Indy Lights Racers Storm to Fast Start at Kansas Speedway
Saturday Practice for Round 4 of 16 Complete at Kansas
by Allan Brewer
allan@indyproracer.com
 AFS Andretti Green’s Arie Luyendyk Jr. Photo: SteveSnoddyIRL
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Raphael Matos motored to the fastest lap in practice for Sunday’s (April 27th) Kansas Lottery 100, besting teammate Arie Luyendyk Jr for the provisional pole.
Matos’ best lap came late in the day when he posted a speed of 190.432 mph (28.7346 sec), the only racer to top the 190 mph mark on Saturday.
“We were able to run around a lot of people and did a qualifying simulation in the end,” he said afterwards. “We’re pretty happy with the car. I think we’ll be quick enough for pole.”
Immediately behind came Luyendyk in the No. 26 AFS Andretti Green Racing Dallara with a best lap of 189.543 mph (28.8695 sec).
“It’s not easy to drive out there,” he said of the packs of cars charging around the 1.5 mile oval. “We should be fast in qualifying.”
The performance was sufficiently dominating to promote some early forecast of what kind of race tactics the pair might have up their sleeves. Might they find a way to draft and push that proves beneficial on Sunday?
“If that situation comes about, we’ll always help each other,” said Arie. “We didn’t get to do that in Homestead. We didn’t see each other too much. Hopefully we can work together this weekend to push to the front.”
Beatriz Fastest in Morning Session
Sam Schmidt Motorsports’ Ana (Bia) Beatriz was third-quick at the end of the day with a lap of 189.387 mph (28.8932 sec).
Bia was also fastest in the early morning session as well.
RLR Andersen Racing’s J R Hildebrand (189.333 mph in the morning session) and Beatriz’ teammate Jim Davison (189.017 mph) round out the top five.
"I'm pretty happy with the car," said Hildebrand. "A car has to be good on its own and in a draft, and it was in that session."
"It's a little bit of a handful, but it's definitely fast."
The temperatures were on the cool side in and around Kansas City with a high of 61 degrees Fahrenheit under sunny skies at Kansas Speedway.
Marc Williams of Integra Motorsports withdrew from the practice, qualifications and race this weekend for unspecified reasons.
Rookie Mark Olson spun in the early morning practice without damage to self or the No. 8 Michael Crawford Motorsports machine.
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