McElrea Earns First Indy Pro 2000 Win in Pabst 1-2 at St. Pete

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 Hunter McElrea left his best until last during his rookie season in the Indy Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires. After taking five podium finishes, the New Zealander took full advantage of a rare error by series champion Sting Ray Robb, then pounced upon Pabst Racing teammate Colin Kaminsky to take the lead in opportunistic style during today’s Indy Pro 2000 Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Presented by Allied Building Products. McElrea held off an intense challenge from Kaminsky, who equaled his career-best finish, to win by just 0.6253 of a second.

Singaporean Danial Frost enjoyed another strong run to finish third for Turn 3 Motorsport.

Robb had started today’s 17th and final round of the season just as he finished yesterday – at the front after securing his fifth Cooper Tires Pole Award of the year in qualifying yesterday with a new lap record of 1:07.6015, an average speed of 95.856 mph.

But unlike yesterday, he was unable to break clear of his pursuers due to an immediate full-course caution occasioned when Nate Aranda (Juncos Racing), from Albuquerque, N.M., inadvertently started a chain-reaction incident in Turn One which ended the day for the unfortunate Canadian Parker Thompson and Mexican DEForce Racing teammate Moises de la Vara.

Robb continued to lead at the restart, only to surprisingly leave his braking a fraction too late for Turn One, sliding wide and opening the door for Kaminsky, who had started second, and teammate McElrea to sweep through.

Kaminsky, from Homer Glen, Ill., drifted a little wide at Turn Two with his Cooper tires not yet up to full operating temperature, just glancing one of the omnipresent walls and losing a little momentum as the leaders sped onto the following straightaway. McElrea saw his opportunity and dived to the inside under braking for Turn Four. For a brief moment it looked as though the two teammates had made contact, but they emerged unscathed, albeit with McElrea now in front.

McElrea, who finished second in last year’s Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship, soon began to inch clear of Kaminsky, but not for long as Kaminsky upped his pace and began to reel in his teammate once more. They were rarely separated by more than a few car lengths throughout the final 10 laps, but McElrea had done enough to take the victory.

Kaminsky followed home in second to ensure an emotional one-two punch for team owner Augie Pabst, who joyously claimed his first Indy Pro 2000 PFC Award to add to the hat-trick of USF2000 Team Championship titles he had won in 2017, ’18 and ’19.

Frost also remained close behind in third for almost the entire 25-lap distance, while Sweden’s Rasmus Lindh capped an impressive return to the Indy Pro 2000 Championship with a strong fourth-place finish. Robb recovered to take fifth, well clear of Italian-Canadian Devlin DeFrancesco (Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport), who spent most of the race bottled up behind Russian Artem Petrov (Juncos Racing). So staunch was Petrov’s defense, indeed, that he was penalized by the Race Stewards and instructed to allow DeFrancesco to move ahead. Shortly afterward, Petrov’s eventful race ended in the pit lane following a couple of scrapes with the wall.

Kory Enders, from Austin, Texas, thus finished seventh for DEForce Racing ahead of Aranda, who took home the Tilton Hard Charger Award.

Adam Sinclair
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