St. Petersburg, Fla. – After a tough start to the weekend in St. Petersburg, Florida, for Abel Motorsports and driver Jacob Abel, the team rebounded strongly during the final race of the weekend bringing the No. 51 Abel Construction/Crosley Brands car home in the seventh position.
The weekend got off to a rough start when the car had an issue which resulted in having to miss the majority of the practice session for the team to fix the issue. During qualifying for race 1 there was an incident among other drivers on the track which further limited the track time for the 20-year-old Abel. Abel wound up starting both races from the 11th position.
A few laps in to race 1 as Abel was trying to find the limits of the track, he made contact with the wall requiring him to pit for repairs. The Abel Motorsports crew did a tremendous job fixing the left rear of the car and getting him back on track. Jacob ran the remaining laps getting some much-needed track time and would up finishing in 15th, seven laps down.
Race 2 on Sunday morning got off to a great start as Jacob Abel got around a few cars at the start and began to settle into his race pace. As the race continued Abel was setting lap times comparable with the leaders and began battling for the seventh position. Abel got around Ahmed, and Petrov in the final handful of laps to capture a seventh-place finish.
“All in all, this weekend had a bunch of potential that was not met for reasons outside of our control. St. Pete is a track where maximizing track time is key, so having a freak issue in practice resulting in the virtual loss of a session is detrimental. However, our race pace was really strong and a seventh place finish in race 2 was a great recovery. I can’t wait to get May underway and begin a month of racing in the Racing Capitol of the World,” said Abel.
Jacob Abel and Abel Motorsports moves on to the Month of May with rounds 5,6 and 7 taking place at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 13-15. Heading in to the next three rounds, Jacob Abel sits ninth in the Indy Pro 2000 Presented by Cooper Tires Championship hunt.