Manuel Sulaiman, in the Telcel/Infinitum/WBC/Inteligentus/Anahuac sponsored Juncos Racing No.22 topped the first test session of the Barber Motorsports Park race weekend – Photo credit: Gavin Baker Photography/Road to Indy

By Steve Wittich

Don’t forget to read our extensive Indy Pro 2000 team and driver preview here —> Indy Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires – Part #3 – team and driver previews

Unlike the first USF2000 test session, Thursday morning’s Indy Pro 2000 session was reasonably well attended.

All 17 drivers completed numerous laps of the 2.3-mile, 17-turn Barber Motorsports Park natural terrain road course during the 60-minutes of testing. All told, the field completed 784.3 miles of testing. The RP Motorsport rookie duo of Enzo Fittipaldi and Enaam Ahmed were the busiest, completing 32 and 28 laps.

Not surprisingly, it was a pair of veteran championship contenders that made a solid first impression. Indy Pro 2000 race winners in 2020, Manuel Sulaiman (Juncos Racing) and Braden Eves (Exclusive Autosport), were separated by a scant 0.0148 seconds at the top of the timesheet. Sulaiman’s best lap was timed at 77.2680 seconds.

Like the five spring training sessions at Barber Motorsports Park, the driver’s best lap times were ridiculously close. The top five – Sulaiman, Eves, Kyffin Simpson (Juncos Racing), Reece Gold (Juncos Racing), and Fittipaldi – were covered by a scant two-tenths of a second. Less than a half-a-second covered the top nine, and all 17 drivers were within 1.2 seconds of the top spot.

Indy Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires test session #1 at Barber Motorsports Park – April 15, 2021

RANK CAR NO. DRIVER TEAM QUICK LAP DIFFERENCE TOTAL LAPS
1 22 Manuel Sulaiman Juncos Racing 1:17.2680 0.000 19
2 91 Braden Eves Exclusive Autosport 1:17.2828 0.0148 23
3 21 Kyffin Simpson Juncos Racing 1:17.3916 0.1236 19
4 55 Reece Gold Juncos Racing 1:17.4583 0.1903 19
5 74 Enzo Fittipaldi RP Motorsport USA 1:17.4635 0.1955 32
6 7 Cameron Shields DEForce Racing 1:17.5463 0.2783 12
7 18 Hunter McElrea Pabst Racing 1:17.5917 0.3237 22
8 42 Artem Petrov Exclusive Autosport 1:17.6407 0.3727 26
9 1 Christian Rasmussen Jay Howard Driver Development 1:17.6483 0.3803 13
10 77 Enaam Ahmed RP Motorsport USA 1:17.9466 0.6786 28
11 27 Colin Kaminsky Pabst Racing 1:18.1298 0.8618 17
12 51 Jacob Abel Abel Motorsports 1:18.2127 0.9447 24
13 11 Hunter Yeany Velocity Racing Development 1:18.2285 0.9605 14
14 5 Wyatt Brichacek Jay Howard Driver Development 1:18.3030 1.0350 11
15 20 Flinn Lazier Legacy Autosport 1:18.3471 1.0791 22
16 3 James Roe Turn 3 Motorsport 1:18.3996 1.1316 17
17 40 Jack William Miller Miller Vinatieri Motorsports 1:18.4956 1.2276 23