Barber Indy Lights: Lundqvist beats Pedersen in wet/dry race

With the cars starting single file, apparently for safety reasons, Linus Lundqvist had no problem converting his pole position into the race lead ahead of HMD Motorsports teammate Benjamin Pedersen. This pair were pursued by the leading Andretti Autosport drivers Christian Rasmussen and Sting Ray Robb, while Kyffin Simpson of TJ Speed ran fifth ahead of Manuel Sulaiman (HMD) and Danial Frost (Andretti).

Christian Bogle spinning off the track at Turn 16 after eight minutes in this 45-minute timed race brought out the yellow, closing the gap between second and third which had stretched to eight seconds after Rasmussen had an off.

At the restart with 31mins to go, Rasmussen had another moment at Turn 2 running wide on the long right-hander, allowing Robb, Simpson and Sulaiman to move into third, fourth and fifth. Frost had run wide at Turn 1, allowing Matthew Brabham (Andretti) to pass him, around the outside at Turn 2 and he squeezed between Frost and the recovering Rasmussen to claim sixth.

At half distance, Lundqvist held a 1.8sec lead over Pedersen who ran 6sec clear of Robb. Around 1.5sec behind Robb, Simpson, Sulaiman and Brabham enjoyed a spirited battle for fourth until on Lap 16, Brabham sneaked past Sulaiman on the exit of Turn 5. The Mexican lost enough momentum that he came under pressure from the recovering Rasmussen, but after a brief tussle, the Dane ran into the back of Sulaiman at Turn 5, and broke off his front wing, necessitating a pitstop.

Series veteran Brabham had got into fourth but came off the dry racing line at Turn 2, and spun onto the grass, dropping to seventh behind Simoson, Frost and Hunter McElrea (Andretti) before recovering. Brabham recovered to pass McElrea and then Simpson, and McElrea also demoted Simpson with a brave pass at left-right at Turn 11. As drivers sought wet patches to help cool their grooved tires, before hitting the dry lines for the turns.

Unfortunately, McElrea was still partly on the wet when he dived down the inside of Brabham at Turn 5, and his right-front tire made hard contact with Brabham’s left rear, the pair both stumbling to a halt. Brabham restarted, but McElrea’s suspension was broken.

Lundqvist and Pedersen were sliding around on their deteriorating wet tires on the dry track, and Pedersen closed to within 0.2sec of his teammate but Lundqvist hung on to claim a well-deserved victory.

Robb came home 7.5sec behind and only just ahead of Frost, while Simpson’s incident packed race still resulted in fifth ahead of Jacob Abel and St. Petersburg winner Brabham. Trans-Am legend Ernie Francis Jr. was eighth for Force Indy, around 40sec off the lead battle.