LEEDS, Ala. – The second official Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires test session of the young season concluded today at Barber Motorsports Park. Teenager Reece Gold, from Miami, Fla., posted the fastest time for Juncos Hollinger Racing as 16 contenders continued their preparations for the next two rounds of the Indy Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires the weekend of April 30/May 1.
Gold, 17, was quickest in two of today’s three 40-minute sessions. His best time, 1:17.539, was set in the morning, edging Jay Howard Driver Development’s Wyatt Brichacek, from Johnstown, Colo., by a hair less than a quarter of a second.
“Day Two complete here at the Barber test,” said Gold, who earned one race win last year and finished on the podium in one of two races held at the challenging 2.3-mile road course. “Coming after St. Pete with not the best results, my engineer and the whole team at Juncos gave me a great car today. My teammate and I were both up front and had the fastest lap of the day and led two of three sessions. It is just really good momentum during this break to go into the next race. We know we have a good car so I am looking forward to it.”
Brichacek, who qualified on the front row of the grid for the second race at St. Petersburg, Fla., last month, maintained his form by posting top-five times in four of the five sessions over the course of the two-day test. Brichacek, in common with several other contenders, opted not to take part in the final session.
Gold’s teammate, London, England-based Pakistani Enaam Ahmed, finished with the third fastest time at 1:17.807, which had proven to be fastest of all on Day One.
Nolan Siegel, from Palo Alto, Calif., who leads the point standings by virtue of a win and a fifth-place finish in the opening two races on the streets of St. Petersburg, was fourth fastest for DEForce Racing among a closely matched field which saw all but two of the 16 cars circulating within one second of Gold’s benchmark time.
England’s Louis Foster rounded out the top five for Exclusive Autosport, with Braden Eves (Jay Howard Driver Development), from New Albany, Ohio, Colin Kaminsky (Pabst Racing), from Homer Glen, Ill., and Josh Green (Turn 3 Motorsport), from Mount Kisco, N.Y., the winner of the opening race of the season, all blanketed within 0.151 of a second of Brichacek’s best.