Photo: Gavin Baker Photography/Road to Indy
DEForce Racing’s Nolan Siegel beat Louis Foster in the closing stages after a late restart to win on his second Indy Pro 2000 race at St. Petersburg.
Siegel had a fresh set of tyres for the second and final race of the weekend and put it to good use in the opening stages to open up a gap to Jay Howard Driver Development’s Wyatt Brichacek.
That was before a yellow flag came out due to a collision between Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Reece Gold, who broke his front wing and left debruis on the track, and JHDD’s Salvador de Alba, who received a puncture and retired.
There was some confusion over the initial restart, but the race got going again properly on lap seven of 25. There, Exclusive Autosport’s Foster made a move on JHDD’s Braden Eves to work his way through to third.
Initially, it looked like Eves was to be the one to challenge Siegel but he quickly dropped back.
Foster was closing in on Siegel when a second caution period took place, this time due to both Turn 3 Motorsport’s Jonathan Browne and Juncos’s Enaam Ahmed having incidents in different parts of the circuit. Ahmed looked good for a top-five before crashing out.
On the final restart with a five-lap dash, Foster tried to get by Siegel but was unable to, bringing Eves back into the fray.
The order stayed the same though, and Siegel took victory in his second IP2000 start ahead of fellow weekend debutant Foster, with 2021 runner-up Eves rounding out the top three.
DEForce’s Kiko Porto made a move on Brichacek on the final restart to take fourth, while Miller Vinatieri Motorsports’ Jack William Miller took sixth despite the risk of a puncture after slight contact with Ahmed’s crashed car.
Pabst Racing duo Yuven Sundaramoorthy and Jordan Missig rounded out the top eight ahead of Exclusive’s Matt Round-Garrido and the recovering Gold.
Turn 3’s race one winner Josh Green was running in the top five before pulling into the pits with an unspecified issue shortly after the first restart, and he finished three laps down.
Pabst’s Colin Kaminsky meanwhile retired with a mechanical issue during the second caution period while running in eighth. He did try to push his car back into the race but to no avail.
After damaging his car in qualifying, Exclusive’s Christian Brooks did not start.
Race results (25 laps)
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nolan Siegel | DEForce Racing | 35m57.7849s |
| 2 | Louis Foster | Exclusive Autosport | +0.7470s |
| 3 | Braden Eves | JHDD | +1.6020s |
| 4 | Kiko Porto | DEForce Racing | +2.9505s |
| 5 | Wyatt Brichacek | JHDD | +3.7309s |
| 6 | Jack William Miller | Miller Vinatieri Motorsports | +4.3236s |
| 7 | Yuven Sundaramoorthy | Pabst Racing | +6.2772s |
| 8 | Jordan Missig | Pabst Racing | +6.8850s |
| 9 | Matt Round-Garrido | Exclusive Autosport | +7.6381s |
| 10 | Reece Gold | Juncos Racing | +9.8745s |
| 11 | Josh Green | Turn 3 Motorsport | + 3 laps |
| Ret | Colin Kaminsky | Pabst Racing | |
| Ret | Enaam Ahmed | Juncos Racing | |
| Ret | Jonathan Browne | Turn 3 Motorsport | |
| Ret | Salvador de Alba | JHDD | |
| DNS | Christian Brooks | Exclusive Autosport | |
| Fastest lap: Foster, 1m09.4668s
Championship standings |
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