PORTLAND, Ore. – Juncos Racing picked up two more podium finishes this weekend in the 2019 Indy Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires. Sting Ray Robb earned his first pole of the season for Round 13 and finished second while Rasmus Lindh brought home a third-place finish in Round 14 at Portland International Raceway.
The Indy Pro 2000 Championship kicked off the eighth weekend of the 2019 season on the 1.964 mile, 12-Turn road course located in Portland, Oregon with three test sessions Thursday. One practice and the first of two qualifying sessions followed Friday, and the final qualifying session Saturday morning.
The first of the two qualifying sessions took place Friday afternoon for the Indy Pro 2000 field. After narrowly missing the pole multiple times this season, Sting Ray Robb (Payette, Idaho) driving the No.2 Go Out Local/Juncos Racing car had his strongest run of the year earning his first pole start in Indy Pro 2000. Teammate Rasmus Lindh (Gothenburg, Sweden) driving the No. 10 Chicago Pneumatic/Juncos Racing car took the seventh starting position.
The field returned to the grid Saturday morning for the second qualifying session. Both Juncos Racing cars fought hard for the pole position throughout the session. Robb once again returned to the front row to start Round 14 after qualifying second. Lindh finished just behind to qualify third.
Later that day the Indy Pro 2000 grid was set for Round 13. Once the green flag waived, multiple cars went off track and were shuffled around in Turn-1, however stayed caution free and would stay that way until the end of the 25-lap race. The unfortunate incident put Robb in the back to eighth after starting from the front row, while Lindh gained multiple positions to move up to third. After starting to make up positions throughout the first half the race Robb was forced to pit and returned back to the track running ninth. Lindh went on to finish in the Top-5 taking fifth, while Robb finished eighth.
The weekend concluded late Sunday afternoon with Round 14. The Indy Pro 2000 field stayed green for the entire 30-lap race. Both Juncos Racing drivers made their way to podium finishes with Rob taking second and Lindh in third.
Lindh now sits second in the Indy Pro 2000 Championship with only two races to go.
“This weekend was tough for the team despite getting a podium finish,” said Lindh. “We had some issues on Friday which lead us one our worst qualifying positions of the year. The team worked incredibly hard and I cannot thank them enough for the long hours they put in. We bounced back in the second qualifying run. In the first race we were able to gain some positions at the start, but just not enough the rest of the race. We refocused for Sunday and took home a podium finish. Now that we are down in the points, we have a lot of ground to make up in the season finale at Laguna, but I am confident that we will all put in our best effort and give it all we have.”
After a successful weekend in front of many family and friend who drove from Idaho to watch Robb remains fifth in the Indy Pro 2000 Championship.
“It was a great weekend and I think we made a good step forward,” said Robb. “My progression as a driver and as a team I think we did really well. We lead the whole test day which really started off the weekend on a high note. Yesterday’s incident was really unfortunate, but it’s just one of those racing incidents that happens. It just was really hard to feel robbed of the win and not have a chance at it after the first turn of the race. Today was a good recovery with getting that podium finish. It was amazing having so many family and friend here to watch me who drove over from Idaho, since this is the closest track to our home base. I want to thank all of the team for their hard work, my sponsors at Go Out Local and Big Idaho Potato, along with all of our partners. We will be ready in a few weeks to be back on track for the finale in Laguna.”