ELKHART LAKE, Wisc. – Louis Foster is on a roll. The Los Angeles, California-based Englishman scored a comfortable victory for Exclusive Autosport in Saturday afternoon’s opening leg of the Cooper Tires Grand Prix of Road America. Foster’s third successive win enabled him to extend his lead in the Indy Pro 2000 Championship at the halfway point in the 18-race season.
“It was a great race,” Foster said. “Obviously, the first lap was quite dramatic. We kind of went three wide into Turn 5. I didn’t really put a move in properly, I just wanted to put my nose there and I think that might have caused the mistake from the two Juncos cars. They both overshot the corner, because the track was a little greasy and because it had been raining a little bit and we were still on cold slicks (tires).
“They went straight on and I managed to get the car around the corner, and from that point on it was just eyes forward. I had to do a little bit of defensive maneuvers when Braden (Eves) was behind me, especially at the restart, but, honestly, it was just like a mental qualifying for me. Obviously I had cars in my mirrors, and sometimes that’s a bit daunting, but the team did a really good job.”
Josh Green worked his way from sixth on the grid to finish second for Turn 3 Motorsport, while Pakistani Enaam Ahmed finished third for Juncos Hollinger Racing.
Enaam’s teammate, 17-year-old Reece Gold was fastest in qualifying yesterday to secure his third Cooper Tires Pole Award of the season. The pole also was the eighth of Gold’s young career, moving into sixth on the all-time list. But his hard-earned advantage didn’t last for long. Gold found himself under siege at the end of the long, downhill straightaway that leads toward Turn 5, whereupon he attempted to carry a little too much speed into the left-hand corner and washed wide on the exit. All of a sudden, Foster, who started third, was up into the lead and Gold was relegated all the way to seventh position.
After a brief full-course caution following an incident farther down the field, Foster took off into the lead and quickly began to pull away from the field.
Another impressive opening gambit by Salvador De Alba saw the Mexican rookie jump from sixth on the grid to second for Jay Howard Driver Development, with teammate Braden Eves hot on his heels. Green, too, was right in the mix, and within the course of the next two laps he had vaulted his way past both JHDD entries.
As Foster pulled away in the lead and eventually finished more than 3.6 seconds clear to secure another PFC Award for Michael Duncalfe as the winning car owner, Green consolidated second place and left De Alba, Eves and the rest to squabble over the final podium placing.
Ahmed, who started second but, like teammate Gold, lost several positions at Turn Five on the opening lap, gradually hauled his way back into contention. He eventually worked his way to a third podium finish of the season.
De Alba won the intra-team battle with Eves to finish fourth, with polesitter Gold having to settle for sixth.
Local driver Yuven Sundaramoorthy earned the Tilton Hard Charger Award for Pabst Racing after climbing from 14th on the grid to 10th at the finish line.
The second race of the weekend will see the green flag Sunday morning at 8:30 a.m., with Gold looking for redemption after having once again posted the fastest time in a separate qualifying session on Friday afternoon.
Provisional championship points after nine of 18 rounds:
1. Louis Foster, 216
2. Reece Gold, 186
3. Nolan Siegel, 177
4. Enaam Ahmed, 165
5. Josh Green, 164
6. Braden Eves, 152
7. Kiko Porto, 136
8. Colin Kaminsky, 133
9. Salvador De Alba, 127
10. Jack William Miller, 120