By Patrick Stephan
#90 Louis Foster, Exclusive Autosport, Copart.com, Novara Technologies
IndyPro 2000. Road to Indy Photo credit: Gavin Baker Photography/Road to Indy
Indy Pro 2000 qualifying get started at 10:25 am and was slated for 20 minutes of green flag running within a 30 minute window – whichever comes first.
Drivers were reminded by race control to pay attention to local yellows – if they see a local yellow – their lap will be invalidated. Also we heard that the automated marshal system lights that weren’t all functioning for this morning’s practice are now all working for this session..
The track temp was 99.9F with the ambient at 83F when the session began.
The #2 of Jonathan Browne picked up an early penalty (missed what it was), but race control quickly said it had been served. After about 10 minutes we saw the #4 of Braden Eves stop down at pit in. He was pushed up the hill toward his own crew by a couple of INDYCAR mechanics – one from Rahal Letterman Lanigan and another from Andretti Autosport.
After everyone had made one sticker tire run – except Browne who had no official time with 8:00 to go – we had Nolan Siegel leading the session at 1:18.9232, followed by Yuven Sundaramoorthy, Jack William Miller and Louis Foster.
Drivers came out for their second runs and Louis Foster jumped to P1 at 1:18.8444, but was quickly displaced by Enaam Ahmed, who in turn lost the top spot to Louis Foster, with Siegel now P2 with most of the field going “green” with fast laps as we approached 3 minutes remaining in this session.
Foster bettered his lap time to 1:18.3306. Kiko Porto jumped to P2, with Siegel now in P3, followed by Wyatt Brichacek and Salvador De Alba.
As the checkered flew, Nolan Siegel goes quicker and moves to P2, but Foster – the points leader – keeps the pole position with a lap of 1:18.2678. I believe this is his first pole of the season.
Rece Gold – second in the standings – qualified just 8th – which should be something interesting to watch in the first race to see if he can make his way to the front.
Indy Pro 2000 Mid-Ohio Race #1 Qualifying Results:
| Pos | Car # | Driver | Best Lap | Diff | Total Laps | Best Lap | Team |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 90 | Louis Foster | 1:18.2678 | 1:18.2678 | 12 | 11 | Exclusive Autosport |
| 2 | 8 | Nolan Siegel | 1:18.3576 | 0.0898 | 12 | 12 | DEForce Racing |
| 3 | 1 | Kiko Porto | 1:18.3912 | 0.1234 | 11 | 10 | DEForce Racing |
| 4 | 92 | Wyatt Brichacek | 1:18.5274 | 0.2596 | 12 | 10 | Exclusive Autosport |
| 5 | 6 | Salvador De Alba | 1:18.5564 | 0.2886 | 12 | 11 | Jay Howard Driver Develpment |
| 6 | 40 | Jack William Miller | 1:18.6282 | 0.3604 | 13 | 12 | Miller Vinatieri Motorsports w/Exclusive Autosport |
| 7 | 3 | Josh Green | 1:18.6696 | 0.4018 | 13 | 12 | Turn 3 Motorsport |
| 8 | 55 | Reece Gold | 1:18.6958 | 0.428 | 13 | 13 | Juncos Hollinger Racing |
| 9 | 18 | Yuven Sundaramoorthy | 1:18.6981 | 0.4303 | 13 | 12 | Pabst Racing |
| 10 | 47 | Enaam Ahmed | 1:18.7038 | 0.436 | 12 | 8 | Juncos Hollinger Racing |
| 11 | 19 | Jordan Missig | 1:18.7548 | 0.487 | 13 | 11 | Pabst Racing |
| 12 | 2 | Jonathan Browne | 1:19.0723 | 0.8045 | 7 | 6 | Turn 3 Motorsport |
| 13 | 4 | Braden Eves | 1:20.3955 | 2.1277 | 3 | 3 | Jay Howard Driver Development |