2019 Indy Pro 2000 Championship

The 2019 Indy Pro 2000 championship presented by Cooper Tires was the 21st season in series history. A 16-race schedule was announced on 25 September 2018, featuring five permanent road circuits and two street circuits on the NTT IndyCar Series hosting doubleheaders, and single races at the Dave Steele Classic and World Wide Technology Raceway, a flat intermediate oval.[1] Following the departure of Mazda from the Road to Indy program, it was the first championship run under the new "Indy Pro 2000" name instead of the previous "Pro Mazda Championship."[2]

American Kyle Kirkwood of RP Motorsport won nine of the sixteen races yet still found himself in a close fight for the championship with Swedish driver Rasmus Lindh of Juncos Racing. Lindh won only three times, but fifth or better in every race and only finished off the podium three times. Kirkwood only needed to start the final race to clinch the championship and was knocked out by an incident on the first lap of the final race, leaving the final points margin of victory a scant two points. Canadian Parker Thompson of Abel Motorsports won the opening doubleheader of the season but not again for the rest of the season and finished third in points, well back of Kirkwood and Lindh. Sting Ray Robb captured two poles but was winless and finished fourth in points while Singaporean driver Danial Frost won twice and finished fifth, rounding out the season's winners.

Juncos edged out RP for the Teams' championship by a significant margin despite Lindh losing out on the championship on the back of Robb's strong performance in their second car. RP's second car was piloted by three different drivers who tallied only two podium finishes between them.

Drivers and teams

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Team No. Drivers Rounds
Abel Motorsports 8   Parker Thompson[3] All
51   Jacob Abel[4] 1–5, 8–16
DEForce Racing 6   Moisés de la Vara[5] All
7   Kory Enders[5] All
Exclusive Autosport 68   Danial Frost[6] All
90   Nikita Lastochkin[7] All
91   Parker Locke[8] 1–2
  Phillippe Denes 15–16
FatBoy Racing! 83   Charles Finelli[9] 1–12, 15–16
98   Phillippe Denes[9] 1–11
BN Racing
Jay Howard Driver Development
27   Matthew Round-Garrido 13–16
JDL Racing 9   Jacob Loomis[10] 3–4, 6–7
Juncos Racing 2   Sting Ray Robb[11] All
10   Rasmus Lindh[12] All
Pserra Racing
Jay Howard Driver Development
11   Antonio Serravalle[13] 1–11
Pserra Racing
RP Motorsport Racing
13–16
RP Motorsport Racing 5   Damiano Fioravanti[14] 1–2
  Ian Rodríguez[15] 3–4, 6–11
  Artem Petrov[16] 12–16
28   Kyle Kirkwood[14] All
Turn 3 Motorsport 3   Antoine Comeau 10–16

Schedule

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Rd. Date Race name Track Location
1 March 9   St. Petersburg 100 Streets of St. Petersburg St. Petersburg, Florida
2 March 10
3 May 10   Grand Prix of Indianapolis Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course Speedway, Indiana
4 May 11
5 May 24   Dave Steele Carb Night Classic Lucas Oil Raceway oval Clermont, Indiana
6 June 22   Mazda Grand Prix of Road America Road America Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin
7 June 23
8 July 13   Grand Prix of Toronto Exhibition Place Toronto, Ontario, Canada
9 July 14
10 July 27   Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course Lexington, Ohio
11 July 28
12 August 24   Cooper Tires Indy Pro 2000 Oval Challenge of St. Louis[17] Gateway Motorsports Park Madison, Illinois
13 August 31   Grand Prix of Portland Portland International Raceway Portland, Oregon
14 September 1
15 September 21   WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca Monterey, California
16 September 22

Race results

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Round Race Pole position Fastest lap Most laps led Race Winner
Driver Team
1 St. Petersburg 1   Parker Thompson   Parker Thompson   Rasmus Lindh   Parker Thompson Abel Motorsports
2 St. Petersburg 2   Parker Thompson   Kyle Kirkwood   Parker Thompson   Parker Thompson Abel Motorsports
3 Indianapolis GP 1   Rasmus Lindh   Kyle Kirkwood   Rasmus Lindh   Rasmus Lindh Juncos Racing
4 Indianapolis GP 2   Rasmus Lindh   Kyle Kirkwood   Rasmus Lindh   Rasmus Lindh Juncos Racing
5 Dave Steele Classic   Danial Frost   Danial Frost   Danial Frost   Danial Frost Exclusive Autosport
6 Road America 1   Parker Thompson   Rasmus Lindh   Kyle Kirkwood   Kyle Kirkwood RP Motorsport Racing
7 Road America 2   Rasmus Lindh   Rasmus Lindh   Kyle Kirkwood   Kyle Kirkwood RP Motorsport Racing
8 Toronto 1   Kyle Kirkwood   Ian Rodríguez   Danial Frost   Danial Frost Exclusive Autosport
9 Toronto 2   Kyle Kirkwood   Rasmus Lindh   Kyle Kirkwood   Kyle Kirkwood RP Motorsport Racing
10 Mid-Ohio 1   Kyle Kirkwood   Kyle Kirkwood   Kyle Kirkwood   Kyle Kirkwood RP Motorsport Racing
11 Mid-Ohio 2   Kyle Kirkwood   Kyle Kirkwood   Kyle Kirkwood   Kyle Kirkwood RP Motorsport Racing
12 Gateway   Rasmus Lindh   Kory Enders   Kyle Kirkwood   Kyle Kirkwood RP Motorsport Racing
13 Portland 1   Sting Ray Robb   Kyle Kirkwood   Kyle Kirkwood   Kyle Kirkwood RP Motorsport Racing
14 Portland 2   Kyle Kirkwood   Kyle Kirkwood   Kyle Kirkwood   Kyle Kirkwood RP Motorsport Racing
15 Laguna Seca 1   Sting Ray Robb   Sting Ray Robb   Sting Ray Robb   Kyle Kirkwood RP Motorsport Racing
16 Laguna Seca 2   Rasmus Lindh   Rasmus Lindh   Rasmus Lindh   Rasmus Lindh Juncos Racing

Championship standings

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Drivers' Championship

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Scoring system
Position  1st   2nd   3rd   4th   5th   6th   7th   8th   9th   10th   11th   12th   13th   14th   15th   16th   17th   18th   19th   20th 
Points 30 25 22 19 17 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Points (O) 45 38 33 29 26 23 21 20 18 17 15 14 12 11 9 8 6 5 4 2
  • The driver who qualifies on pole is awarded one additional point.
  • One point is awarded to the driver who leads the most laps in a race.
  • One point is awarded to the driver who sets the fastest lap during the race.
Pos Driver STP IMS LOR ROA TOR MOH GMP POR LAG Points
1   Kyle Kirkwood 14 2 2 13 4 1* 1* 8 1* 1* 1* 1* 1* 1* 1 14 419
2   Rasmus Lindh 2* 4 1* 1* 3 4 2 2 3 2 3 2 5 3 3 1* 417
3   Parker Thompson 1 1* 5 5 10 3 3 3 2 11 4 6 3 4 4 2 344
4   Sting Ray Robb 3 5 4 2 2 7 10 11 5 5 2 5 8 2 2* 6 323
5   Danial Frost 4 3 3 3 1* 11 12 1* 4 13 6 4 2 6 6 12 318
6   Nikita Lastochkin 5 7 7 4 11 5 5 10 8 4 7 8 6 9 9 13 237
7   Kory Enders 13 10 8 10 6 9 9 7 9 DNS DNS 3 11 10 11 3 211
8   Moisés de la Vara 6 6 13 6 7 10 11 13 10 10 13 11 9 11 12 4 198
9   Jacob Abel 9 11 6 7 5 6 7 12 10 12 7 8 7 5 198
10   Antonio Serravalle 7 13 9 9 12 DNS 8 4 13 7 9 4 7 10 8 188
11   Phillippe Denes 8 8 12 8 8 6 7 9 12 6 8 8 7 173
12   Charles Finelli 12 DNS 10 14 9 DNS DNS 12 11 8 12 10 13 11 133
13   Ian Rodríguez 14 12 2 4 5 6 3 5 132
14   Antoine Comeau 9 11 9 12 13 14 9 76
15   Artem Petrov 7 10 5 5 15 72
16   Jacob Loomis 11 11 8 6 48
17   Matthew Round-Garrido 13 12 15 10 34
18   Damiano Fioravanti 11 9 22
19   Parker Locke 10 12 20
Color Result
Gold Winner
Silver 2nd place
Bronze 3rd place
Green 4th & 5th place
Light Blue 6th–10th place
Dark Blue Finished
(Outside Top 10)
Purple Did not finish
Red Did not qualify
(DNQ)
Brown Withdrawn
(Wth)
Black Disqualified
(DSQ)
White Did not start
(DNS)
Blank Did not
participate
In-line notation
Bold Pole position
(1 point)
Italics Ran fastest race lap
(1 point)
* Led most race laps
(1 point)
Not awarded if more than
one driver leads most laps
Rookie

Teams' championship

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Scoring system
Position  1st   2nd   3rd   4th   5th   6th   7th   8th   9th   10th+ 
Points 22 18 15 12 10 8 6 4 2 1
  • Single car teams receive 3 bonus points as an equivalency to multi-car teams
  • Only the best two results count for teams fielding more than two entries
Pos Team Points
1 Juncos Racing 442
2 RP Motorsport Racing 362
3 Abel Motorsports 282
4 Exclusive Autosport 273
5 DEForce Racing 116
6 Pserra Racing
Jay Howard Driver Development
105
7 FatBoy Racing! 73
8 Turn 3 Motorsport 31
9 JDL Racing 26
10 BN Racing
Jay Howard Driver Development
16

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Bonkowski, Jerry (September 25, 2018). "2019 schedule for Indy Lights, Pro Mazda and USF2000 championships revealed". NBC Sports. Retrieved November 8, 2018.
  2. ^ "Road to Indy middle step renamed Indy Pro 2000 Championship". Racer.com. Racer Media & Marketing, Inc. December 12, 2018. Retrieved December 12, 2018.
  3. ^ "THOMPSON MAKES HIGHLY ANTICIPATED RETURN TO THE ROAD TO INDY WITH ABEL MOTORSPORTS". March 6, 2019. Retrieved March 6, 2019.
  4. ^ "ABEL MOTORSPORTS TO JOIN THE ROAD TO INDY IN 2019". November 7, 2018. Retrieved November 8, 2018.
  5. ^ a b "Full Season Effort for Enders, De La Vara and DEForce Racing in 2019". Indy Pro 2000. 22 January 2019.
  6. ^ "FROST MOVES UP THE LADDER WITH EXCLUSIVE AUTOSPORT". February 11, 2019. Retrieved February 13, 2019.
  7. ^ "Exclusive Autosport Confirms Nikita Lastochkin for Pro Mazda Season". promazdachampionship.com. Retrieved December 6, 2018.
  8. ^ Suttill, Josh (February 16, 2019). "Rasmus Lindh and Parker Locke join Indy Pro 2000 field". FormulaScout. Retrieved February 16, 2019.
  9. ^ a b "Where There's FatBoy, There's Racing...And Fun". March 2, 2019.
  10. ^ "JDL RACING TEAM AND JACOB LOOMIS TO MAKE DEBUT IN INDY PRO 2000". May 5, 2019. Retrieved May 9, 2019.
  11. ^ "Juncos Racing Adds Sting Ray Robb to their 2019 Indy Pro 2000 Lineup". February 19, 2019. Retrieved February 19, 2019.
  12. ^ "JUNCOS RACING SIGNS LINDH FOR 2019 CAMPAIGN". February 14, 2019. Retrieved February 14, 2019.
  13. ^ "SERRAVALLE AND PSERRA RACING JOIN FORCES AGAIN IN 2019". February 28, 2019. Retrieved March 1, 2019.
  14. ^ a b "RP Motorsport Set With Kirkwood and Fioravanti". March 2, 2019.
  15. ^ "RP MOTORSPORT READY TO CONTINUE AMERICAN DREAM". May 8, 2019. Retrieved May 9, 2019.
  16. ^ Wood, Elliot (August 21, 2019). "Artem Petrov to make oval debut with RP Motorsport in IP2000". FormulaScout. Retrieved August 21, 2019.
  17. ^ "Cooper Tires Indy Pro 2000 Oval Challenge at St. Louis".
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