Kirkwood claims first as rival crashes in Indy Lights test at Mid-Ohio

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography / Road to Indy

Indy Lights’ pre-event test at Mid-Ohio concluded with Kyle Kirkwood setting the pace on Friday, while Linus Lundqvist crashed.

The day’s single session was twice red flagged, with the second stoppage occuring after Lundqvist sent his Global Racing Group with HMD Motorsports-run car into a wall.

Lundqvist had yet to even set a lap when the first stoppage occurred with an hour to go of running, at which point Andretti Autosport’s Danial Frost – who was fastest on Thursday – was at the top with a 1m17.3937s lap.

He and team-mates Kirkwood and Robert Megennis had usurpsed Carlin with Jay Howard Driver Development’s Alex Peroni, who had initially been the fastest driver on track.

Megennis moved up the order after the restart, bringing the fastest lap down to a 1m15.4393s, just 0.0571 seconds faster than HMD Motorsports’ David Malukas, with 45 minutes to go.

Malukas responded by becoming the first driver to lap sub-1m15s, but Kirkwood was able to do even better and break into the 1m12s before the final half-hour.

After pitting, Kirkwood went even faster and improved to a 1m12.1587s as Peroni and GRG’s Benjamin Pedersen rose up to second and third place but neither able to lap sub-1m13s.

Malukas snuck in a lap 0.1711s slower than Kirkwood’s best just before the second red flag period came about, and there was only a few minutes to go after the second restart.

Neither of the top two improved, but Frost jumped up to third and Juncos Racing’s Toby Sowery went fourth fastest on their final effort, and Peroni got faster but was shuffled down to fifth on the timesheet.

Next week Andretti will be testing at the circuit again, and will be running NASCAR Mexico points leader Salvador de Alba Jr. The Mexican is a champion touring car racer and contested a round of the inaugural Formula Academy Sudamericana season in 2014.

Test results