#8: DEForce Racing, Towne Ford, Race for RP, Nolan Siegel
Andersen Interior Contracting Grand Prix of Alabama – Photo credit: Gavin Baker Photography/Road to Indy

By Steve Wittich

The start of the 30-lap Andersen Interior Contracting Grand Prix of Alabama Race #2 was slightly delayed as many NTT INDYCAR SERIES competitors ran out of fuel on the final lap. Officials also wanted to spend some more time cleaning the track of marbles and other debris.

Pato O’Ward, a veteran of two seasons of Indy Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires, won the just completed NTT INDYCAR SERIES race.

The call to fire the engines came at 2:32 pm.

The front row made up of rookie pole-sitter Nolan Siegel (DEForce Racing) and veteran Braden Eves (Jay Howard Driver Development), brought the 15 cars to the green flag.

Siegel got a good jump, with Eves falling behind the pole-sitter, catching a moment of oversteer as he entered the Alabama Roller Coaster. He was able to save it, but that allowed Ahmed to close up in Turn 5. The pair made contact, allowing Foster to continue his hot to the race.

Race control reviewed the incident and decided that no action was necessary.

Foster, who started sixth, grabbed the position from Ahmed during his scuffle with Eves, completing an impressive first six corners up three spots.

The running order after the first lap was Nolan Siegel (DEForce Racing), Braden Eves (Jay Howard Driver Development), Louis Foster (Exclusive Autosport), Enaam Ahmed (Juncos Hollinger Racing), Reece Gold (Juncos Hollinger Racing), Josh Green (Turn 3 Motorsport), Kiko Porto (DEForce Racing), Salvador de Alba (Jay Howard Driver Development), Colin Kaminsky (Pabst Racing), Jonathan Browne (Turn 3 Motorsport), Wyatt Brichacek (Jay Howard Driver Development), Jack William Miller (Miller Vinatieri Motorsports), Yuven Sundaramoorthy (Pabst Racing) and Charles Finelli (Fatboy Racing!).

On Lap 3, Green got around Pabst Racing rookie Missig for sixth.

Missig settled in after his hot start, but on Lap 6, he spun in Turn 8, dropping to 14th.

After ten laps, Siegel’s lead over Eves was only 0.6 seconds over Eves, with Foster, Ahmed, Gold, Green, Porto, De Alba, Browne, Miller, and Missig rounding out the top ten.

While Seigel’s lead over Eves was a ‘comfortable’ four or five car lengths, Eves was facing immense pressure from Foster, who took a look around the outside of Turn 5 on Lap 13. However, the Jay Howard Driver Development No. 4 was able to keep the No. 90 Exclusive Autosport machine behind him.

Siegel’s lead over Eves when the field was shown the crossed flags at the race’s halfway point was 1.3 seconds. The rest of the running order was Foster, Ahmed, Gold, Green, Porto, de Alba, Browne, Miller, Sundaramoorthy, Brichacek, Kaminsky, Missig, and Finelli.

On Lap 16, Foster once again took a look around the outside of Eves in Charlotte’s Web again, and once again, the veteran was able to hold off Foster.

With ten laps remaining, Siegel’s lead was 1.6 seconds.

Foster turned the quickest lap of the race on the next lap, keeping the gap to Eves under a half-second. Surprisingly, at the same time as he was defending effectively against Foster, Eves was eating into the gap to Siegel.

With six laps remaining, Eves and Foster were two-tenths of a second quicker than Siegel. Behind the podium runners, Ahmed was going the same speed as Eves and Foster.

On Lap 24 and 25, Foster looked to the inside of Eves before thinking better of it and dropping in behind Eves.

With three laps to go, the lead was under one second for the first time since early in the race. The lead fell to 0.8 seconds with two laps to go and only 0.7 seconds at the white flag.

Foster lowered his quickest lap time on Lap 29, putting pressure on Eves, and finishing only 1.1 seconds out of first place.

Andersen Interior Contracting Grand Prix of Alabama Race #2 Results

#8: DEForce Racing, Towne Ford, Race for RP, Nolan Siegel
Andersen Interior Contracting Grand Prix of Alabama – Photo credit: Gavin Baker Photography/Road to Indy

By Steve Wittich

For the second time in his four-race old Indy Pro 2000 and the fourth time in his Road To Indy career, DEForce Racing’s Nolan Siegel will start from the pole.

Starting from the inside of the front row on the 2.3-mile, 17-turn natural terrain road course is nothing new for the 17-year-old from Palo Alto, Calif. He started from the pole in the second USF2000 race last year.

It’s the first pole for the Texas-based team at Barber Motorsports Park and their fifth Indy Pro 2000 pole overall.

On his 11th of 13 laps, Siegel turned a circuit at 87.8455 seconds. That was good enough, but barely. Braden Eves (Jay Howard Driver Development), a pole sitter at this track last year, missed another pole by six thousandths of a second.

Race #1 podium driver Enaam Ahmed (Juncos Hollinger Racing) was only a half-second off the pole and will start inside the second row.

Race #1 winner, Juncos Hollinger Racing veteran Reece Gold will start on the outside of his teammate.

The top nine positions also included reigning Cooper Tires USF2000 Champion Kiko Porto (DEForce Racing), Louis Foster (Exclusive Autosport), Colin Kaminsky (Pabst Racing), Josh Green (Turn 3 Motorsport), and Jack William Miller (Miller Vinatieri Motorsports), were all within a half-second of Siegel.

The final session of a Saturday of on-track activity at Barber Motorsports Park was the Indy Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires’ second qualifying session of the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama weekend.

The green flag for the 20-minute session came out at 6:05 pm.

The skies over the always gorgeous 2.3-mile, 17-turn natural terrain road course were cloudy, but the rain held off after a few drops earlier. The ambient temperature was a comfortable 76F.

All 15 drivers were on track early, with Race #1 pole-sitter and race winner Reece Gold having the quickest lap.

After seven minutes, Fatboy Racing! veteran Charles Finelli went off track in Turn 16, but he could continue.

Right before the halfway point of qualifying, the drivers were all on pit road for adjustment and fresh Cooper Tire slicks.

Gold, with a lap of 88.4047 seconds, was the quickest driver and was followed in the top ten by Nolan Siegel (DEForce Racing), Louis Foster (Exclusive Autosport), Kiko Porto (DEForce Racing), Enaam Ahmed (Juncos Racing), Josh Green (Turn 3 Motorsport), Braden Eves (Jay Howard Driver Development), Colin Kaminsky (Pabst Racing), Jack William Miller (Miller Vinatieri Motorsport) and Jonathan Browne (Turn 3 Motorsport).

The first drivers to go quicker in the second half of the session were Pabst Racing rookies Yuven Sundaramoorthy and Jordan Missig.

Sundaramoorthy continued to go quicker, jumping to second on the timing screens with four minutes left in qualifying. His lap was only one-hundredth of a second slower than Gold.

In the final three minutes, Foster, Eves, Kaminsky, and finally Siegel held the provisional pole.

Andersen Interior Contracting Grand Prix of Alabama Race #2 unofficial qualifying results

The second race of the weekend rolls off at 2:30 pm on Sunday. So it’s the last on-track activity of the weekend at Barber Motorsports Park.

#55: Juncos Hollinger Racing, The Ticket Clinic, Reece Gold
Andersen Interior Contracting Grand Prix of Alabama Photo credit: Gavin Baker Photography/Road to Indy

By Steve Wittich

After the call to fire the 15 Elite Engine prepared 250 horsepower 2.0L engines, the field was afforded one lap of the 2.3-mile, 17-turn natural terrain road course to get their Cooper Tires ready to race.

Gold brought an Indy Pro 2000 field to the green flag for the sixth time.

Gold was the first driver to get to the fast left-hand Turn 1, but behind him, the field was two-wide and even three-wide in Charlotte’s Web.

The running order after the first lap was Gold, Kaminsky, Ahmed, Braden Eves (Jay Howard Driver Development), Louis Foster (Exclusive Autosport), Josh Green (Turn 3 Motorsport), Nolan Siegel (DEForce Racing), Yuven Sundaramoorthy (Pabst Racing), Kiko Porto (DEForce Racing), Jordan Missig (Pabst Racing), Jonathan Browne (Turn 3 Motorsport), Wyatt Brichacek (Jay Howard Driver Development), Salvador de Alba (Jay Howard Driver Development), Charles Finelli (Fatboy Racing!) and Jack William Miller (Miller Vinatieri Motorsports).

Before the start, Miller came to pit road for repairs by the Miller Vinatieri Motorsports crew. They worked quickly, and the second-generation driver didn’t lose a lap.

On the second lap, Yuven Sundaramoorthy gained his second spot of the race, moving around Siegel for seventh.

On Lap 4, de Alba came to the attention of the Jay Howard Driver Development crew and, unfortunately, was not able to continue.

After five of 25 laps, Gold’s lead over Kaminsky was 1.2 seconds. Behind the leader, Kaminsky, Ahmed, Eves, Foster, and Green were all covered by only one second.

Pole driver Gold was consistently turning laps two-tenths of a second quicker than the second-place driver, building a two-second lead.

The rest of the top ten was Ahmed, Eves, Foster, Green, Sundaramoorthy, Siegel, Porto, and Missig.

On Lap 11, Gold turned the quickest lap of the race, increasing his lead to 2.2 seconds.

The battle for second through sixth was still close, with a little over two seconds covering the four drivers.

On the Lap 13, St. Petersburg race winner Green got around Foster for fifth.

At the front of the field, Gold was getting quicker and was the only driver turning laps under 79 seconds, building a 4.2-second lead over Kaminsky’s No. 27 with seven laps remaining.

Kaminsky faced pressure from behind, with Ahmed turning his quickest race lap.

It wasn’t just Ahmed, though, pressuring the Pabst Racing veteran. Eves, Green, and Foster were within two seconds.

On Lap 19, Foster could get back around Green in Turn 5 for the fifth spot.

On Lap 19, Siegel turned the quickest lap of the race, starting to pressure Green and Foster, the two drivers he is chasing in the championship.

On Lap 21, the battling between Foster, Eves, Green, and Siegel was fierce, with Foster moving into fourth.

The Exclusive Autosport rookie quickly took after the final spot on the podium, putting pressure on Ahmed and pressuring him into a lock-up in the braking zone in Turn 5.

Andersen Interior Contracting Grand Prix of Alabama Race #1 unofficial results

#55: Juncos Hollinger Racing, The Ticket Clinic, Reece Gold
Andersen Interior Contracting Grand Prix of Alabama Photo credit: Gavin Baker Photography/Road to Indy

By Steve Wittich

After a disappointing start to the season at the season-opening event in St. Petersburg, Juncos Hollinger Racing sophomore Reece Gold rebounded with his sixth career Indy Pro 2000 pole.

The 17-year-old turned a lap of 77.334 seconds, almost two-tenths of a second quicker than Pabst Racing veteran Colin Kaminsky.

The front four rows were tight, with the top eight within four-tenths-of-second of pole winner Gold.

Gold joins Martin Scuncio and Spencer Pigot as Barber Motorsports Park pole-winners for Juncos Hollinger Racing. It’s the Speedway, Ind.-based team’s 60th Indy Pro 2000 pole.

The first of two Indy Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires qualifying sessions went green at 11:15 am, the skies were cloudless, and the temperature was a comfortable 73F.

With a short session to win the pole, getting the most out of every lap was paramount to starting in the optimal spot on the 2.3-mile, 17-turn natural terrain road course that is notoriously tough to pass on.

During the session, the first driver to have an issue was the No. 6 Jay Howard Driver Development IP-22 of Salvador de Alba in Turn 17.

Not surprisingly, the Juncos Hollinger Racing duo of Reece Gold and Enaam Ahmed, who dominated testing and practice, quickly went to the top of the timing screens.

At the halfway point of the session, the provisional pole sitter was Gold, whose best lap was 77.6029 seconds. Louis Foster (Exclusive Autosport), Ahmed, Josh Green (Turn 3 Motorsport), Braden Eves (Jay Howard Driver Development), Nolan Siegel (Jay Howard Driver Development), Kiko Porto (DEForce Racing), Jonathan Browne (Turn 3 Motorsport), Jack William Miller (Miller Vinatieri Motorsports) and Colin Kaminsky (Pabst Racing).

Soon after, most of the field came to pit road for adjustments and fresh.

The first drivers to improve were Porto and Siegel, but the rest of the timing screen was lighting up with green as times continued to improve.

The final three minutes saw copious changes as Foster, Kaminsky, Ahmed, and finally Gold went to the provisional pole.

Gold grabbed the provisional pole with one minute remaining, just before the Banco Daycoval/Petromega sponsored No. 1 of reigning USF2000 champion ended up in the gravel in the Turn 9 Museum corner.

The track went red and checkered with only 30 seconds left in qualifying.

Andersen Interior Contracting Grand Prix of Alabama unofficial qualifying results

That’s it for the middle rung of the Road To Indy Presented by Cooper Tires for the day. The Indy Pro 2000 drivers will take part in an autograph session tomorrow at 11:30 am, and the green for their first of two races is set for 1:30 pm.

Indy Pro 2000 pole winner Josh Green on track in his SessionGuardian/Zimperium sponsored No. 3 from the Turn 3 Motorsport stable Photo credit: Gavin Baker Photography/Road to Indy

By Steve Wittich

These are the basic race notes. We’ll update this story this evening.

We have a quick update on Exclusive Autosport rookie Christian Brooks before getting to the race notes. The good news is Brooks was released from medical and cleared to drive. The bad news is that his car is unrepairable and will not participate in the remainder of the weekend.

When the call to fire the 2.0L engines powering the 15 Indy Pro 2000 entries came at 11:40 am, the sky was cloudless, and the temperature was approaching 80F.

All cars fired, and after a single pace lap, Green and Ahmed led the field to starter Aaron Likens and the season’s first green flag.

Green got a fantastic jump on the field, but behind him, the action was fast and furious, with the fight for second place side-by-side through the tight Turn 5-6-7.

Inside second-row starter, Siegel lost two spots, dropping to fifth on the first lap.

After the first of 25 scheduled laps, the running order was: Green, Ahmed, Foster, Eves, Siegel, Wyatt Brichacek (Jay Howard Driver Development), Kiko Porto (DEForce Racing), Reece Gold (Juncos Racing), Jack William Miller (Miller Vinatieri Motorsports), Matthew Round-Garrido (Exclusive Autosport), Salvador de Alba (Jay Howard Driver Development), Colin Kaminsky (Pabst Racing), Yuven Sundaramoorthy (Pabst Racing), Jordan Missig (Pabst Racing) and Jonathan Browne (Turn 3 Motorsport).

Things settled in at the front of the field, with Green holding a 1.4-second lead after five laps of action. Ahmed had one second over third-place Foster, who was facing pressure from Eves.

Things were still really tight after ten laps of action, with the top ten all within ten seconds of Green, whose lead was still 1.3 seconds over Ahmed. Green had just turned his quickest lap of the race, but Brichacek, running in sixth, who had the fastest lap of the race while pressuring Siegel for fifth.

Unfortunately for the veteran, he visited the run-off area on Lap 13 and fell down the running order, settling into the 13th spot.

With ten laps remaining, the gap between leader Brown and Ahmed was only 1.1 seconds, who had a somewhat comfortable gap to Foster.

On the next lap, Ahmed turned the quickest lap of the race, closing the gap to 0.7 seconds and putting pressure on the leader.

Foster had been facing pressure from Eves, but by lap 18 had built up his lead for the final spot of the podium to just over three seconds.

With seven laps remaining and the field for Saturday’s race set via quickest race laps, the drivers outside of the top ten came to the pit road to bolt on a fresh set up Cooper Tire slicks.

At the front, with five laps remaining, Green’s lead over Ahmed was 0.9 seconds. After that, the best battle in the top 10 was between Porto and Gold, with less than a half-second separating them.

With four laps remaining, Ahmed closed the gap out front to 0.6 seconds, with the Juncos Racing No. 47 closing quickly.

Due to the aero wash, Ahmed appeared to be struggling to get much closer to the leader, but he wasn’t giving up, moving to within a half-second with two laps remaining.

That was as close as Ahmed would get, with Green taking the white flag with 0.7 seconds. Then, further back in the field, Siegel, on 24 laps old Coopers, turned the race’s quickest lap.

Green, who has now won his last two Road To Indy races (one in USF2000 and one in Indy Pro 2000), crossed under the twin-checkered flags 0.6150 seconds.

Andersen Interior Contracting Grand Prix of St. Petersburg unofficial Race #1 results

Indy Pro 2000 pole winner Josh Green on track in his SessionGuardian/Zimperium sponsored No. 3 from the Turn 3 Motorsport stable Photo credit: Gavin Baker Photography/Road to Indy

By Steve Wittich

Josh Green will start a race from the pole for the first time in his Road To Indy Presented by Cooper Tires career. The winner of the last USF2000 race last season and Turn 3 Motorsport Indy Pro 2000 rookie turned a lap at 69.6117 seconds on his first set of Cooper Tire slicks.

An ill-timed red flag meant only Enaam Ahmed (Juncos Racing) could improve on his time in the second half of the 20-minute session, starting on the outside of the front row. The second-place starting position matches the 22-year-olds best career Indy Pro 2000 start.

Nolan Siegel (DEForce Racing), the quickest driver in practice on Thursday, held the provisional pole for a while but will have to settle for an inside second-row start. Joining him will be fellow rookie Louis Foster (Exclusive Autosport).

The pole win by a Turn 3 Motorsport driver means the Peter Dempsey operated squad has now won a pole in three consecutive Indy Pro 2000 seasons.

Drivers from five different teams hold the top five spots on the grid.

After a brief hold to sort out some communication issues, the 16 brand new Indy Pro 2000 took to the 1.8-mile, 14-turn St. Petersburg street circuit.

The first qualifying session still guaranteed the teams and drivers 20 minutes in a half-hour time frame.

The green flag to get the first Road To Indy qualifying session of the season underway came bright and early 7:47 am under beautiful sunny skies and temperatures in the upper 60s.

The early leader was Eves, the St. Petersburg Race #1 pole sitter from last year.

The first two drivers to go under the 70-second barrier were Foster and Ahmed, turning laps over a half-second quicker than Thursday’s top practice time.

Green held the provisional pole with a lap of 69.6117 seconds at the halfway point of qualifying, with Siegel, Foster, Eves, and Ahmed following closely behind. At the halfway point of qualifying, the top eight drivers were within a half-second of the provisional pole.

At the mid-point of the 20-minute session, the majority of the field came to pit road for adjustment and fresh Cooper Tires slicks before heading back out on the track to methodically get their tires up to the optimal operating temperature.

With just under four minutes remaining in the session, the red flag came out when Exclusive Autosport rookie Christian Brooks impacted the barriers on drivers left at the exit of Turn 3.

Drivers were starting to go quicker with fresh tires, with Ahmed turning a lap on three-hundredths of a second slower than Green.

The Delta D8 sponsored No. 91 left behind significant debris and moved the wall, necessitating an extensive clean-up and repair effort by the AMR INDYCAR Safety Team.

The top ten were Green, Ahmed, Siegel, Foster, Eves, Gold, Porto, Brichacek, Round-Garrido, and Brooks when the red came out.

Unfortunately, the 30-minute window ran low, and race control threw the checkered flag to end qualifying.

Indy Pro 2000 Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Presented By Andersen Interior Contracting unofficial qualifying results

The first Indy Pro 2000 race of the weekend is scheduled to get the green flag at 11:40 am.

Nolan Siegel (center) during at track walk of the 1.8-mile, 14-turn St. Petersburg street circuit (Photo credit: Gavin Baker Photography/Road to Indy)

By Steve Wittich

If the first Indy Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires practice session of the 2022 season is any indication, the battle for the scholarship to Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires is going to be an entertaining one.

The top four drivers, led by Nolan Siegel’s 70.4350-second lap, were separated by one-hundredth of a second. Slotting in just behind the DEForce Racing rookie was fellow freshman Louis Foster (Exclusive Autosport) and Christian Brooks (Exclusive Autosport), and veteran Enaam Ahmed (Juncos Racing).

The top eight drivers were within three-tenths of Siegel, and 14 of the sixteen were within one second.

The first red flag of the season came 15-minute into the lone Indy Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires practice before qualifying bright and early at 7:45 am on Friday.

The AMR INDYCAR Safety Team got the No. 2 of Turn 3 Motorsport newcomer Jonathan Browne from Turn 8, and the session quickly went back to green with Eves holding the top spot. The veteran pilot of the Jay Howard Driver Development No. 4 was followed by Porto, Gold, Siegel, and Missig.

Brown was able to get back out on the track, completing 21 laps.

At the two-thirds point of the session, Eves was still quickest and the only driver under 71 seconds.

As the Cooper Tire rubber began to adhere to the 1.8-mile, 14-turn street circuit, the times started to fall, with first Gold and then Brooks jumping up the timing screens.

With ten minutes remaining in practice, Ahmed went quickest, just ahead of Siegel, Brooks, Gold, and Eves.

With five minutes remaining, Siegel went to the top of the timing screens, holding off last lap flyers by Exclusive Autosport rookies Foster and Brooks.

The 16-drivers completed 345 circuits in 45 minutes.

Indy Pro 2000 Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Presented By Andersen Interior Contracting practice results