Caio Collet takes maiden Indy Nxt win at Mid-Ohio

Photo: Travis Hinkle

Caio Collet claimed his maiden Indy Nxt victory with a lights-to-flag performance at Mid-Ohio. 

The HMD Motorsports driver, who sits third in the championship fight, enjoyed a trouble-free race to finish comfortably ahead of points leader Louis Foster.

The race started with drama as there was a four-car incident in turn one. Jordan Missig and Bryce Aron were in a battle for position with Jamie Chadwick and Jack William Miller when contact sent them off into the gravel. Chadwick and Miller were able to continue at the back of the field, but the pace car was brought out to clear the other two cars.

After the race restarted on lap five, there was little trouble for Collet. He pulled away at the front of the order, and was only briefly caught by Foster as they passed James Roe Jr in traffic. Foster closed onto the back of Collet, but could not stick with him.

Collet did not put a wheel wrong and managed to set his best lap of the race with his final lap, taking the chequered flag 6.8091 seconds ahead of Foster.

Foster had an equally uneventful race. He was comfortably ahead of title rival Jacob Abel, who complained about tyre wear in the closing stages. Abel also had a considerable gap to Callum Hedge in fourth, where the HMD driver was battling to stay ahead of team-mate Christian Brooks.

Behind them, Jonathan Browne challenged Reece Gold for sixth late on after fighting his way back up past Nolan Allaer. Gold kept his car wide and denied Browne the position.

The battle for 10th was the closest on track for much of the race. Initially it ran between Salvador de Alba and Christian Bogle before Yuven Sundaramoorthy joined the fight. There was slight contact between de Alba and Sundaramoorthy, causing the former to pit with damage and the latter to be handed a drive-through penalty.

A recovering Chadwick and Roe then entered the fray. They too made contact, with Roe suffering front wing damage that led to him going a lap down. Chadwick managed to take 10th from Bogle late on, finishing five seconds behind Allaer and Josh Pierson.

Race result (35 laps)