Sting Ray Robb, by six-hundredths of a second, grabbed his first career pole at the event the Payette, Idaho native call his home race.

The soon to be 18-year-old’s 66.475-second lap on his ninth of 14 laps was quicker than Kyle Kirkwood.

Kirkwood’s RP Motorsport teammate Artem Petrov, who is making only his second Road To Indy appearance, finished a tenth behind Kirkwood to start behind Robb.

Championship leader Rasmus Lindh was only able to turn in the seventh quickest lap and will have some work to do in tomorrow’s 30-lap race.

The one positive for the Juncos Racing rookie is his teammate keeping the bonus point for winning the pole away from Kirkwood.

Indy Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires qualifying began with overcast skies and an ambient temperature of 75F. The track temperature was 92F, and humidity was reasonably high at 62%.

The early leader in the 20-minute session was Kyle Kirkwood with a lap of 66.791 seconds. At that point in the session, only Robb had joined Kirkwood as driver’s with sub 67-second laps.

At the half-way point of the session, 11 of the 13 drivers were on pit road for adjustments and fresh Cooper Tire slicks.

The top five were Kirkwood, Robb, Frost, Lindh, and Thompson.

The Chicago Pneumatic/PWR Junior Team/SKF sponsored No. 10 of Lindh was the first car to head back out on the 1.964-mile, 12-Turn road course.

Sting Ray Robb was the first driver to go quicker after getting his Cooper Tires into the ‘go-fast’ range, moving to the provisional pole.

Kirkwood quickly turned in a purple lap, moving to the provisional pole. Kirkwood’s time in the preferred position didn’t last long, as Robb supplanted him by a slim six-hundredths of a second.

The top two slowed significantly, cooling their Coopers before getting back on it for a couple of hot laps to end the session. Robb and Kirwood were able to get within a tenth of their best times but could not go faster.

Late in the session, Kirkwood’s RP Motorsport teammate Artem Petrov turned a lap only nine-tenths behind Kirkwood.

Indy Pro 2000 unofficial qualifying results

RANK CAR NO. DRIVER TEAM FASTEST LAP DIFFERENCE TOTAL LAPS
1 2 Sting Ray Robb Juncos Racing 1:06.475 –.—- 14
2 28 Kyle Kirkwood RP Motorsport USA 1:06.542 0.0671 13
3 5 Artem Petrov RP Motorsport USA 1:06.636 0.1613 13
4 8 Parker Thompson Abel Motorsports 1:06.832 0.3569 14
5 68 Danial Frost Exclusive Autosport 1:06.851 0.3760 15
6 11 Antonio Serravalle Pserra Racing/RP Motorsports USA 1:07.092 0.6167 14
7 10 Rasmus Lindh Juncos Racing 1:07.126 0.6510 13
8 6 Moises de la Vara DEForce Racing 1:07.302 0.8269 14
9 90 Nikita Lastochkin Exclusive Autosport 1:07.356 0.8807 13
10 7 Kory Enders DEForce Racing 1:07.462 0.9867 14
11 51 Jacob Abel Abel Motorsports 1:07.487 1.0122 13
12 27 Matt Round-Garrido Jay Howard Driver Development/BN Racing 1:07.517 1.0424 14
13 3 Antoine Comeau Turn 3 Motorsport 1:07.781 1.3063 15

The first Indy Pro 2000 race of the weekend rolls off at 5:25 pm on Saturday, but the middle rung of the Road To Indy Presented by Cooper Tires is back on track for their second qualifying session of the weekend at 10:25 am tomorrow.