The 2021 Indy Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires field lined up on pit road during spring training at Barber Motorsports Park (Photo Courtesy Of Andersen Promotions)

By Steve Wittich

What the quickest driver of the day had to say:

“It’s been a very positive weekend,” said Juncos Racing sophomore Manuel Sulaiman. “We were super quick in the first session today and we were pushing the limits. I touched a bit of the grass and we weren’t able to finish that session. The team did a great job to get the car back out there for the final session and we were back at P1.

“We did a good number of laps this week, and all of that is good information for the first races of the year. These are my first days back in the car but I’ve adapted to the car and to the team very well. Juncos Racing has so much knowledge and they are so experienced, and I get along with everyone so well, so I’m really looking forward to the beginning of the season.”

Notes:

  • All seventeen drivers were below Parker Thompson’s three-year-old race track record at Barber Motorsports Park, but nobody could touch the Canadian’s qualifying record of 76.2967 seconds.
  • The top six drivers on the combined timesheet were all within three-tenths of a second of each other. That group includes three veterans and three rookies.
  • Seven teams – Juncos Racing (3), Pabst Racing (2), DEForce Racing (1), Exclusive Autosport (1), Jay Howard Driver Development (1), RP Motorsport (1) and Turn 3 Motorsport (1) – are represented in the top ten.
  • One car outfits, Turn 3 Motorsport and DEForce Racing, had impressive showings with rookie drivers James Roe and Cameron Shields.

One car team Turn 3 Motorsport with Topcon Positioning Group sponsored driver James Roe had a successful spring training (Photo Courtesy Of Andersen Promotions)

  • With a pair of FIA Formula 3 veterans, RP Motorsport showed flashes of the pace that led the Italian team to the 2019 championship with driver Kyle Kirkwood. Enaam Ahmed finished second quickest in the fourth session, while Enzo Fittipaldi was third most rapid in the final session. Both of those sessions were in the heat of the day.
  • The 17 drivers turned a total of 1,746 laps of the 2.3-mile, 17-turn natural terrain road course. That equates to 4015.8 miles.
  • Third-generation driver Fittipaldi completed 144 laps, more than any other driver.

The Claro/Baterias Moura/XP Investimentos/PLGG sponsored RP Motorsport No. 74 of Enzo Fittipaldi on track during Indy Pro 2000 spring training at Barber Motorsports Park (Photo Courtesy Of Andersen Promotions)

The combined timesheet is up next, but before you get to that, can I say how excited I am for the Indy Pro 2000 title fight.

A half-second separated the top 13 drivers. That’s only 0.5 seconds over five hours of testing. In the 2020 edition of spring training, the top six drivers were covered by a half-second. It was only the top four drivers covered by a half-second in 2019.

Indy Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires combined timesheet from all five test sessions

RANK CAR NO. DRIVER TEAM SESSION QUICK LAP DIFFERENCE TOTAL LAPS
1 22 Manuel Sulaiman Juncos Racing 3 76.8167 62
2 1 Christian Rasmussen – r Jay Howard Driver Development 3 76.8310 -0.0143 73
3 21 Kyffin Simpson – r Juncos Racing 3 76.8970 -0.0803 107
4 18 Hunter McElrea Pabst Racing 3 77.0060 -0.1893 93
5 3 James Roe – r Turn 3 Motorsport 3 77.0551 -0.2384 108
6 42 Artem Petrov Exclusive Autosport 3 77.0624 -0.2457 104
7 55 Reece Gold – r Juncos Racing 3 77.1619 -0.3452 104
8 7 Cameron Shields – r DEForce Racing 3 77.1707 -0.354 116
9 74 Enzo Fittipaldi – r RP Motorsport 3 77.1984 -0.3817 144
10 27 Colin Kaminsky Pabst Racing 3 77.2548 -0.4381 94
11 91 Braden Eves Exclusive Autosport 3 77.2846 -0.4679 112
12 77 Enaam Ahmed – r RP Motorsport 3 77.2999 -0.4832 125
13 5 Wyatt Brichacek – r Jay Howard Driver Development 2 77.3432 -0.5265 77
14 40 Jack William Miller – r Miller Vinatieri Motorsports 3 77.6680 -0.8513 127
15 51 Jacob Abel Abel Motorsports 3 77.7921 -0.9754 106
16 11 Hunter Yeany – r Velocity Racing Development 2 77.8468 -1.0301 116
17 20 Flinn Lazier – r Legacy Autosport 3 78.1255 -1.3088 78

Manuel Sulaiman, in the Telcel/Infinitum/WBC/Inteligentus/Anahuac sponsored Juncos Racing No.22 topped the combined timesheet for Indy Pro 2000 spring training (Photo Courtesy Of Andersen Promotions)

Averaging things out

Studying the combined timesheet and timesheets from individual sessions is only part of the story when predicting how a driver’s season could turn out.

With teams and drivers working on varying test programs across five one-hour test sessions, the outright pace isn’t always the goal. That is why it’s vital to average how a driver does across all five sessions.

When utilizing this method, TSO Ladder likes to drop the lowest finishing session because teams work on different items in sessions or might skip a session due to limited tires.

Here are a few observations:

  • Despite only contesting 11 previous Indy Pro 2000 races in 2019, Jay Howard Driver Development has found the speed to compete in their private testing. Wyatt Brichacek led three of the five sessions, and while defending USF2000 champion Christian Rasmussen didn’t lead a session, he was quick every time his JHDD, CSU | One Cure/Lucas Oil sponsored No. 1 was on track.

As the reigning USF2000 champion Christian Rasmussen will pilot the No. 1 PM-18 with a sharp champions livery, during the 2021 Indy Pro 2000 season (Photo Courtesy Of Andersen Promotions)

  • Pabst Racing sophomore Hunter McElrea in the Giltrap Group/Doric NZ/Miles Advisory Partners sponsored No. 18 was highly consistent. The Kiwi ended three sessions with the fourth quickest time and one session with the fifth fastest time.
  • Juncos Racing rookies Reece Gold and Kyffin Simpson were the models of consistency. Neither of the pair of 16-year-olds finished outside of the top ten in any session.
Christian Rasmussen’s transponder was inoperable during Sunday’s first session. We understand that he finished in the top three during that session, so we used three for that session.

Average placement in spring training sessions (worst finish is dropped)

RANK CAR NO. DRIVER TEAM AVERAGE
1 1 Christian Rasmussen -r Jay Howard Driver Development 2.8
2 5 Wyatt Brichacek – r Jay Howard Driver Development 4.0
3 18 Hunter McElrea Pabst Racing 4.3
4T 55 Reece Gold -r Juncos Racing 4.5
4T 22 Manuel Sulaiman Juncos Racing 4.5
6 21 Kyffin Simpson – r Juncos Racing 5.3
7 3 James Roe – r Turn 3 Motorsport 6.3
8 74 Enzo Fittipaldi – r RP Motorsport USA 6.5
9 27 Colin Kaminsky Pabst Racing 7.0
10 77 Enaam Ahmed – r RP Motorsport USA 7.3
11 42 Artem Petrov Exclusive Autosport 8.0
12 91 Braden Eves Exclusive Autosport 8.3
13 7 Cameron Shields – r DEForce Racing 8.5
14 11 Hunter Yeany -r Velocity Racing Development 9.8
15 40 Jack William Miller – r Miller Vinatieri Motorsports 12.3
16 51 Jacob Abel – r Abel Motorsports 14.0
17 20 Flinn Lazier – r Legacy Autosport 15.3