem Petrov in the Road To Success/Bell/226ers sponsored No. 42 PM-18 from the Exclusive Autosport stable navigates the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course (Photo credit: Gavin Baker Photography/Road to Indy)

Steve Wittich
Wow! The top seven drivers in the lone Indy Pro 2000 practice session in preparation for the Indy Pro 2000 Grand Prix Of Indianapolis Presented by Cooper Tires triple-header were separated by only fifteen-hundredths-of-a-second, in numbers, that is 0.1525 seconds.
Exclusive Autosport veteran Artem Petrov, who started on pole on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in the same series last year, set the quickest lap, timed at 81.0964 seconds. The last race winner in the series, Christian Rasmussen (Jay Howard Driver Development), was the seventh-fastest driver, with a lap timed at 81.2489 seconds.
In between Petrov and Rasmussen were points leader Braden Eves (Exclusive Autosport), Jack William Miller (Miller Vinatieri Motorsports), Hunter McElrea (Pabst Racing), Reece Gold (Juncos Racing), and Manuel Sulaiman (Juncos Racing).
All 13 drivers were within one second of Petrov in the session that saw the drivers utilize carry-over sets of Cooper Tires.
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 42 Artem Petrov Exclusive Autosport 1:21.0964 —— 9
2 91 Braden Eves Exclusive Autosport 1:21.1054 0.0090 16
3 40 Jack William Miller Miller Vinatieri Motorsports 1:21.1645 0.0681 16
4 18 Hunter McElrea Pabst Racing 1:21.1717 0.0753 15
5 55 Reece Gold Juncos Racing 1:21.1770 0.0806 13
6 22 Manuel Sulaiman Juncos Racing 1:21.1986 0.1022 12
7 1 Christian Rasmussen Jay Howard Driver Development 1:21.2489 0.1525 12
8 27 Colin Kaminsky Pabst Racing 1:21.5450 0.4486 17
9 21 Kyffin Simpson Juncos Racing 1:21.5752 0.4788 17
10 77 Enaam Ahmed RP Motorsport USA 1:21.8189 0.7225 8
11 3 James Roe Turn 3 Motorsport 1:21.8225 0.7261 18
12 5 Wyatt Brichacek Jay Howard Driver Development 1:21.8448 0.7484 19
13 51 Jacob Abel Abel Motorsports 1:22.0344 0.9380 17

Testing

The series had 100-minutes of practice before the lone practice session. Petrov led the first session, and Rasmussen led the second session.
Rasmussen led the combined timesheet, with Sulaiman, Petrov, Gold, and Kaminsky rounding out the top five.
The middle-rung of the ladder is back on track bright and early on Friday morning for qualifying at 8 am.