By Patrick Stephan

Steve Wittich is attending to a family matter, so I will be pinch hitting on the TSOLadder.com side today.  And unfortunately, I was on an airplane (and then in the rental car) from Denver to Milwaukee when the first three official sessions of the weekend were completed.

Here is a quick recap of those sessions (please note, I didn’t actually see them so I can’t comment on red flags, etc.)

I’ll be covering the rest of today’s Road to Indy action live (and more completely of course) now that I am here at beautiful Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.

The first session of the day was Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship practice #1  at 8:00am.

That session was led by Matt Round-Garrido, followed by Prescott Campbell and Spike Kohlbecker.

Pos Car Driver Best Time Speed Diff Gap Best Lap Total Laps
1 92 Matt Round-Garrido 02:11.4794 109.906 –.—- –.—- 9 9
2 11 Prescott Campbell 02:11.4888 109.898 0.0094 0.0094 4 9
3 5 Spike Kohlbecker (R) 02:11.4974 109.891 0.0180 0.0086 9 10
4 12 Kiko Porto 02:11.5092 109.881 0.0298 0.0118 10 10
5 4 Michael d’Orlando 02:11.5577 109.841 0.0783 0.0485 5 5
6 10 Nolan Siegel 02:11.5648 109.835 0.0854 0.0071 10 10
7 2 Thomas Nepveu (R) 02:11.5964 109.808 0.1170 0.0316 9 9
8 22 Yuven Sundaramoorthy 02:11.6383 109.774 0.1589 0.0419 10 10
9 29 Erik Evans (R) 02:11.7183 109.707 0.2389 0.0800 8 9
10 33 Josh Green 02:11.7932 109.645 0.3138 0.0749 8 8
11 24 Josh Pierson 02:11.8265 109.617 0.3471 0.0333 8 9
12 6 Bijoy Garg 02:11.9036 109.553 0.4242 0.0771 8 8
13 34 Dylan Christie (R) 02:11.9388 109.524 0.4594 0.0352 8 8
14 23 Jace Denmark (R) 02:12.3850 109.154 0.9056 0.4462 9 9
15 1 Ely Navarro (R) 02:12.6691 108.921 1.1897 0.2841 4 4
16 99 Myles Rowe (R) 02:12.6802 108.912 1.2008 0.0111 9 9
17 19 Simon Sikes 02:12.6832 108.909 1.2038 0.0030 3 8
18 91 Billy Frazer (R) 02:12.7994 108.814 1.3200 0.1162 9 9
19 8 Jackson Lee (R) 02:13.0741 108.589 1.5947 0.2747 8 8
20 9 Peter Vodanovich (R) 02:13.2325 108.460 1.7531 0.1584 7 7
21 3 Evan Stamer (R) 02:13.3902 108.332 1.9108 0.1577 8 9
22 44 Christian Brooks 02:13.6922 108.087 2.2128 0.3020 2 3
23 16 Kent Vaccaro (R) 02:13.8744 107.940 2.3950 0.1822 6 6
24 63 Trey Burke (R) 02:13.9112 107.910 2.4318 0.0368 8 8
25 42 Michael Myers 02:14.0283 107.816 2.5489 0.1171 9 9

The Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship would get back on the track at 11:30am for Race #1 Qualifying.

This time it was Kiko Porto, the 17 year old from Brazil, that picked up the pole position for DE Force Racing. He will start the race alongside his teammate Nolan Siegel, with Michael d’Orlando starting third.

Porto goes in to today’s 3:30pm Central Time race trailing 5th starting Yuven Sundaramoorthy by just 7 points (177-170). Spike Kohlbecker will start the race in 4th.

d’Orlando is tied for third in the points, with Christian Brooks, who will have to come from the 12th starting spot.

Porto has a win already this season on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.

Pos Car # Driver Best Time Diff Total Laps Fast Lap Team
1 12 Kiko Porto 2:10.7892 6 3 DEForce Racing
2 10 Nolan Siegel 2:11.0411 0.2519 5 2 DEForce Racing
3 4 Michael d’Orlando 2:11.2916 0.5024 6 3 Cape Motorsports
4 5 Spike Kohlbecker 2:11.3259 0.5367 5 2 Ignite Autosports w/Cape
5 22 Yuven Sundaramoorthy 2:11.3968 0.6076 5 2 Pabst Racing
6 11 Prescott Campbell 2:11.4094 0.6202 6 4 DEForce Racing
7 24 Josh Pierson 2:11.5483 0.7591 5 2 Pabst Racing
8 33 Josh Green 2:11.5819 0.7927 5 2 Turn 3 Motorsport
9 23 Jace Denmark 2:11.6630 0.8738 5 2 Pabst Racing
10 92 Matt Round-Garrido 2:11.7005 0.9113 7 6 Exclusive Autosport
11 6 Bijoy Garg 2:11.7744 0.9852 6 2 Jay Howard Driver
12 44 Christian Brooks 2:11.8479 1.0587 6 2 Exclusive Autosport
13 2 Thomas Nepveu 2:11.8565 1.0673 3 2 Cape Motorsports
14 34 Dylan Christie 2:11.9074 1.1182 5 3 Turn 3 Motorsport
15 1 Ely Navarro 2:12.1118 1.3226 6 3 DEForce Racing
16 19 Simon Sikes 2:12.1244 1.3352 7 4 Legacy Autosport
17 8 Jackson Lee 2:12.2632 1.4740 5 5 Jay Howard Driver
18 29 Erik Evans 2:12.3180 1.5288 7 4 Velocity Racing Development
19 99 Myles Rowe 2:12.3203 1.5311 6 3 Force Indy
20 63 Trey Burke 2:12.4888 1.6996 7 5 Joe Dooling Autosports
21 9 Peter Vodanovich 2:12.5592 1.7700 5 4 Jay Howard Driver
22 91 Billy Frazer 2:12.7529 1.9637 6 6 Exclusive Autosport
23 3 Evan Stamer 2:12.7715 1.9823 7 6 Ignite Autosports w/Cape
24 16 Kent Vaccaro 2:13.7131 2.9239 8 4 Miller Vinatieri Motorsports
25 42 Michael Myers 2:14.2880 3.4988 7 5 Michael Myers Racing

IndyPro 2000 presented by Cooper Tires took to the track at 9:45am, and Artem Petrov just bested his Exclusive Autosport teammate Braden Eves by 0.0333 of a second. Reece Gold was third quickest.

Point leader Christian Rasmussen was 5th quick, but is only 0.0849 off the fast time. In fact, the Top-5 are within a tenth of a second and 11 of the 12 cars here are within a single second. That’s amazingly close, especially for a 4.014 mile 14 Turn race course.

These same drivers will be back out at 1:45pm Central Time for their first qualifying session.

Pos Car # Driver Best Time Diff Total Laps Best Lap Gap Team
1 42 Artem Petrov 2:05.3626 8 6 0.000 Exclusive Autosport
2 91 Braden Eves 2:05.3959 0.0333 9 4 0.0333 Exclusive Autosport
3 55 Reece Gold 2:05.4019 0.0393 8 8 0.0060 Juncos Racing
4 22 Manuel Sulaiman 2:05.4268 0.0642 9 7 0.0249 Juncos Racing
5 1 Christian Rasmussen 2:05.4475 0.0849 6 4 0.0207 Jay Howard Driver Development
6 40 Jack William Miller 2:05.6263 0.2637 9 6 0.1788 Miller Vinatieri Motorsports
7 21 Kyffin Simpson 2:05.7644 0.4018 9 9 0.1381 Juncos Racing
8 51 Jacob Abel 2:05.8131 0.4505 9 7 0.0487 Abel Motorsports
9 3 James Roe 2:05.9182 0.5556 9 3 0.1051 Turn 3 Motorsport
10 18 Hunter McElrea 2:05.9571 0.5945 10 10 0.0389 Pabst Racing
11 5 Wyatt Brichacek 2:06.1943 0.8317 8 5 0.2372 Jay Howard Driver Development
12 11 Hunter Yeany 2:06.4782 1.1156 10 4 0.2839 Velocity Racing Development

 

The drivers in the incredibly tight Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires points battle made it’s way on to the track at 10:30am this morning, but it was 9th in the season standings Robert Megennis that topped the practice session over Alex Peroni and Toby Sowery.

Point Leader Linus Lundqvist was 7th quick. Trailing him by just a single point coming in to this weekend is David Malukus, who was 9th. Third (by 4 points) Kyle Kirkwood was 4th quickest.

The Indy Lights drivers will be back on the track at 2:30pm for their first qualifying session of the weekend.

Pos Car # Driver Best Time Diff Total Laps Fast Lap Team
1 27 Robert Megennis 1:56.0097 14 4 Andretti Autosport
2 5 Alex Peroni 1:56.2950 0.2853 8 5 Carlin
3 51 Toby Sowery 1:56.7138 0.7041 12 3 Juncos Racing
4 28 Kyle Kirkwood 1:57.0261 1.0164 14 3 Andretti Autosport
5 7 Christian Bogle 1:57.1973 1.1876 13 3 Carlin
6 17 Devlin DeFrancesco 1:57.3066 1.2969 12 3 Andretti Steinbrenner
7 26 Linus Lundqvist 1:57.3943 1.3846 14 10 Global Racing
8 68 Danial Frost 1:57.4236 1.4139 5 5 Andretti Autosport
9 79 David Malukas 1:57.6210 1.6113 14 7 HMD Motorsports
10 2 Sting Ray Robb 1:57.8748 1.8651 14 4 Juncos Racing
11 59 Nikita Lastochkin 1:57.9368 1.9271 16 7 HMD Motorsports
12 24 Benjamin Pedersen 1:58.0628 2.0531 17 4 Global Racing
13 11 Antonio Serravalle 1:58.3118 2.3021 16 5 Pserra Racing