Lexington, Ohio – This weekend’s Cooper Tires Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio was a challenging round for Turn 3 Motorsport. The team had moments of greatness but was unable to find the consistency needed to land on the podium amongst the competitive field of racers in the Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires.
Indy Pro 2000 Qualifying 1 started off very promising for James Roe; the Irishman put in a fast lap that initially placed his #3 Topcon/Trintech car on pole. With a couple of cars besting his initial lap time, he held onto the third fastest time up until the final few minutes of the session, ending up with a P10 starting position for Race 1.
In Race 1, Roe slotted into position on the opening lap before a yellow flag came out for a car that went off course. On the restart, Roe overtook the #5 car of Wyatt Brichacek going into Turn 2 for eighth place and set to work closing the gap to the next car. The 22-year-old rookie continued to show his speed by putting in faster lap times than the cars ahead of him, but the aero wash from the train of cars made it difficult to overtake. Roe ultimately finished Race 1 in P8, just .3009 seconds away from the car in front of him.
Indy Pro 2000 Qualifying 2 was another good showing of Roe’s speed in the #3 car; he was second fastest at the beginning of the session and worked to qualify at the top. After everyone put on fresh tires for the end of qualifying, Roe jumped up to P4 before being shifted down to a P10 starting position after a great effort.
Roe had a strong start in Race 2, pushing forward two positions on the opening lap and fighting to hold his gains. The following laps saw Roe shuffle spots throughout the green to checkers event, ultimately scoring him P11 for the final race of the weekend.
Indy Pro 2000 Championship // #3 James Roe // Topcon/Trintech
“We tried our best to make things happen, but there’s not many opportunities to pass at Mid-Ohio,” said James Roe. “Our pace was strong and we moved forward, however it’s the late part of qualifying that keeps getting us. Once we can figure it out, I know podiums are going to come. We are going into the summer break now, so we will put our heads together for the final push of the season.”
“I was very happy with our pace,” said Team Owner Peter Dempsey. “We had a very good car capable of challenging for the podium. James showed speed but unfortunately just couldn’t put it together when it counted. He proved in Race 1 we had the pace to match the leaders, but it’s qualifying that counts at Mid-Ohio and that’s where we needed to perform better. We will regroup and move on to the next round with the focus to come back stronger.”
Up next for the Indy Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires is the oval at World Wide Technology Raceway outside of St. Louis August 19-21.