Home News Rasmussen romps to second Indy Pro 2000 win in St. Petersburg

Rasmussen romps to second Indy Pro 2000 win in St. Petersburg

by Ida Wood

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography/Road to Indy

Christian Rasmussen took a second victory from four Indy Pro 2000 starts by winning the series’ Sunday race in St. Petersburg.

The Dane qualified second and spent the first six laps in that position behind Pabst Racing’s Hunter McElrea as the race ran behind the pace car due to crashes on the opening lap that eliminated Kyffin Simpson (Juncos Racing), Wyatt Brichacek (Jay Howard Driver Development) and James Roe Jr (Turn 3 Motorsport).

Behind the top two was Juncos’s Reece Gold and Exclusive Autosport’s Braden Eves, who qualified sixth but made up two spots before the race was put under yellow.

McElrea spent two laps of racing action in the lead before JHDD’s Rasmussen overtook him down the inside of the first corner and made use of a pace advantage to pull away.

A second caution period later in the race, brought about by Jack William Miller wiping off his rear wing when his car got loose, only made McElrea’s job of holding position harder but the first time Gold tried challenging him it instead opened the door for Gold’s team-mate Manuel Sulaiman to move into third.

As Rasmussen pulled away again, Sulaiman took second from McElrea into the first corner on the final lap and then the Pabst driver lost third to Gold in a drag race to the finish line.

Points leader Eves faded to sixth behind Pabst’s Colin Kaminsky, while Jacob Abel held off Artem Petrov (Exclusive) and the battling Enaam Ahmed (RP Motorsport) in the fight for seventh.

Race results (25 laps)
Pos Name Team Time
1 Christian Rasmussen JHDD 36m33.0410s
2 Manuel Sulaiman Juncos Racing +7.9210s
3 Reece Gold Juncos Racing +9.1320s
4 Hunter McElrea Pabst Racing +9.1506s
5 Colin Kaminsky Pabst Racing +9.5468s
6 Braden Eves Exclusive Autosport +9.9597s
7 Jacob Abel Abel Motorsports +11.1524s
8 Artem Petrov Exclusive Autosport +11.6237s
9 Enaam Ahmed RP Motorsport +12.1074s
10 Hunter Yeany Velocity Racing Development +13.1959s
11 Cameron Shields DEForce Racing +13.4022s
12 Flinn Lazier Legacy Autosport +14.0129s
Ret Jack William Miller Miller Vinatieri Motorsport
Ret Kyffin Simpson Juncos Racing
Ret Wyatt Brichacek JHDD
Ret James Roe Jr Turn 3 Motorsport
DNQ Enzo Fittipaldi RP Motorsport/Andretti Autosport
Fastest lap: Rasmussen, 1m09.1783s

Championship standings
1 Eves 98   2 Rasmussen 94   3 McElrea 87   4 Petrov 79   5 Gold 67   6 Kaminsky 57   7 Sulaiman 55   8 Ahmed 55   9 Abel 50   10 Shields 42