IndyCars - St. Petersburg: The 2022 season begins!

[MarkyS]

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Sunday morning at St. Pete - the Indy Lights race…

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…saw an old favorite come to the front and WIN as Matthew Brabham takes the top spot for Andretti Autosport from his P6 start. P2 went to Benjamin Pedersen for Global Racing Group w/ HMD Motorsports from his P4 start while P3 went to Linus Lundqvist for HMD Motorsports from his P2 start.

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Pole-sitter Hunter McElrea for Andretti Autosport got away cleanly on lap 1 as teammates Christian Rasmussen and Matty Brabham also got a great start, going from P5 and P6 to P2 and P3 respectively as P3 starter Sting Ray Robb for Andretti and P2 starter Linus Lundqvist for HMD Motorsports battled each other off the racing line. Sticking in P4 was Benjamin Pedersen. Danial Frost for HMD went from P11 to P7. New Zealander McElrea built up a 3-second lead over Christian but on Lap 11 the Kiwi slid wide exiting the hairpin and slammed into the retaining wall, taking himself out of the race and bringing out a caution.

Rasmussen now leading restarted the race on lap 17. As they entered Turn 8 Kyffin Simpson for TJ Speed Motorsports speared Jacob Abel for Abel Motorsports, spinning him out and bringing out another caution. Abel was restarted and Simpson was sent to the rear of the field for avoidable contact. The race restarted on lap 19. Rasmussen built up a three-second lead, but Brabham responded and whittled it down, kissing the wall with his left rear tire at one point. Rasmussen again got over three seconds out front.

Two laps from the end Rasmussen then ran out of fuel in the back section and Brabham almost rear-ended him as Christian’s car slowed. Brabham had anticipated the extra fuel needed to run an extra five laps over last year’s race length and had managed his fuel better - enough to skate past and WIN the race, 2 and a half seconds over Benjamin.

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Notable:

• It was eight years ago when Matty WON his last Indy Lights race and he was understandably emotional with the victory.

• After seeing two other Andretti cars take and then lose the lead, Michael Andretti was also thrilled to manage a WIN, regardless. He was one of the first to get to Matty’'s car to congratulate him.

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The moment that Matty took the lead - almost disaster!

INDY NXT

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Your happy podium - That’s Benjamin Pedersen in P2 on the left, Matthew Brabham in P1 in the middle and Linus Lundqvist in P3 on the right:

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With this result here are the TOP FIVE in points leaving St. Pete:

1 - Matthew Brabham, 51
2 - Benjamin Pedersen, 40
3 - Linus Lundqvist, 35
4 - Sting Ray Robb, 32
5 - Danial Frost, 30

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Next up for the Lights will be Barber Motorsports Park for Round 2, May 1st, in support of the IndyCar race. Next up, USF2000 closes out their weekend with Race 2. The grid for this is in post # 14…

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[MarkyS]

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Sunday morning at St. Pete - USF2000 closes out their weekend with Race 2…

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…and it will be remembered as a messy affair, with a mid-race 5-car schlemozzle. It will also be remembered as verification that sophomore Myles Rowe is the real deal, as the Pabst Racing driver redeemed himself for Friday’s DNF with the WIN from his 6th place start. Taking P2 was Friday’s race WINNER Jace Denmark, also from Pabst, while P3 went to Cape Motorsport’s rookie Jagger Jones from his P4 start.

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The race was 3 laps in and still not going due to Viktor Anderson’s Velocity Racing Development machine stopping on course on the warm-up lap and needing to be retrieved. Pole-sitter Denmark finally took the green flag on lap 4, with Myles getting a jump on both P5 starter Simon Sikes for Legacy Autosport and Jagger Jones to take over P4 in Turn 1. At the same time Bijoy Garg for DEForce Racing dropped out of P2 and down the order to P9. One lap later Trey Burke for Joe Dooling Autosports went after Simon and the two cars bounced off each other, taking Trey out and sending Simon to the pits for a new wing. A caution came out to get Trey.

The restart came on lap 7. Jace took off as Myles went after P2 Thomas Nepveu for DEForce and took him in Turn 1. By Turn 4 Jagger was also past Thomas to take P3. On lap 8 Dylan Christie for DEForce spun in the Turn 4, Turn 8 complex and Turn 3 Motorsport’s Christian Weir, DEForce’s Bijoy Garg, Exclusive Autosport’s Jacob Douglas and Jay Howard Driver Development’s Frederik Lund were all caught up, eliminating the lot.

The restart happened on lap 13, and Myles once again used Turn 1 to pass, this time for the lead over Jace. Myles then held the lead to the end, and crossed the line 1 second ahead of Jace, who was almost 2 seconds ahead of Jagger, who was under a lot of pressure from Cape Motorsport’s Michael d’Orlando for the final podium spot

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Notable:

• Myles burned up a big chunk of his budget in spare parts to repair his Pabst Tatuus after Friday afternoon’s shunt. WINNING races is all he can hope to do to attract more sponsors. This dominating performance will help. This is his 2nd RTI WIN, following his great drive in the rain at New Jersey in 2021.

• With his P1 and P2 Jace Denmark takes the points lead going away from St. Pete.

• Pabst Racing well earned their nickname as “The Speed Boys” with two P1s and a P2 for the weekend.

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Your happy podium - That’s Jace Denmark in P2 on the left, Myles Rowe in P1 in the middle and Jagger Jones in P3 on the right:

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With these results, here are your TOP TEN in points leaving St. Petersburg:

1 - Jace Denmark, 57
2 - Billy Frazer, 40
3 - Michael d’Orlando, 38
4 - Myles Rowe, 35
5 - Jagger Jones, 35
6 - Simon Sikes, 34
7 - Bijoy Garg, 28
8 - Spike Kohlbecker, 24
9 - Thomas Nepveu, 23
10 - Jackson Lee, 23

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Next up for USF2000 will be a series test at Barber Motorsports Park, March 21-22. Next on track, the IndyCar race. The grid for this is in post # 19…

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[MarkyS]

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Sunday at St. Pete - USF2000 Race 2…

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…is presented here on Road to Indy TV video…

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USF2000 Race 2 - Streets of St. Petersburg

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We may be watching the beginnings of a great career.

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[MarkyS]

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Sunday at St. Pete - We got us a NEW WINNER in IndyCar…!

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…as Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin WINs from pole in a hard-fought battle to the finish, just besting 2021 Champion Alex Palou for Chip Ganassi Racing. Coming in P3 was Team Penske’s veteran Will Power.

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The race was a battle of two strategies - either a two-stopper with fuel saving or a three-stopper with balls to the walls. As it turned out the guys on a two-stop strategy carried the day, with Scott Dixon for Chip Ganassi the only three-stopper in the TOP TEN at the finish, and back in P8.

Part of the unpredictability was the number of cautions that may occur and this was almost a caution-free race, despite the speed of the cars, with David Malukas for Dale Coyne finding the wall near Turn 4 on his own, as he slid in the marbles. The only other DNF was Dalton Kellett, whose # 4 AJ Foyt entry had a mechanical that had him in the pits after 62 laps of running.

The rest of the race was a dance between going fast while also saving fuel, or going faster while on the wrong type of tires, trying to make them last long enough to make necessary pit windows.

Alex Palou was as impressive as ever, and late in the race as leader McLaughlin came upon a slower Devlin DeFrancesco for Andretti it looked very much like Palou would use the opportunity to pick off Scott, but he didn’t have enough fuel to risk using Push to Pass to get it done, and instead counted on pressuring McLaughlin into making a mistake.

The thing to remember is Scott is a three-time Champion of Australian Supercars, and is used to staving off pressure from behind to go on for a WIN, as he did here. It was simply time for Scotty to WIN, again.
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Notable:

• Best rookie finish was Christian Lundegaard for Rahal Letterman Lanigan who posted P11 from his P15 start.

• Biggest mover was Takuma Sato who went from P22 to P10 - a make-up of 12 spots, but Jack Harvey went from P23 to P13 for 10 spots and Alex Palou went from P10 to P2, past some of the fastest guys in the race.

• Fastest Lap was set by Conor Daly on lap 53 - right in the middle of the race.

• Easily making the most on-track passes was Kyle Kirkwood, but it ended up not benefitting him.

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Your happy podium - That’s Alex Palou on the left in P2, Scott McLaughlin in the middle in P1 and Will Power on the right in P3:

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Here is the highlight reel from today:

NTT INDYCAR SERIES

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With this result, here are the TOP TEN in points leaving St. Petersburg:

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1 - Scott McLaughlin, 54
2 - Alex Palou, 41
3 - Will Power, 36
4 - Colton Herta, 32
5 - Romain Grosjean, 30
6 - Rinus VeeKay, 29
7 - Graham Rahal, 26
8 - Scott Dixon, 25
9 - Marcus Ericsson, 22
10 - Takuma Sato, 20

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Next up for the IndyCars will be the XPEL 375 at Texas Motor Speedway, March 19-20

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