Indianapolis, Ind. - As is now typical for the Mazda Road to Indy, the end of May means only one thing - Indianapolis 500 fever, and Team Pelfrey’s Pro Mazda and USF2000 outfits were in full #PelfreyPower mode for the Carb Night Classic at Lucas Oil Raceway.  The Friday night show played host to the Freedom 90 Pro Mazda Presented by Cooper Tires race and Freedom 75 USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda race.

San Antonio-native O’Ward is a proven force to be reckoned with and he duly recorded another victory.  The 17-year-old is now six for seven wins in the Pro Mazda Championship. O’Ward, who had already previously led 90 laps in the Pro Mazda series, succeeded in leading another 90 laps throughout the Freedom 90 race.

However, it was no easy feat for the Pro Mazda points leader, as had to defend from Garett Grist throughout. O’Ward’s main title rival at this stage, teammate Aaron Telitz, was hungry for another win at the Lucas Oil Raceway after winning the USF2000 event at the same venue in 2014.

Unfortunately, after a disappointing qualifying session, he started in the sixth position, but the Wisconsin-native was consistent and was able to move up into the fifth position in the early stages of the race.  With passing proving extremely difficult, Telitz was unable to make further progress but was able to secure a vital top-five finish in his championship quest.

New York, N.Y. - native Robert Megennis competed in his first oval race of his career at the Freedom 75. After a supremely impressive qualifying run, which saw Megennis qualify fifth and fastest of the rookies, the 16-year-old ran with the leaders for the first half of the race, before settling into a race long battle with Yufeng Luo.  After some exciting battling with traffic involved, Megennis finished a very respectable sixth with a fastest lap time of 22.729 seconds.

Team Pelfrey’s USF2000 and Pro Mazda teams will race next at the four mile, 14-turn road course at Road America June 24-26. 

Aaron Telitz (No. 82 Rice Lake Weighing Systems-Team Pelfrey) Started 6th, finished 5th: “Honestly, it was a really tough weekend. I never had my car working the way I would have liked it to work and qualifying was a bit of a disaster. I nearly crashed on both laps. I had to start fifth and still didn’t have quite the car that could make moves to get back to the front, so we had to settle for fifth place. I am really excited for Road America! It is going to be a great event.”
 
Pato O’Ward (No. 80 Gap Guard-Team Pelfrey)

Started 1st, finished 1st: “I am really looking forward to getting some supporters so we can close that championship season. Today’s race was not easy at all, I had Garett Grist behind me no more than half a second or seven tenths, so it was definitely not an easy race. But, I just tried to keep control and keep the tires under me because it is really easy to lose them at a track like this the last 20 laps. I just tried to stay relaxed and find the rhythm of the car for those last laps. It was starting to get really dusty in Turns Three and Four so I had to adapt to that, but the Gap Guard and Topo Chico car was absolutely amazing. I am really thrilled for my first oval win!”

Robert Megennis (No. 80 Palo Alto Networks- Team Pelfrey Mazda) Started 5th, finished 6th: “I had a pretty good day after not having the best practice. I made it happen in qualifying and qualified P5 and held P5 for almost all of the race until the last 10 laps. Overall, it was a really solid race, and it was my first oval race. I had a lot of fun and looking forward to Road America!”