Dice Beneath the Leader Reflects Competitive and Deep Field of Racers
by Allan Brewer
allan@indyproracer.com
The Indy Pro Series championship chase, with the season nearly one third complete, finds Alex Lloyd of Sam Schmidt Motorsports enjoying a commanding lead of 112 points over Panther Racing’s Hideki Mutoh, and an even greater margin atop the rest of the field.
Alex’s control of the championship race puts him into a “It’s his to lose” position for the Firestone Firehawk Cup going into the US Grand Prix weekend and the double-header Liberty Challenge events (June 16th and 17th) on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Just a glance at driver performance for this year shows how successful Sam Schmidt Motorsports has been to date, as their worst start (sixth at St. Pete race number two) came as a result of the inverted first-six rule that sets the grid for the second half of each doubleheader weekend of racing. Lloyd won the first race of the weekend at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 31st.
Indy and Milwaukee Leave Points Standings Stirred, Not Shaken
There’s been slight movement within the ranks of those who follow since Homestead, but a modest reshuffling of the deck with the results of the Freedom 100 and the Road Runner 100 at the Milwaukee Mile did put some familiar names back in alignment with pre-season expectations.
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Chris Festa was knocked out of the competition at the Mile with Hideki’s untimely spin; as a result neither driver was able to close the gap on Lloyd over the last weekend of racing. The upshot of the points-loss both suffered is that Lloyd could literally declare a holiday for the two upcoming 25-lap (65 mile) races on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (the Liberty Challenge) and still hold the lead going into the last race of the first half of the Indy Pro Series season.
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Indy Pro Series at Milwaukee. Photo: SteveSnoddyIRL |
Brian Stewart Racing’s Bobby Wilson was leading the Indy Pro Series championship standings at this point in 2006. After a series of setbacks (an accident during Open Testing at the Speedway in April, a disappointing qualifying—then race—result in the Freedom 100) Wilson moved up through the field from seventeenth place at the start to record a fifth-place finish at Milwaukee.
Wilson has been just out of the top five at the end on two occasions this year (Homestead and St. Pete race number one) with a sixth place finish on both counts; placed third at St. Pete race number two, and now stands on the strength of those consistently good performances holding onto the fourth-best points total in the series this year.
Right behind him, in fifth place, is another consistent performer driving one of the two beautiful silver and white Apex Racing machines: Silverthorne, Colorado-born Mike Potekhen.
Potekhen has shown great strength on the ovals, moving from a seventh-place finish at Homestead in the season’s opener, to a sixth at Indy on Carb Day (May 25th Freedom 100) to his most recent top-five outing (second at The Mile) on Saturday (June 2nd).
Like his teammate Ken Losch, Potekhen has found the key to running fast in the last few weeks. Losch took the pole at Indy on the big oval for the Freedom 100, and Mike held down the inside spot on the second row right behind him. At Milwaukee, the twenty-seven year old Potekhen repeated the fast qualifying result (fourth on the grid) and turned in his best race result of the season to date by placing second to Lloyd.
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Mike Potehken (L) and Joey Scarallo at The Mile. Photo: SteveSnoddyIRL |
Team KMA's Robbie Pecorari Finds a Path to the Front Without Fail
The man Mike Potekhen displaced from the championship points top-five, Robbie Pecorari, was caught up in the opening-lap chaos in the Road Runner 100 that resulted in an early retirement for the Pennsylvania racer. The result spoiled a spectacular rookie run of top-ten and nearly-so finishes on the year to date.
What’s remarkable about Robbie’s races so far are how successful he has become at starting midpack or worse, yet still turning up nearer the front than the back at race’s end. He started eighteenth (among the back third of racers at Homestead) and drove his way to eighth; began the race twenty-second at Indy and worked up to eleventh, and scratched and clawed his way to a fourteenth place finish in an ill-handling, race-wrecked car from nineteenth last weekend.
Standing seventh at this juncture is Jaime Camara of Andretti/Green Racing, followed by a racy Jonathan Klein who looked very fast and very solid in his bright yellow/white striped Team Moore ride at The Mile's Road Runner 100 contest. With solid Pro Series and Star Mazda credentials from years of previous competition now beginning to shine, he has driven to two third-place finishes (St. Pete number one and Milwaukee) to add to a tenth in the Freedom 100.
The Team Moore driver’s podium result at Milwaukee and qualifying position alongside Lloyd at the start shows him gathering momentum headed to two road courses, where he may actually be at his best. Jonathan appears to be gaining significant ground in his development as a driver as well, moving confidently over the tricky Milwaukee circuit with apparent complete control of a good-handling race car—all of this still three weeks shy of his twentieth birthday.
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Wade Cunningham at Milwaukee. Photo: ShawnPayneIRL |
Andrew Prendeville’s name keeps popping up in discussion of who’s fast and who’s not as the Morristown, New Jersey native has climbed the learning curve with celerity toward the front; but his lack of consistency in the RLR/Andersen Racing Dallara to date (two top fives, the rest no better than thirteenth) reflects the difficult challenge of jumping into a series late and learning on the fly.
At the trailing edge of the top ten lies AFS Racing's Wade Cunningham, whose ninety-three points are fifty-five off Hideki’s second-place pace. Cunningham has arguably the raciest oval skills of anyone in the Indy Pro Series and his results of 24th at Homestead (accident), 23rd at Indy (another accident, then a penalty), and eleventh at Milwaukee (mechanical failure) belie the reality that he is very much a contender still in the championship chase going into the Liberty Challenge double-header next week.
Closely Contested Champ Points Race Extends Deep Into IPS Entry List
Only a slim twenty points separates the next nine Indy Pro Series competitors this season. Jon Brownson stands twelfth, just behind Kenn Hardley Racing's Stephen Simpson, who constitutes along with Joey Scarallo and Sean Guthrie a trio of young up and coming challengers who’ve been on the cusp of a breakthrough all season long. Behind them are Brad Jaeger, Logan Gomez, the now rideless CR Crews, and veterans Ken Losch and Tom Wieringa, the latter holding down nineteenth place with 65 points.
Everyone said before this 2007 season began that the competition looked to be one of the closest in the Indy Pro Series’ history; and with the prominent exception of a streaking Alex Lloyd, the prognosticators were right on the money with that prediction. Even Alex Lloyd agrees that the run of success he is enjoying now must eventually end, and fans can look to one of the names above to bring it to a close—possibly at Indy in only a few short days more.
Indy Pro Series Cumulative Results 2007
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