Photo: Chris Jones
HMD Motorsports’ Caio Collet topped Indy Nxt’s opening practice session at Mid-Ohio on Friday.
The 19-car field featured three Abel Motorsports-run cars, as Jordan Missig returned to the team’s line-up.
He debuted at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May, finishing 18th and 13th in the two races on the track’s road course, then retired in his next outing at Road America to currently sit 22nd in the standings.
Missig was 16th fastest on his series return, 1.0678 seconds off the pace of Collet who set a 1m11.439s to be fastest by 0.2474s over HMD’s Christian Brooks with his final lap of the session.
“This is the first weekend that we started quite well like that,” said Collet. “I think we always have been starting a little bit on the back foot comparing to Louis, and then we just play a little bit of catch-up during the weekend.
“I think we put in the work after Laguna. This is a track that we tested. I knew a little bit where to turn. So, that was quite nice. The car felt really, really good throughout the whole session, and hopefully we can keep going like this tomorrow.”
Andretti Global’s Louis Foster was just 0.0056s further back, and like the top two set his personal best time on his last lap.
HMD’s Reece Gold and Abel Motorsports’ Jacob Abel completed a top five covered by 0.4428s, and there were 13 drivers within a second of Collet.
Debuting this weekend is Jagger Jones, and the HMD driver was slowest of all as he lapped two seconds off the pace.
Free practice 1 results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Caio Collet | HMD Motorsports | 1m11.4390s | 28 | |
| 2 | Christian Brooks | HMD Motorsports | 1m11.6864s | +0.2474s | 28 |
| 3 | Louis Foster | Andretti Global | 1m11.6920s | +0.2530s | 25 |
| 4 | Reece Gold | HMD Motorsports | 1m11.8076s | +0.3686s | 28 |
| 5 | Jacob Abel | Abel Motorsports | 1m11.8818s | +0.4428s | 25 |
| 6 | Jamie Chadwick | Andretti Global | 1m11.9522s | +0.5132s | 28 |
| 7 | Bryce Aron | Andretti Global | 1m11.9838s | +0.5448s | 27 |
| 8 | Myles Rowe | HMD Motorsports | 1m11.9993s | +0.5603s | 29 |
| 9 | Salvador de Alba | Andretti Cape | 1m12.1537s | +0.7147s | 27 |
| 10 | Jonathan Browne | HMD Motorsports | 1m12.2719s | +0.8329s | 26 |
| 11 | Yuven Sundaramoorthy | Abel Motorsports | 1m12.3203s | +0.8813s | 27 |
| 12 | Josh Pierson | HMD Motorsports | 1m12.3335s | +0.8945s | 27 |
| 13 | James Roe Jr | Andretti Global | 1m12.3615s | +0.9225s | 22 |
| 14 | Christian Bogle | HMD Motorsports | 1m12.3831s | +0.9441s | 25 |
| 15 | Callum Hedge | HMD Motorsports | 1m12.4835s | +1.0445s | 26 |
| 16 | Jordan Missig | Abel Motorsports | 1m12.5068s | +1.0678s | 27 |
| 17 | Nolan Allaer | HMD Motorsports | 1m12.6248s | +1.1858s | 27 |
| 18 | Jack William Miller | Miller Vinatieri Racing | 1m12.7945s | +1.3555s | 26 |
| 19 | Jagger Jones | HMD Motorsports | 1m13.4537s | +2.0147s | 20 |