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