Some idea of the level of intensity to be expected in next year’s Indy Pro 2000 Championship was gleaned from this weekend’s test, with the top drivers all posting times within a half-second of each other.
Intriguingly, it was a trio of rookies and USF2000 graduates – Hunter McElrea, Colin Kaminsky and Braden Eves – who played the starring roles, with Canadian Parker Thompson the only Indy Pro 2000 veteran interloper after being drafted by DEForce Racing.
McElrea emerged with the fastest time – as he did one year ago in USF2000 – turning a best lap of 1:19.4553, an average speed of 110.507 mph this morning.
Pabst Racing teammate Colin Kaminsky was only a few ticks of the watch slower at 1:19.5716.
“This is surreal, actually,” declared 19-year-old McElrea. “I was quickest at this test last year in USF2000 and that really put me on the map going into the (Road to Indy) Shootout (which McElrea won to secure his drive in this year’s USF2000 Championship) – and now, I’m here a year later topping the Indy Pro 2000 test. It’s a credit to Augie Pabst and everyone at Pabst Racing. They let me have a go at this car to prove what I can do, and what they can do as well. For a rookie team in this series to come out of this test one-two, you can’t get any better than that.
“The car was amazing straight out of the box and I was in the top three in every session I did, with a race run at the end to feel what the car is like in race trim. That was definitely a highlight of the weekend,” McElrea added. “It was a lot of new things to adapt to, but the Road to Indy has done a great job in making it a big step from USF2000 but a smooth one in terms of gaining confidence. Now I have to work hard to be on the grid next year, but hopefully this helps.”
Danish ace Rasmussen carried on Sunday from where he left off Saturday by completing a clean sweep of the weekend for Jay Howard Driver Development.
Rasmussen, 19, didn’t quite match his best time from the second session on Saturday, when he posted a best of 1:24.9311 for the 2.439-mile road course, but he remained the only one among 17 drivers to dip underneath the 1:25 barrier during the weekend.
Rasmussen’s fastest time Sunday morning was 1:24.9540.
“To be quickest in all six sessions really adds to our confidence going the 2020 season,” he said. “We didn’t have the best race weekend here this year so it’s very cool to go back and do a good job here this weekend. We gained so much data that we can use at all the races, working on setups: we did qualifying simulations, race simulations, everything.
“It’s amazing to get the opportunity to test this much here at IMS – it’s an amazing place to be, with all the history here. I’m very happy with the weekend; we have a really strong car now. There will undoubtedly be more new drivers coming into the series before the first race but this is a big confidence booster. We have to keep working at it, the same as we would if we hadn’t been this fast, and we’ll work at being this fast come next year.”