For the fourth straight Indy Pro 2000 qualifying session, the Mazda/Firstex Industries/Bell Helmets/Sabelt sponsored Soul Red No. 28 of Kyle Kirkwood was the fastest car on the track. The 20-year-old will start on the pole for the fourth time this year, and for the ninth time in two-years of Road To Indy Presented by Cooper Tires competition.

Once again, the Jupiter, Fla. native had a four-tenth advantage over his closest competition. Yesterday, it was points leader Rasmus Lindh that was second quickest, and today it was Exclusive Autosport rookie Danial Frost, a different championship contender.

Parker Thompson will start third again and will be joined on the second row by Sting Ray Robb.

Qualifying for the second Cooper Tires Indy Pro 2000 Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio began under sunny skies, with the ambient temperature at 75F, the track temperature at 80F and the humidity at 69%.

Reigning USF2000 champion Kirkwood, who won three times at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course last year, was the early leader.

With Kirkwood still on the provisional pole, and a few minutes before the halfway point of the session, a dozen of the 14 Indy Pro 2000 drivers came to pit road to the attention of their crews for attention and fresh Cooper Tire slicks.

Thompson, who was the only driver not on track early in the session, finally went out on the clean track with 10-minutes remaining. He moved up to the third spot on his second hot lap but could get no closer than four-tenths of his championship rival.

With five minutes remaining, Robb held the provisional pole by a slim 0.0679-second margin over Kirkwood, but two minutes later, Kirkwood went back to the provisional pole and continued to go quicker on his next three-lap. Robb will start on the outside of the second row.

Cooper Tires Indy Pro 2000 Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio Qualifying #2

For the second straight day, the middle rung of the Road To Indy is the final track activity, with the 25 lap race scheduled to get the green flag at 5 pm.

The front row for Sunday’s Indy Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires race mirrors Race #1 with Kyle Kirkwood starts on the inside with current championship leader Rasmus Lindh on the outside.

Kirkwood’s quick lap of 67.380 seconds was well under track record of 67.6395 seconds set last year by Oliver Askew.

Lindh ended the first qualifying session of the day 0.2 seconds behind Kirkwood, but made serious gains on the RP Motorsport’s rookie, finishing this evenings qualifying session only 0.05 seconds adrift of Kirkwood.

Also going under the track record was Parker Thompson, who will start on the inside of the second row. The sixth time the Red Deer, Alberta native will begin in the first two rows in what he considers his ‘home’ race.

The final session of the opening day of the 2019 Honda Indy Toronto was the second Indy Pro 2000 qualifying session, serving as a Road To Indy bookend on a busy day of action.

The session began five minutes early, with an ambient temperature of 75F and the track temperature of 95F.

The 20-minute session was only five minutes old when the red flag came out for Charles Finelli, who stopped on track in Turn 5.

The top five when the green flag came back out with 11 minutes remaining were Sting Ray Robb, Kyle Kirkwood, Rasmus Lindh, Parker Thompson, and Phillippe Denes.

The majority of drivers took the opportunity to bolt on fresh Cooper Tire slicks.

The first driver to go quicker was Danial Frost, who moved to the second quick with nine minutes remaining. Frost went quicker on his next lap, his seventh of the day to briefly grab the provisional pole.

That lasted for only a few seconds. Race #1 pole-sitter Kirkwood, who was right behind Frost on track, went quicker yet.

Frost and then Kirkwood each went quicker on the next lap with the RP Motorsport’s driver only three-hundredths faster than Frost.

On his 11th lap of the session, Kirkwood turned a lap at 67.8662 seconds, surpassing the qualifying track record set by Rinus van Kalmthout (VeeKay) last year.

On the next lap reigning USF2000 champion Kirkwood turned a lap at 67.5232 seconds, lowering the qualifying record and grabbing the overall track record set by Askew last year.

Kirkwood went quicker again on the next lap, lowering the track record further.

Points leader Lindh was the last driver go out on fresh Cooper Tires, and the Swede took his time getting them warmed up. The rookie’s quickest lap missed out on the pole by the slim margin of five-hundredths of a second.

A half-second covers the top five drivers, and the top nine are within one second of the pole sitter Kirkwood.

Indy Pro 2000 Unofficial Qualifying Results For Race #2

The lone Indy Pro 2000 session on Saturday is the first Cooper Tires Grand Prix Presented by Allied Building Products which is scheduled to get the green flag at 9:25 am.

For the third time this season, sixth time in an Indy Pro 2000 car and 12th time in his Road To Indy career, Parker Thompson will start a race from the pole. It’s also the first time the Abel Motorsports veteran will start on pole at Road America.

Only six-hundredths behind Thompson was Juncos Racing veteran Sting Ray Robb. Starting in the second row will be Kyle Kirkwood and Danial Frost.

Championship leader Rasmus Lindh, who was only able to turn two laps in the morning practice after making contact in Turn 5, will start on the inside of the third row.

Thompson, Robb, and Frost were held on pit road to start the qualifying session for not slowing down in a sector with a local yellow during the morning practice session.

Thompson and Robb were able to serve a portion of their penalties during that practice session, but Frost had to miss the first five minutes of qualifying.

On his out lap, Charles Finelli spun in Turn 6 but was able to continue, keeping the track green.

Early in the session, the quickest driver was Kyle Kirkwood.

Just before the half-way point of the session, Kirkwood, Robb, Thompson, and Ian Rodriguez were all on pit road for adjustments.

They were followed to pit road by Lindh and Loomis.

Frost lowered the provisional pole to 121.4439 seconds on his third lap at speed.

The first driver to go quicker after pitting was Thompson, who moved up to second, two-tenths off of Frost.

Thompson went quicker on his next lap, knocking Frost from the provisional pole with a lap of 121.1248 seconds.

With just under a minute remaining, Kirkwood improved from the fifth quickest time to second quickest but was not able to go quicker on his final lap.

On his last lap, Robb was able to go quicker, moving to second and knocking Kirkwood back to an inside second row starting spot.

Exclusive Autosport’s Frost was pushing hard on his last lap and made fairly hard contact with the concrete barrier at the exit of Turn 7 on driver’s right.

Cooper Tires Grand Prix of Road America Powered by Elite Engines Indy Pro 2000 Unofficial Race #1 Qualifying Results.

The next time the middle rung of the Road To Indy Presented by Cooper Tires is back on track is at 8:35 am tomorrow for qualifying. Their first race of the weekend gets the green flag at 12:55 pm.

Double USF2000 winner at Road America in 2018, Kyle Kirkwood turned the quickest lap of the single Indy Pro 2000 session before qualifying this afternoon. His lap of 121.7695 seconds was just a tenth of second faster than Exclusive Autosport veteran Nikita Lastochkin.

Exclusive Autosport’s second driver, Danial Frost ended up with the third quickest lap and was joined in the top five by Ian Rodriguez (RP Motorsport) and Sting Ray Robb (Juncos Racing)

The ambient temperature when the lone Indy Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires practice session at Road America began was 65F, and the track temperature was 74F.

Robb was the quickest driver after everybody had turned two laps, but was quickly surpassed by fellow veteran Nikita Lastochkin.

Points leader Rasmus Lindh (Juncos Racing) was only able to complete two laps. His No. 10 Juncos Racing PM-18 ground to a halt in the Turn 5 run-off. It appeared the car had some right side damage. The AMR INDYCAR Safety Team was able to move him from harm’s way using only a local yellow. The Swede ended up as the 12th quickest of 13 drivers.

The quickest driver at the half-way point of the 30-minute session was Lastochkin with a lap time at 121.899 seconds. His Exclusive Autosport teammate was the second fastest, over a half-second behind the Russian. The final three drivers in the top five were Jacob Loomis, Robb, and Antonio Serravalle.

Several drivers came to pit road for adjustment in the second half of the session.

The first driver to go quicker after adjustments were Kyle Kirkwood, who moved to 2nd. And his RP Motorsport teammate Ian Rodriguez moving to fourth quickest.

Kirkwood improved again on his next lap, turning the quickest lap of the session with four minutes remaining.

The 13 drivers were able to complete 124 laps during the session.

The top six drivers were all within one second of Kirkwood.

Cooper Tires Grand Prix of Road America Powered by Elite Engines Indy Pro 2000 Practice Results

The first Indy Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires qualifying session is up next at 1:40 pm.

By Steve Wittich

Indy Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires race winner Rasmus Lindh’s face showed relief AND jubilation after standing on the top step of a Road To Indy podium.

The 17-year-old had three previous poles, and five podium finishes in his first 16 Road To Indy Presented by Cooper Tires.

Lindh might have led all 25 laps, but his first win wasn’t that easy as he staved off immense pressure from Danial Frost and Kyle Kirkwood. The win moves Lindh to within four points of championship leader Parker Thompson (Abel Motorsports).

Said Lindh after the race: “This is my first victory on the Road to Indy, and I’m very happy to take the win especially somewhere like Indianapolis, where so many big names have won.”

The box score shows Kyle Kirkwood finishing second, but it wasn’t easy. The reigning Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship champion was forced to start at the back of the field after it was judged that he had jumped the start from his outside front row starting spot.

“Rasmus and I were side by side at the start and he was warming his tires so I was ready for him to get on the power, so I went,” explained the 20 year-old.” I thought he went and obviously he didn’t, so I want to review what happened. I went into Turn One fairly conservatively on the restart and was lucky that I picked the inside line and everyone else went outside. I went through my braking points and I was perfectly positioned for Turn Two as everyone else crashed to the outside. It was a very fortunate situation after an unfortunate situation. We came up to speed quickly and were able to make moves, so overall it was a good day.”

Exclusive Autosport rookie Danial Frost scored his second straight podium. The driver from Singapore never lost touch with Lindh but was not able to get close enough to pass him. Frost was able to keep Kirkwood behind him for 15 laps but lost the position with five laps remaining.

“We challenged for first in Turn One but weren’t able to get him [Lindh],” explained the 17-year-old. “Kyle and I fought hard for the second position though I came out the loser of that, but it was a good experience for me and I understand the car a little bit more. Hopefully in the next race we can advance and do better. But I am happy with a podium here. To be able to drive here, it’s an amazing feeling. To come here with a team that won here last year gives me a great deal of confidence.”

Exclusive Autosport rookie Danial Frost spent over half of the Indy Pro 2000 race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course pressuring Rasmus Lindh (Photo Courtesy Of Andersen Promotions)

The win is the fourth on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Juncos Racing.

Kirkwood’s second place finish is his 15th podium in 17 Road To Indy Presented by Cooper Tires starts.

Maybe the drivers were anxious after the aborted start and extra yellow flag lap. Whatever the reason, Turn 1 on the first green flag lap was mess.

Moisés de la Vara, Phillippe Denes, Kory Enders, Jacob Loomis, and Ian Rodriguez were all involved in the incident.

Moisés de la Vara locks up just before a Turn 1 incident impacts five cars (Photo Courtesy Of Andersen Promotions)

Newcomer Rodriguez was the biggest loser; the No. 5 from the RP Motorsport stable was unable to continue. Denes and de la Vara were forced to pit road for repairs.

Newton’s Third Law states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
And, in racing, those actions and reactions are misfortune and fortune.

Taking advantage of the misfortune of the five drivers involved in Turn 1 were Abel Motorsports teammates Parker Thompson (from 12th to 5th) and Jacob Abel (from 10th to 7th). The biggest winner though was Kirkwood, who gained seven spots, ending the first lap in sixth.

Sting Ray Robb (Juncos Racing) ended the first green flag lap in third, but a lockup in Turn 7 cost him three spots. The veteran from Idaho was able to recover two of those spots getting by Thompson and Lastochkin.

On Lap 7, Lindh turned the quickest lap of race building a 1.3 second lead over Frost. Kirkwood, who had moved from dead last to third after three green flag laps was just under 3 seconds behind the Exclusive Autosport No. 90 of Danial Frost.

Lastochkin, in fourth, was almost five seconds out of the final spot on the podium and was under tremendous pressure form, Thompson and Robb. Only six-tenths of a second covered the three drivers.

On Lap 11, Thompson lost the fifth spot to Robb, who immediately started to put pressure on Lastochkin.

On Lap 12, Lindh’s lead dropped under one second for the first time as Frost started to put a little more pressure on the Juncos Racing rookie. Behind the front two, Robb goes around the outside of Lastochkin in Turn 1.

Lastochkin lost momentum and lost another spot, this time to Thompson in Turn 7.

On Lap 13, Frost and Kirkwood started to put immense pressure on leader Lindh. Both drivers were within 1.5 seconds of the lead.

With nine laps to go, Kirkwood crossed the line only three-tenths behind Frost, setting the quickest lap of the race and a new race record.

The top three were separated by less than 1.5 seconds as they crossed the line with eight laps remaining. On that lap, the top three drivers ran laps in the 79.6 range.

On Lap 19, Kirkwood went to the inside of Frost in Turn 1 to jump up to the second step of the podium.

That battle allowed Lindh to stretch his lead to 2.4 seconds as they crossed the line to begin Lap 20.

With four laps to go, Kirkwood was able to take 0.2 seconds out of Lindh’s lead.

With three laps to go, Lindh’s lead dropped to 2.0 seconds.

Lindh’s lead was down to 1.5 seconds with two laps remaining.

At the white flag, Lindh’s lead had shrunk to 1.2 seconds over Kirkwood. Frost was 1.7 seconds out of second place.

Abel, who had been putting pressure on Lastochkin was able to get a better run off the final corner to finish less than four-hundredths of a second ahead of the veteran Exclusive Autosport driver.

Indy Pro 2000 Grand Prix of Indianapolis Presented by Cooper Tires Qualifying #2 (Unofficial) Results