By Steve Wittich

A pair of USF2000 rookies from this season, who are both driving for Juncos Racing this weekend led the first of three Pro Mazda Presented By Cooper Tire sessions on the first day of the Chris Griffis Memorial Test.

Rasmus Lindh led most of the 45-minute session before Danial Frost turned in the only lap under 80 seconds to grab the top spot. That lap at 79.731 seconds is well under the race record set by Parker Thompson in May.

Rounding out the top five were Julian Van der Watt (BN Racing), Kyle Dupell (BN Racing) and Mathias Soler-Obel (RP Motorsport).

A total of nine drivers representing five teams turned laps during the first of three Saturday sessions.

Juncos Racing and Frost, Lindh and Cameron Shields

Pro Mazda team champion Juncos Racing, who has also fielded the last two Pro Mazda Champions has a trio of drivers running for them this weekend. The Speedway, Ind. based team had seven wins and 21 podiums during the 2018 Pro Mazda Presented By Cooper Tire season.

Frost contested seven races in USF2000 this season with Exclusive Autosport with a best finish of fourth in Toronto. The driver from Singapore has a lot of seat time in Formula 4 and Formula Masters, an Asian series that utilizes a Tatuus chassis and Volkswagen 2.0 L powerplant.

Lindh, a talented 17-year-old coming off a successful first season in cars with Pabst Racing in USF2000, is joined this weekend by Danial Frost and Cameron Shields.

Lindh ended his rookie Mazda Road To Indy Presented by Cooper Tires season second in USF2000 points and along the way collected five podiums, three poles, and the second lowest average race lap speed.

Shields, who like Verizon IndyCar Series driver Will Power, hails from Toowoomba, Australia. Shields started racing in Formula Ford in 2015 and since then has won 46 races across Formula Ford, Formula 4 and Formula 3 in Australia.

Saturday – Pro Mazda – Chris Griffis Memorial Test session #1 results

RANK CAR NO. DRIVER TEAM QUICK LAP DIFFERENCE TOTAL LAPS
1 62 Danial Frost Juncos Racing 1:19.731 –.—- 24
2 1 Rasmus Lindh Juncos Racing 1:20.091 0.3599 25
3 79 Julian Van der Watt BN Racing 1:20.277 0.5465 19
4 78 Kyle Dupell BN Racing 1:20.323 0.5918 19
5 27 Mathias Soler-Obel RP Motorsport Racing 1:20.342 0.6110 22
6 10 Darren Keane RP Motorsport Racing 1:20.365 0.6343 21
7 90 Nikita Lastochkin Exclusive Autosport 1:20.626 0.8953 23
8 12 Moises de la Vara DEForce Racing 1:20.838 1.1076 23
9 73 Cameron Shields Juncos Racing 1:21.190 1.4587 22

Pro Mazda is back on track 1:15 PM and 4:15 PM for 45-minute sessions.