Through a day and a half of action at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, the drivers of IndyCar and the Mazda Road to Indy have been busy with one race already in the books and two more to come today, as well as Indy Lights and IndyCar qualifying.
U.S. F2000 race one ended early this morning with Neil Alberico taking his fourth win of the season. The top two in the championship Scott Hargrove and Danilo Estrela were running second and third before making contact with one another to bring out the caution that ended the race. RC Enerson and Jason Wolfe both got their first career podiums after the contact with Florian Latrorre finishing fourth after starting fourteenth. Michael Epps gets a top five with Dalton Kellett finishing sixth. Henrik Furuseth was seventh with Luca Forgeois eighth ahead of Wyatt Gooden and Jesse Lazare. Hargrove finished seventeenth with Estrela falling to twenty-fifth. Pole-sitter for race one Garett Grist retired after six laps finishing twenty-seventh. Race two for U.S. F2000 will be at 3:25 p.m. ET today with race three at 9:10 a.m. ET. Sunday.
Matthew Brabham took his fourth pole this season in Pro Mazda. He beat out Brazilian Nicolas Costa by 0.073 seconds with Scott Anderson in third. Most recent winner in Pro Mazda Shelby Blackstock was fourth with Diego Ferreira rounding out the top five. Juan Piedrahita was sixth ahead of Kyle Connery, Zach Meter, Kyle Kaiser and Lloyd Read. Winner of race one at Mosport Spencer Pigot will start from eleventh on the grid. Race one of the Pro Mazda weekend will commence at 4:20 p.m. ET. Race two will be Sunday at 10:05 a.m. ET.
In Friday practice for the Firestone Indy Lights, points leader Carlos Muñoz was fastest at 1:13.5625 seconds, nearly two tenth of a seconds over most recent winner Jack Hawksworth. Zimbabwean Axcil Jefferies was third in his first session. Should Jefferies start the race this weekend, he will be the fifth African driver to make a start in Indy Lights, joining South Africans Desiré Wilson, Jaki Scheckter and Stephen Simpson and Angolan Duarte Ferreira. Both Simpson's and Ferreira's best finish was third in their Indy Lights career, with Simpson's third coming at Mid-Ohio and Ferreria's at Loudon. Zach Veach was fourth with Jorge Goncalvez fifth. Sage Karam was sixth place ahead of Gabby Chaves and Peter Dempsey. Juan Pablo Garcia, Matthew Di Leo and Giancarlo Serenelli rounded out the eleven cars.
Saturday practice for Indy Lights was marred by rain. The three Schmidt Peterson Motorsports entries (Chaves, Karam, Hawksworth) did not take to the track until the final five minutes of practice when the track was drying out. Peter Dempsey was fastest on the drying track at 1:17.5383 seconds. Nearly a second and a half back was Juan Pablo Garcia in second with Axcil Jefferies in third. Sage Karam jumped to fourth ahead of his teammate Jack Hawksworth and Carlos Muñoz. Gabby Chaves was seventh with Jorge Goncalvez, Matthew Di Leo, Zach Veach and Giancarlo Serenelli rounding out the field. Qualifying for Indy Lights will take place at 1:00 p.m. ET with the race Sunday at noon. The Indy Lights race will be shown at 2:00 p.m. ET Sunday, leading into IndyCar race coverage at 3:00 p.m. ET.
The Izod IndyCar Series had two practice sessions on Friday with Will Power fastest of the day at 1:05.4332 seconds, just 0.0862 seconds off the track record set by Dario Franchitti in 1999. Scott Dixon was second at 1:05.4469 with Ryan Hunter-Reay third at 1:05.5018. Dario Franchitti was fourth with Italian rookie Luca Filippi fifth. Charlie Kimball was sixth quickest ahead of the two Andretti Autosport drivers of Marco Andretti and James Hinchcliffe. Simon Pagenaud and Simona de Silvestro rounded out the top ten. De Silvestro's KV Racing Technology teammate Tony Kanaan was eleventh ahead of Penske-owned Chevrolet's of Helio Castroneves and Sébastien Bourdais. The last two Indy Lights champions were fourteenth and fifteenth with Josef Newgarden ahead of Tristan Vautier. EJ Viso was sixteenth ahead of Oriol Servià. Hondas took the next four times with Justin Wilson ahead of Graham Rahal, rookie James Davison and James Jakes. Sebastián Saavedra was twenty-second ahead of Takuma Sato and Ed Carpenter.
Saturday started on a still drying race track with the team using slick tires. Takuma Sato brought out a red flag five minutes into the session after getting into the tires at turn two. With twenty minutes to go, Charlie Kimball had an accident bring out the second red flag of the session when he backed into the tires in turn one. Will Power and James Hinchcliffe brought out the third red flag in separate incidents to end the session. Power went off in turn one, similar to Kimball while Hinchcliffe went off in turn twelve.
Josef Newgarden was the fastest in final practice with a time of 1:06.6536 seconds. Marco Andretti was second with his Andretti Autosport teammates EJ Viso and James Hinchcliffe just behind him. Justin Wilson rounded out the top five. Ryan Hunter-Reay was sixth just ahead of Scott Dixon and Helio Castroneves. KV teammates Tony Kanaan and Simona de Silvestro rounded out the top ten. Oriol Servià was eleventh ahead of Will Power and the Schmidt teammates of Tristan Vautier and Simon Pagenaud. Sebastián Saavedra was fifteenth ahead of Graham Rahal and James Davison. Sébastien Bourdais was eighteenth ahead of James Jakes with Dario Franchitti rounding out the top twenty. Luca Filippi was twenty-first with Ed Carpenter, Charlie Kimball and Takuma Sato rounding out the field.
IndyCar qualifying will take place at 2:00 p.m. ET. NBCSN will broadcast qualifying at 5:00 p.m. ET.
Round One Qualifying Groups:
Group One: Scott Dixon, Dario Franchitti, Charlie Kimball, James Hinchcliffe, Simona de Silvestro, Helio Castroneves, Josef Newgarden, EJ Viso, Justin Wilson, James Davison, Sebastián Saavedra and Ed Carpenter.
Group Two: Will Power, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Luca Filippi, Marco Andretti, Simon Pagenaud, Tony Kanaan, Sébastien Bourdais, Tristan Vautier, Oriol Servià, Graham Rahal, James Jakes and Takuma Sato.
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