Photo: Gavin Baker Photography
Jay Howard Driver Development’s Salvador de Alba was fastest in both Indy Pro 2000 test sessions at Gateway, which marked the first appearance of his new team-mate.
GB3 race-winner Marcos Flack is joining JHDD for this weekend’s race on the Gateway oval and the season finale at Portland on September 2-4, and got his first taste of the IP2000 car in a private test at Gateway earlier this month.
Turn 3 Motorsport’s Josh Green set the pace at first in Friday’s first pre-event test session, lapping initially at the 138.5mph mark and then improving by 0.9 miles per hour around the super smooth track.
With 23 minutes remaining of the first session, de Alba rose into first place with the first 140mph lap of the day. He improved on it twice and his best effort – a 32.0297s lap – had an average speed of 140.495mph.
Just 0.093 seconds slower was team-mate Braden Eves, with Flack seventh fasest in his first IP2000 season.
De Alba was then quickest again in session two, although he couldn’t quite match his earlier pace. He was six thousandths of a second slower (equating to a 0.024mph difference), but the former NASCAR driver was still a clear 0.179s ahead of Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Reece Gold and DEForce Racing’s Nolan Siegel, who along with Exclusive Autosport duo Louis Foster and Lindsay Brewer and Pabst Racing pairing Yuven Sundaramoorthy and Jordan Missig were the only five drivers to set their best lap in session two.
Test results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Speed | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Salvador de Alba | JHDD | 140.495mph | 98 | |
| 2 | Braden Eves | JHDD | 140.088mph | +0.0930s | 94 |
| 3 | Reece Gold | Juncos Hollinger Racing | 139.929mph | +0.1295s | 99 |
| 4 | Nolan Siegel | DEForce Racing | 139.682mph | +0.1864s | 69 |
| 5 | Louis Foster | Exclusive Autosport | 139.639mph | +0.1972s | 118 |
| 6 | Josh Green | Turn 3 Motorsport | 139.399mph | +0.2517s | 102 |
| 7 | Marcos Flack | JHDD | 138.938mph | +0.3589s | 84 |
| 8 | Jordan Missig | Pabst Racing | 138.662mph | +0.4234s | 130 |
| 9 | Enaam Ahmed | Juncos Hollinger Racing | 138.601mph | +0.4377s | 86 |
| 10 | Bijoy Garg | DEForce Racing | 138.468mph | +0.4687s | 93 |
| 11 | Yuven Sundaramoorthy | Pabst Racing | 138.185mph | +0.5359s | 123 |
| 12 | Kiko Porto | DEForce Racing | 137.315mph | +0.7417s | 79 |
| 13 | Trey Burke | Turn 3 Motorsport | 137.246mph | +0.7581s | 97 |
| 14 | Jack William Miller | Miller Vinatieri Motorsport | 136.752mph | +0.8765s | 101 |
| 15 | Lindsay Brewer | Exclusive Autosport | 134.212mph | +1.4995s | 110 |