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Sunday afternoon at Laguna Seca - Indy Pro 2000 close out the weekend and their season…
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After his WIN on Saturday, all Kyle Kirkwood for RP Motorsport USA had to do to WIN the Indy Pro 2000 championship for 2019 was take the green flag in today’s race, yet he just barely got that done. The race was WON by Kirkwood’s title rival, Rasmus Lindh for Juncos Racing. P2 was Parker Thompson for Abel Motorsports while P3 went to Kory Enders for DEForce racing.
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Ricardo Juncos (left) with Rasmus Lindh…
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…and 2019 Champion Kyle Kirkwood
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As pole-sitter Lindh took the field down to Turn 1 on the opening lap, with Kirkwood in pursuit from P2, Kyle’s teammate Artem Petrov and Sting Ray Robb for Juncos came together, spinning Petrov out of control and into Kirkwood, sending them both into the weeds and out of the race before they got in the first turn. It didn’t matter. Starting the race was all Kirkwood needed to do. Mission accomplished.
During the caution to retrieve them, Sting Ray discovered he had a flat tire and pitted from P2 to get a new one. He would rejoin at the back of the field, but on the same lap. Rasmus restarted the race on lap 4 as the leader, with Danial Frost for Exclusive Autosport in P2 and Kory Enders in P3. On lap 5 Parker Thompson was by his teammate Jacob Abel to take P5 while Robb passed both Charles Finelli for FatBoy Racing! and Matt Round-Garrido for Jay Howard to take P11. Danial Frost set Fastest Lap of the race to pass Rasmus for the P1 spot on lap 6, while a lap later Sting Ray took Phillippe Denes for FatBoy Racing! for P10.
Lap 10 saw Rasmus reset Fastest Lap, trying to retake P1, while Robb was by Nikita Lastochkin for Exclusive to take over P9. On lap 14 Robb was up to P7 while Rasmus again set Fastest Lap. He was pressuring Danial when Frost spat off course at high speed in Turn 9 - a victim of suspension failure due to his involvement in the lap 1 schlemozzle. He would hit nothing but a caution came out to retrieve him. Lap 16 was the restart, with Lindh again leading, Kory in P2, Parker in P3, Moises de la Vara for DEForce in P4, Jacob Abel in P5 and Robb in P6.
For several laps Enders, Thompson and de la Vara ran nose-to-tail contesting P2. It took to lap 21 to resolve the battle with Thompson emerging in P2 from a pass in Turn 11 while Enders settled into P3. Thompson then began to close on Lindh quickly, but ran out of time. Rasmus would WIN on lap 25 by 0.8 seconds.
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Notable:
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Kirkwood would win the title with 419 points to Lindh’s 417 point - it was that close.
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Even more than Indy Lights Champ Oliver Askew, Kirkwood has a career crowded with rapid success. He was also a karting champion when picked for the Team USA Scholarship with Askew. They were both finalists in the Road to Indy Shootout - Oliver WON it. Kirkwood took the United States F4 title while Askew was taking the USF2000 title. Kirkwood then took the next USF2000 title while simultaneously taking the F3 Americas title. Now, he has the Indy Pro 2000 title. Should he take the Indy Lights title in 2020 - and he very well might - he will be the first driver to take all three Road to Indy titles - one a year - on his way to IndyCars.
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Kirkwood’s race WIN percentage in 96 formula car starts is 50%. He WINS every other race he enters and podiums in 70% of them, as well, and that doesn’t even include his 6 national karting titles. That is astonishing!
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Here is your happy podium - That’s Parker Thompson in P2 on the left, Rasmus Lindh in P1 in the middle and Kory Enders in P3 on the right:
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A big CONGRATS to race-WINNER Rasmus Lindh and to the remarkable Champion Kyle Kirkwood. With this race the 2019 season of the Road to Indy closes and the Silly Season begins in earnest, starting at the Chris Griffis Memorial Test in October at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where all three series will test drivers to see who fits best with which teams for 2020.
Thanks, Laguna Seca. You were worth coming back to!
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