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TEMPE, Ariz. -- Bobby Winkles, the former baseball coach who won three national championships at Arizona State and went on to manage in the majors, has died. He was 90.
Arizona State said Winkles died Friday with family and friends by his side.
Winkles became the Sun Devils' first varsity baseball coach in 1959 and went 524-173 in 13 years. He led Arizona State to national titles in 1965, 1967 and 1969.
Winkles was a charter member of the College Baseball Hall of Fame and coached such stars as Reggie Jackson, Rick Monday, Sal Bando, Larry Gura and Gary Gentry. Arizona State retired his No. 1 jersey in 1972, and the field at Packard Stadium was dedicated in his honor in 2001.
Winkles went on to manage four years in the majors, going 170-213 in stints with the California Angels and Oakland Athletics from 1973 to 1978. He also spent several seasons in assorted coaching roles with the San Francisco Giants, Chicago White Sox and Montreal Expos.
From Swifton, Arkansas, Winkles starred as an infielder and studied philosophy at Illinois Wesleyan University, then played in the White Sox's farm system from 1951 to 1958 before taking over the Sun Devils.
PARIS – The NASCAR Whelen Euro Series will take on the virtual racing world with a brand new series, the EuroNASCAR Esports Series.
Starting on April 21 with a Prologue Race at the virtual Daytona Int’l Speedway Road Course, the virtual championship will then feature seven points-scoring events and for the first time in sim-racing, impact the real-life NASCAR Whelen Euro Series Teams Championship.
All NASCAR Whelen Euro Series teams and more than 60 drivers already confirmed their entry for the first ENES season, ready to battle every Tuesday night live at 8 p.m. CET.
After the non-championship Prologue event at Daytona, the weekly EuroNASCAR Esports Series will head towards virtual Brands Hatch, England, on April 28 for a night racing on the iconic Indy Circuit, home of the popular American SpeedFest in real life. The following Tuesday, the EuroNASCAR Esports Series will make a virtual trip to the other side of the Atlantic to race at Watkins Glen Int’l allowing European racers to compete at the legendary track in the federal state of New York.
On May 12, the series will return to Europe to celebrate a very special debut: Circuit Park Zandvoort will welcome the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series drivers for the first time for a night of door-to-door racing on the 4.307 km road course on the North Sea shore. The road course layout of the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway will close the regular season on May 19.
For the first event of the double-points paying playoffs, the EuroNASCAR Esports Series will return to Brands Hatch to race on the Grand Prix layout for another unique debut. The second Semi Final will then take place at the unique Charlotte ROVAL in North Carolina while the season will close at one of the crown jewels of the real-life NASCAR Whelen Euro Series calendar: Circuit Zolder in Belgium.
Drivers will not only fight to become the first EuroNASCAR Esports Series champion. For the first time, results of the virtual series will also have an impact on the real-life Team Championship of the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series. At the end of the virtual season, the EuroNASCAR Esports Series champion will bring 40 bonus points to his team, the equivalent of one regular season race, while the runner-up will earn 35 points, third place will be worth 34 points, and so on.
While in real life two drivers share one NASCAR Whelen Euro Series car and sum their points for the Teams Championship, in the EuroNASCAR Esports Series each driver will compete separately and only the best placed will score points for the team at the end of the season.
With more than 60 drivers already entered, the first ever EuroNASCAR Esports Series will adopt a compact and exciting heat racing format. After a two-lap qualifying session, two 10-minute heat races will each send the top-15 drivers to the main event. Those who fail to advance from the heat races will have one last opportunity to find their way to the final through the 10-min last chance qualifier, which will award six transfer positions. The main event race will be 30 minutes long and award EuroNASCAR Esports Series championship points using the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series points system.
This is part two of a two-part series. Click here to read part one.
CONCORD, N.C. – Bobby Allen felt like he had an advantage over the rest of the field going into the 1986 Eldora Nationals. He had what many drivers struggle to find – confidence.
However, despite his notion of being the driver to beat at the Aug. 9, 1986 event, he still considered himself a dark horse. Or a “many more.”
“They’d always make in the announcement, ‘This week you’ll see Steve Kinser, Sammy Swindell, Doug Wolfgang and many more.’ Well, I always called myself a “many more,” he said with a chuckle.
By that point, Kinser and Swindell had dominated the championship points battle since the birth of the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car in 1978. Kinser already had six championships and Swindell had two. And when it came to Eldora, Kinser already had 15 wins at the half-mile track, while Swindell had 11.
Allen wasn’t a stranger to victory lane there, though. He holds the title of winning the inaugural World of Outlaws Sprint Car race at Eldora Speedway. He always felt like he ran well at the Ohio track and could have had more wins there if it weren’t for mechanical issues, he said. He almost won the 1988 Kings Royal before his motor blew and he ended up second.
Winning at Eldora was special. Like Knoxville, Eldora had a distinction to it, Allen said. It was always one of his favorite tracks to go to — as a driver and a fan.
“At Eldora, as far as I was concerned, even when I ran the race car in the race, I was a fan of them other guys,” Allen said. “Back then, you could go into the corner running third and do a slide job and end up being first. I never did that. But the other guys did that, and I’d watch them in front of me sometimes. I’d be like, ‘Oh man, here we go again.’ It almost felt like dive bombers or planes diving in there, sliding across each other because you ran wide open. If you got off the gas for a second, you’d get passed by two or three cars. Eldora was always exciting. It was definitely a racer’s racetrack.”
He didn’t need to pull fancy slide jobs to win at Eldora in 1986. In his own car, that he built himself, with his own team, he simply had all of the right pieces in the right place.
Through building his own chassis, he learned what kind of chassis worked best on certain tracks. At Eldora, he said you wanted a little bit of flex.
“You wanted to have flex where it would return,” Allen said. “Or kind of like a frame that was like a torsion bar itself. If the frame would give up and it wouldn’t hold its weight right, then you know that was no good. Back then they didn’t have rules, so you could build them out of thin tubing, etc.”
While teams nowadays have a special motor for certain tracks, Allen used the same motor he ran everywhere else. And like the chassis, he built that, too.
“You wanted a motor that didn’t give you trouble,” Allen said. “They were basically all the same to run good there or anywhere else.”
One of the key elements that helped him win the race was the set of tires you used — Hoosier’s softer compound tire. While others ran a harder compound, and Hoosier wanted him to do the same, Allen knew the softer compound was the right tool for the job.
Those elements, combined with a good setup, allowed Allen to drive his #1a car the way he was most comfortable — straight.
“Guys would try to run the same tire I run but couldn’t because they drove their car sideways, where I drove my car straight,” Allen said. “That’s why they needed the Goodyear. If you ran it sideways it seemed to work better. Where the Hoosier, if you ran it straight the car stuck. They were actually faster.
“I raced the car with the front end and kept the backend stuck. Most other guys ran the car going in with the backend and gassing it. You like to have the feeling of the right front when you drive in. You like to have the right front stuck and the rear end catches it. To me, that feels like the best way when it’s slick. I feel like (Donny) Schatz drives (straight) that way, too. Schatz drives with the front end.”
He learned to drive that way from his early career in go-karts and asphalt modifieds. He learned to drive his car “stuck,” he said.
With his self-built chassis and self-built motor and soft compound tires, he kept his car stuck to the bottom and middle lanes to drive away from the likes of Kinser, Swindell and Wolfgang to pick up his second and final career World of Outlaws win at Eldora Speedway.
At the end of the night, he was no longer the “many more.” He was the victorious Bobby “Scruffy” Allen.
Forget 'Sideshow Bob' sneers, Manchester United's Mejbri wants last laugh
Manchester United like to keep their young players under wraps for as long as possible, but it is difficult when your hair is as big as your talent and you cost €5 million at just 16 years old.
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It is hard to miss Hannibal Mejbri. For 90 minutes of United's FA Youth Cup tie with Leeds United in February, the visitors' 1,400 travelling fans crammed into one corner of Old Trafford sang: "You're just a s--- Sideshow Bob." Mejbri played well enough in the 1-0 win to laugh it off the next day, admitting to his 50,000 Instagram followers that "there is small resemblance" with the villain from "The Simpsons."
United hope that Mejbri, who turned 17 in January, will eventually become a hero. He has already played for the under-23s and trained with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's first team. When he arrived from AS Monaco in August 2019, he told academy staff he saw himself in the senior squad within two years. So far, he's right on track.
There is, though, still a lot of work to do -- physically and technically -- for a teenager who has not yet been tested in senior-squad football. It is the reason coaches at Carrington are reluctant to talk about Mejbri publicly, concerned that any extra attention will increase the pressure on his shoulders.
United took the same approach with Mason Greenwood, who wasn't even allowed to talk to in-house TV channel MUTV until he was 18. Greenwood has justified the hype, with 12 goals already in his debut campaign, but plenty of potential goes unfulfilled. Nicky Butt, a member of United's "Class of 1992" and now first-team development manager at Man United, often points to Adnan Januzaj -- now at Real Socieded -- as an example of how things can go wrong. The task now is to make sure the same thing doesn't happen with Mejbri.
Scott McTominay and Brandon Williams are regularly held up as players who went under the radar as youngsters but who are now established in the first team, but it's hard to keep a lid on the expectation surrounding Mejbri after the team paid an initial €5m for the French attacking midfielder, who signed a contract until 2024, in a deal that could eventually cost more than €10m. Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Leicester City and Barcelona were all interested, but after a family visit to Carrington, he agreed to move to Manchester.
The opportunity to sign one of the most highly rated young players in Europe might never have popped up at all had it not been for a disagreement with Monaco. Mejbri had a contract with the Ligue 1 side that should have run until 2021, but a row over the terms of that deal allowed United to swoop in. It was the culmination of a scouting operation that started when he was just nine years old. By the time he was 14, he had already turned down offers from Liverpool and Arsenal.
His career has been guided by his father, Lotfi, who has overseen moves from Paris FC to AC Boulogne-Billancourt and then to Monaco for a €1m deal in 2017. Education has been central to Mejbri's development despite such high hopes for his future as a footballer. It is something that is valued highly at United's academy, and players attend classes every week, either with a teacher at Carrington or at Ashton-on-Mersey School, about five miles from Old Trafford.
The thinking is that accomplishment off the pitch will be a vital asset in Mejbri's preferred position as an inventive No. 10. He's already comfortable directing teammates and is being encouraged to work on his English so he can get his instructions across.
"He comes with a high reputation, good player, lovely character, good kid," said United's under-18s manager, Neil Ryan. "He's working very hard, and like every young kid in the club, he is learning still and we are seeing some really positive things from him on the pitch.
"He is part of a group of boys who are trying to push on and develop. They are all at stages in their career and it's not just him. It's a group of 28 to 30 players. He is one of a number of boys we have high hopes for."
Charlie McCann plays in the same midfield for the youth team and said of Mejbri: "He's a great player. ... You can see it yourself, he does everything that you want him to do. He's lively and energetic and he can cause a problem for anyone."
The next step is for Mejbri to show he can do that regularly for the U23s and then, eventually, in the Premier League. If that happens, United will be more than happy to shout about a hefty transfer fee well spent and another star from the academy production line. But until then, the goal is quiet progress and keeping Mejbri's head -- and all that hair -- down.
Sources: Jags' Fournette subject of trade talks
The Jacksonville Jaguars have had trade discussions with other teams about running back Leonard Fournette, league sources told ESPN's Adam Schefter on Saturday.
The Jaguars have until May 4 to exercise their fifth-year option on Fournette, who is scheduled to make $4.16 million in base salary in 2020.
Fournette ran for a career-high 1,152 yards and caught a team-high 76 passes last season while scoring only three touchdowns. His 1,674 yards from scrimmage ranked sixth in the NFL last season.
After missing 11 games in his first two seasons, Fournette proved last season he could stay on the field, missing only the last game because of an illness.
Earlier this week, Fournette said on social media that he wanted the Jaguars to sign free-agent quarterback Cam Newton.
After questions about his work ethic, commitment and maturity following his first two seasons with the Jaguars, Fournette showed signs last season that he had matured. He worked out in the offseason with a strength coach, and he reported to training camp in good shape and didn't miss a practice.
When he wasn't on the field during the preseason, he wore a headset at his own request so he could hear offensive coordinator John DeFilippo's playcalls.
ESPN's Michael DiRocco contributed to this report.
Source: Nets' Dinwiddie eyes Team Nigeria spot
Brooklyn Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie is in the process of acquiring a Nigerian passport in order to be eligible to play for the Nigerian national team, a source told ESPN on Saturday.
The Athletic first reported Dinwiddie's pursuit.
Despite finishing 10th in All-Star voting for Eastern Conference guards and recording a career high 41-points in December, Dinwiddie was not on the list of Team USA finalists.
By obtaining a Nigerian passport, Dinwiddie would become eligible to compete with the country in the 2021 Summer Olympics. The Olympics were scheduled to be held in August, but were postponed until next year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Nigerian team, which is being coached by Golden State Warriors assistant coach Mike Brown, already includes Minnesota Timberwolves forward Josh Okogie and Orlando Magic forward Al-Farouq Aminu.
Nigeria qualified for the 2021 Olympics by being the top-placing African team in the 2019 FIBA World Cup.
When the NBA season was suspended more than a month ago, Dinwiddie was averaging 20.6 points, 3.5 rebounds and 6.8 assists per game. He started the season coming off the bench, but Dinwiddie, 27, moved into a starting role when Kyrie Irving suffered a shoulder injury.
He has started 49 of 64 games for Brooklyn this season.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – When 2014 Motorsports Hall of Fame of America inductee Rusty Wallace strapped into his Team Penske Miller Lite “The Last Start” Dodge Charger for his final race at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 20, 2005, one would think that nothing short of a victory that day would have satisfied the retiring NASCAR champion.
Instead, Greg Biffle took the win in the 400-mile season finale while Tony Stewart – who followed Wallace into the MSHFA as a stock cars inductee in 2019 – secured his second of three career NASCAR Cup titles. Wallace ran competitively all day, but a late issue dropped him to 13th at the finish.
Wallace didn’t leave Homestead disappointed, however, as he received a prize cherished to this day as he stepped out of the familiar No. 2 the final time. Wallace’s team owner, Roger Penske, inducted into the MSHFA in 1995, was right there to greet his retiring driver.
“I remember the last race at Homestead we ran really strong throughout the day,” Wallace said. “At the very end, I think we had a pit stop error, or something happened, that dropped me back. We finished the race and got out, it was a sad time, but I will never forget Roger Penske walking up to me.
“Roger said to his guys ‘I want you to take that car right to Rusty’s shop.’ Right there and then at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Roger Penske gave me that car, had his guys load it up and they took it straight to my race shop in North Carolina. I have had it ever since.”
Active in the MSHFA and Museum since his induction, Wallace supported from the beginning the Hall’s move from Detroit to Daytona Int’l Speedway five years ago. His “The Last Start” Dodge has been on loan and a featured display the MSHFA Museum since it reopened at DIS in 2016.
“When Ron Watson and I were talking about the Motorsports Hall of Fame moving to Daytona we mentioned that particular car,” Wallace said. “I said I would love to have the car on display at the Hall and Ron said he would love to have it there too, so it’s been on display there ever since. There’s a lot of history to it. A lot of people get to see it, and I am really proud that it is there. The Motorsports Hall of Fame of America and Museum is a great place for that car. There is a lot of history in there.”
A daily reminder of the Dodge hangs in Wallace’s North Carolina race shop. The car was entered as the “Miller Lite – The Last Ride” Dodge at the 2005 finale as a final component of the year-long “Rusty’s Last Call” retirement celebration.
“A picture of that car is on the wall in my office in North Carolina,” Wallace said. “It shows it all hunkered down in a corner, just ripping through the corners, and it is about three feet tall and about six-feet wide, so it’s a big picture and takes up the whole wall. It’s great.”
When the 1989 NASCAR Cup Champion retired, Wallace was in the all-time top-10 with 55 career race wins. Wallace was one of NASCAR’s best-known drivers in his prime, a popularity that continues today, and he was named one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers during the sanctioning body’s golden anniversary celebration in 1998.
Wallace not only made a cameo appearance in the Tom Cruise movie Days of Thunder but the rival character “Russ Wheeler,” played by actor Cary Elwes, is generally regarded – at least in name – as being modeled after Rusty.
Wallace and his wife, Patti, found some time during this past February’s Speedweeks to swing by the MSHFA and Museum and see their Dodge.
“Patti and I have been to the induction ceremonies, but she had never been to the actual Hall to see the car on display,” Wallace said. “When we were in town for Speedweeks she finally had the chance to see it. We got to walk up to it and just stand there and take a good look, reminisce a little bit and tell some stories.
“And to see all of the greats that are in the stock cars wing, their plaques are on display, it meant a lot to Patti and it meant a lot to me too. At that particular moment, we had enough time to just relax and reflect instead of being in a big hurry. It was a really nice day I remember, and I can’t wait for all of us to get back there soon.”
With most of the motorsports world on hiatus because of the coronavirus pandemic, we’ve decided to highlight some of the sport’s legends on a daily basis. We begin each story within the pages of National Speed Sport News.
Carl Edwards’ racing career was a dead end. He was a local hero struggling to get recognition on a national level.
Thus, he took out an ad in the classified section of National Speed Sport News in November 1998.
A little more than 18 years later, Edwards, who became popular for back flipping off his car onto the ground following a victory, walked away from driving with 72 NASCAR national series triumphs, including 28 in the NASCAR Cup Series.
He also won the 2007 NASCAR XFINITY Series title.
Edwards retired at age 37 after nearly winning the series championship.
“I can stand here healthy, and that’s a testament after all the racing I’ve done and all the stupid stuff I’ve done in a race car, that is a true testament to NASCAR, to the tracks, to the people who have built my race cars, to my competitors and to the drivers who have come before me who haven’t been so fortunate,” Edwards said. “Having said that, though, it’s a risky sport. I’m aware of the risks. I don’t like how it feels to take the hits that we take and I’m a sharp guy, and I want to be a sharp guy in 30 years. So those risks are something that I want to minimize.”
All of that led Edwards to believe it was time to leave the seat of a race car behind.
“I had been thinking what I thought was a reasonable amount about how this would end,” he explained. “I always think about things going forward. And in my mind, I’d considered next year being my final year, but I hadn’t put really a lot of thought into it. And after Homestead, I had some time to sit, think and reflect about all of this, and for those three reasons that I gave you, I thought, man, it just — I can’t come up with a good reason why now isn’t a good time.”
Edwards’ quick Truck Series success earned him full-time rides in both the Cup and Xfinity Series in 2005. He won his first races in each series during an early season weekend sweep at Atlanta Motor Speedway and never looked back.
Edwards finished in the top two in the Xfinity Series standings five straight years, including his 2007 championship, and amassed 38 wins over seven full seasons.
Over 13 years in the Cup Series, he won 28 races, including the Coca-Cola 600 and Southern 500, both in 2015. He was the championship runner-up twice, including the closest finish in NASCAR history, losing by tiebreaker in 2011.
MOTEGI, Japan – Simon Pagenaud was in the right place at the right time to become a back-to-back IndyCar iRacing Challenge winner on Saturday afternoon at the virtual Twin Ring Motegi.
Pagenaud, who was the last man in a Team Penske 1-2-3 inside of 10 to go, was able to keep his nose clean and strike after a three-wide battle eliminated his teammates Will Power and Scott McLaughlin in front of him.
Power, who led a race-high 61 laps and assumed the lead with 14 to go after the final round of green flag pit stops concluded, had successfully fended off McLaughlin down the home stretch and appeared to be on his way to victory at the 1.52-mile Motegi oval.
However, when the duo had to contend with the lapped car of Oliver Askew – who was trying to work his way back onto the lead lap before the finish – disaster struck the top-two runners.
Askew made it three-wide to the inside entering turn three as Power started to come down toward the white line, with the Arrow McLaren SP and Penske cars making contact that sent Power up the track.
In a flash, Power was colliding with McLaughlin’s car in the far outside lane, sending McLaughlin careening out of control and into the outside wall and leaving Power with front-wing damage as well.
Though Power tried to limp his car to the finish, it wasn’t to be as Pagenaud swept past with eight laps left to take the top spot away for good.
“Wow. That was a crazy race,” Pagenaud said. “It was really, really hectic at one point with Will (Power) and then with Dixon at the end, but man … we worked hard all week to be competitive, and I think I’m catching up! I think I’m getting there. I’ve had a lot of help from my engineer, Ben Bretzman, on strategies, and I’m having a lot of fun.”
Dixon took second place from Power with six to go and appeared to have the pace to run down Pagenaud, but the savvy Frenchman broke the draft down the backstretch each lap to keep Dixon at bay.
Though Dixon had one look inside of Pagenaud entering turn one on the final lap, Pagenaud pinched Dixon down against the apron and broke his momentum – opening up the eventual path to victory.
After the race, Dixon took umbrage at Pagenaud’s move and expressed his displeasure by running into the back of Pagenaud’s entry on the cool-down lap, but Pagenaud was unapologetic for his part.
“I’ve never had that happen before, but I’m sure that’s what goes on a lot of time in the drivers’ heads,” Pagenaud noted of Dixon’s frustration. “Dixon can be upset, but it’s the last lap of the race and I’m racing for the win, so I’m going to go for it. He went for it, too, and sometimes it’s just a reverse role to other types of situations in real life.
“He’s a great racer, though, and it’s always a pleasure to race him. I really enjoy it.”
Dixon’s runner-up result came by just .341 seconds, with Power hanging on to third and giving Team Penske two of the three podium positions.
Marcus Ericsson, in a second Chip Ganassi Racing entry, crossed the line in fourth and polesitter Robert Wickens – utilizing specially-prepared hand controls on his sim-rig setup – completed the top five.
Jack Harvey was sixth, followed by Sage Karam, who charged from 31st on the grid to seventh. Zach Veach, Santino Ferrucci and Graham Rahal trailed Karam in the final rundown.
Making his Indy car debut – albeit virtually – two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch parlayed a quiet and solid effort into a 13th-place finish.
Josef Newgarden, the fourth member of the Team Penske contingent, led 11 laps late in the race on an alternate fuel strategy, but couldn’t stretch his mileage to the finish and had to pit on lap 100 of 113. He was scored 15th at the checkered flag.
McLaughlin ended up one lap down in 24th after his contact with the outside wall, while James Hinchcliffe was unable to start the Firestone 175 after connection issues prior to the green flag.
Only one caution slowed the pace all afternoon long, with the yellow flag waving on lap four after a spin by Carlin driver Max Chilton’s No. 59 Dallara-Chevrolet.
The IndyCar iRacing Challenge season continues April 25 with an event at the virtual Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. Colton Herta is the most recent Indy car winner at the track in real life.
To view complete race results, advance to the next page.
Barrichello Snaps Denes’ Road To Indy iRacing Streak
PALMETTO, Fla. – Eduardo Barrichello had been knocking on the door to victory lane in each of the first three rounds of the Ricmotech Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires iRacing eSeries.
Fittingly Saturday at his Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship team Pabst Racing’s home track, Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis., the personable 18-year-old son of former Ferrari Formula One racer Rubens Barrichello drove a perfect race to earn the victory.
Singapore’s Danial Frost, who this year will contest the Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires series for Andretti Autosport, scored his first virtual Road to Indy podium finish in second, edging out series leader Phillippe Denes, from Carmel, Calif., at the finish line by three-tenths of a second.
Denes, representing his Indy Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires team RP Motorsport USA, led most laps, eight, during a dramatic 45-minute, 22-lap race. But Denes was left to rue a strategic error which has allowed Barrichello to close to within 19 points, 119-100, with one race left next weekend at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
A field of 35 contenders took part in the official qualifying session with only the fastest 28 able to progress into the race.
Last year’s USF2000 champion, Braden Eves, earned the SimMetric Driver Performance Labs Pole Award with a lap of 2:01.707. Looking to bounce back from a heartbreaking loss to Denes one week ago at the virtual Indianapolis Grand Prix Road Course, Eves made an exemplary start to lead away at the rolling start. He was chased by Denes, Ireland’s Peter Dempsey and Australian-based New Zealander Hunter McElrea, making his eSeries debut for Pabst Racing.
Denes drafted past to lead the opening lap before Turn 3 Motorsport team principal and former Indy Lights race winner Dempsey took advantage of a massive slipstream to leapfrog into the lead at turn one. Sadly, it didn’t last for long. McElrea, who one year ago claimed his first Road to Indy win in the real world at Road America, elevated himself to second place as the field plunged downhill toward turn three, but his attempt to draw alongside Dempsey at the apex of the corner resulted in contact which sent both of them spinning off the road. Several other drivers, including the unfortunate Eves, also were unable to avoid the incident.
Denes emerged in the lead unscathed, chased by Legacy Autosport’s Andre Castro, from New York, N.Y., up from sixth on the grid, eSeries debutant and regular Indy Lights campaigner Ryan Norman and Barrichello, who had qualified seventh.
The top three remained in tight formation until lap six, when Denes made a mistake and ran off the road at the exit of turn 14. The Californian managed to regain control but not before he was already committed to entering the pit lane.
With one mandatory pit stop for a virtual fuel top-up necessary, Denes was able to cycle back into the lead after the other leaders made their own stops at around half-distance. But Denes’ early stop meant that he would need to make an additional stop before the finish. When he ducked back onto pit lane after 16 laps, Denes fell to fourth, directly behind Frost, who had driven an excellent, consistent race after starting a lowly 21st.
Barrichello had caught the other leaders when Denes made his initial stop, and moved to the front for the first time after 10 laps when Norman ducked into the pits. Barrichello then made his own stop one lap later, right at the half-distance mark, resuming in fourth.
But when the three cars ahead of him – Denes, Castro and a recovered Eves – all needed to make an additional fuel stop, Barrichello hit the front again on lap 20. He then stroked home to take the flag 18.533 seconds clear of the rest. Barrichello also claimed an additional championship point for posting the fastest lap of the race.
USF2000 driver Christian Brooks looked set for second place after another fine drive, but having made his pit stop one lap sooner than Barrichello turned out to be his undoing. Despite doing his best to preserve fuel, Brooks ran dry on the final lap. He was fortunate to make the final uphill run to the finish in ninth, after being pushed across the line by Jacob Loomis, who gets the nod for the sportsmanship award.
Brooks’ dramas ensured that the battle between Denes and Frost was now for second place, whereupon Frost timed his run to perfection to pip Denes by a scant 0.309-second.
Eves crossed the line in fourth, narrowly ahead of USF2000 racer Prescott Campbell, with last year’s Team USA Scholarship winner Josh Green taking his best finish to date in sixth. Fellow USF2000 aspirant Michael Myers also drove a strong race to seventh for Legacy Autosport ahead of Brazilian Lucas Kohl.
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