Louisville, Ky. - For decades, open wheel racers have found joy as well as heartbreak at Indianapolis and surrounding race tracks when chasing their dreams. For Abel Motorsports of Louisville, this past weekend’s return to the Indy Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires was definitely in the latter category.
“This is a very tough series with a lot of quality race teams,” noted team principal Bill Abel. “We love racing with the Road to Indy, and we came into our return this summer with high hopes based on our past successes as well as a recent oval test at Toledo. Unfortunately we struggled to find our way last Friday at the Freedom 90. We learned more about the changing nature of Lucas Oil Raceway on a hot summer’s day and night, and we’ll be ready the next time we compete there.”
The team’s veteran driver, Jacob Abel, fought through several frustrating on-track sessions Thursday and Friday. It was a rough outing from the start,” commented the 19-year-old college sophomore. “We came in with plenty of confidence after our Toledo test, but the car was really loose out of the box at Lucas Oil Raceway. The track had changed a lot from last year. We got close in the third session but we didn’t really have a chance to find a good qualifying setup, much less a good race setup.”
Young Abel rose to 6th on the speed charts by the end of the final practice but qualifying and the race itself proved much more of a challenge. The nature of oval track qualifying, where you only get 2 laps to show what you have, makes it tougher. The last practice, where we were 6th, showed our strength, but our starting spot proved too much to overcome. Now we’re looking forward to getting to Gateway, where both of our cars had good speed a year ago. It’s a big and fast place and I’m planning to have a strong run there.” Abel qualified 11th and finished 12th in the 90-lap event.
Jacob is getting acclimated to remote learning as he begins his second year at Butler University in Indianapolis, not far from where the Abel Motorsports team is relocating. The team's new shop in Speedway, Ind. is complete and the team has partially moved in. After the Gateway International Raceway Indy Pro 2000 event this coming Friday and Saturday, the team will prepare to return to full-time competition in the Formula Regional Americas Championship at the end of September at Sebring International Raceway in Central Florida.