Mid-Ohio Indy Lights: Kirkwood supreme again, earns sixth win
Kyle Kirkwood completed a near-perfect weekend and again led Danial Frost in an Andretti Autosport 1-2 to extend his championship lead over David Malukas.
Photo by: Road To Indy
Despite plenty of side-by-side action on the opening lap, there was no change in the order up front, polesitter Danial Frost holding off Andretti Autosport teammate and championship leader Kyle Kirkwood, ahead of the Global Racing Group with HMD Motorsports driver Linus Lundqvist who in turn held off HMD teammate David Malukas and Devlin DeFrancesco in the Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport machine.
However, on the run down to Turn 4 on Lap 2, Kirkwood popped to the outside of Frost and drafted by to take the lead. An Andretti driver doing less well in the early stages was sixth-place starter Robert Megennis who lost places to Benjamin Toby Sowery (Juncos Racing) and Benjamin Pedersen (GMG/HMD) in the opening couple of laps.
On Lap 10 of the 35-lap race, Christian Bogle lost his Carlin car at on the outside of Turn 1 and needed rescuing, bringing out the full course caution.
The Lao 13 restart saw no order changes, and as before the lead pair started stretching away from the pack, but on Lap 15 that pack was led by Malukas thanks to Lundqvist drifting far too wide exiting the Keyhole, Turn 2.
However, the HMD driver couldn’t close on Frost who fell almost 3sec behind leader Kirkwood by Lap 20.
Four laps later, Sowery finally found a way around Pedersen for sixth on the run down to Turn 4, and immediately started closing on DeFrancesco. The pair clashed on Lap 31 as they ran side-by-side through Turns 4, 5, 6 and 7, the Andretti driver staying ahead. Just behind them, on the penultimate lap, Megennis passed Pedersen for seventh.
Kirkwood eventually clinched victory by four seconds, while Frost did just enough to hold off Malukas.
P |
Name |
FTime |
Diff |
Led |
ST |
Team |
Points |
1 |
Kyle Kirkwood |
1:13.4004 |
LAP 35 |
34 |
2 |
Andretti Autosport |
290 |
2 |
Danial Frost |
1:13.2249 |
4.1660 |
1 |
1 |
Andretti Autosport |
204 |
3 |
David Malukas |
1:13.7157 |
4.8076 |
4 |
HMD Motorsports |
279 |
|
4 |
Linus Lundqvist |
1:13.5148 |
8.1424 |
3 |
Global Racing Group w/HMD Motorsports |
265 |
|
5 |
Devlin DeFrancesco |
1:13.8791 |
13.4894 |
5 |
Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport |
190 |
|
6 |
Toby Sowery |
1:13.5919 |
14.0083 |
8 |
Juncos Racing |
201 |
|
7 |
Robert Megennis |
1:14.0345 |
17.6080 |
6 |
Andretti Autosport |
183 |
|
8 |
Benjamin Pedersen |
1:13.9436 |
18.7311 |
7 |
Global Racing Group wHMD Motorsports |
179 |
|
9 |
Alex Peroni |
1:14.1022 |
19.2162 |
10 |
Carlin |
179 |
|
10 |
Sting Ray Robb |
1:14.1602 |
20.1702 |
9 |
Juncos Racing |
140 |
|
11 |
Nikita Lastochkin |
1:14.3583 |
28.8213 |
12 |
HMD Motorsports |
123 |
|
12 |
Antonio Serravalle |
1:14.5246 |
29.3824 |
11 |
Pserra Racing |
126 |
|
13 |
Christian Bogle |
1:14.7049 |
2 LAPS |
13 |
Carlin |
125 |
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