McElrea second in Indy Pro 2000 race at Lucas Oil Speedway

Kiwi Hunter McElrea has finished second in the opening race of the latest Indy Pro 2000 round at the Lucas Oil Speedway in Indianapolis. Kody Swanson won the Cooper Tires Freedom 90, with polesitter Manuel Sulaiman third.

McElrea drove from sixth on the grid to take second for Pabst Racing, earning him the Tilton Hard Charger Award.

“That was awesome, it was the most fun I’ve ever had in a race car,” commented McElrea. “The first time for the team on an oval with this car and they nailed it, I can’t thank them enough.

“We set the car to be good from the middle of the race to the end and it just got better and better. Everyone started fading and my car got better. I just kept throwing moves, just put my head down and picked them off.

” This is mega for our confidence, and we got a bucketload of points. We’re really happy with that but there’s a long way to go. There are eight guys in the fight and I’m loving it.”

The Indy Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires will return to action next week with the second oval race of the season, the Indy Pro 2000 Oval Challenge of St. Louis Presented by Cooper Tires on Saturday evening, August 29, at World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Ill.

Provisional championship points after six of 17 rounds:
1/ Devlin DeFrancesco, 136
2/ Sting Ray Robb, 129
3/ Danial Frost, 127
4/ Artem Petrov, 118
5/ Braden Eves, 115
6/ Hunter McElrea, 104
7/ Manuel Sulaiman, 103
8/ Parker Thompson, 89
9/ Colin Kaminsky, 83
10/ Moises de la Vara, 70

Race results