IMS Indy Lights: Malukas holds off Sowery in last-lap battle
David Malukas scored his third win in six Indy Lights races, but his HMD Motorsports car held off Juncos Racing’s Toby Sowery by only five feet after a great last-lap battle.
David Malukas, HMD Motosports
Art Fleischmann
Malukas retained his advantage at the start of the race, but Sowery was all over yesterday’s winner Lundqvist and down the front straight at the start of the second lap, the Juncos Racing driver moved smoothly up the inside of the Swede to claim second.
Behind them, Carlin’s Alex Peroni held off Sting Ray Robb and the fastest of the Andretti Autosport drivers, Kyle Kirkwood, who had started the race on brand new tires. He and teammates Devlin DeFrancesco and Danial Frost moved past Robb on Lap 3 as the Juncos driver ran slightly wide through the Turn 11 sequence.
Lundqvist then made an uncharacteristic mistake at Turn 1 on Lap 4, running onto the grass, thereby promoting Peroni and Kirkwood to third and fourth. DeFrancesco also tried to pass Lundqvist around the outside of Turn 1 but pinched the Global Racing Group/HMD driver too hard on the inside curb, the subsequent bounce for Lundqvist sending both of them out wide, although Frost was unable to take advantage of their lost momentum. In fact, three laps later, Robert Megennis deposed Frost at Turn 7 to claim seventh.
Up front on Lap 6 of the 35, Malukas was one second ahead of Sowery who had two seconds over the Peroni vs Kirkwood battle, but a couple of laps later those gaps closed, Malukas holding onto the lead by 0.8sec and Peroni just 1.1sec adrift of Sowery.
With 25 laps down, the top four were covered by only 2.9sec but Malukas turned his fastest lap to run 0.8sec ahead of Sowery. Five laps later, the lead quartet were covered by just 2sec, but none of the chasing three had yet made a move on the car in front.
Finally at the start of the last lap, Sowery made an attempt to pass on the outside of Turn 1, but Malukas forced him to run wide on the exit. Sowery kept coming at him though, making Malukas go defensive into Turn 7 at the end of the back straight.
Sowery then stalked the HMD Motorsports car through Turns 11-13, and off the last corner he popped out from the draft to the yard of bricks, falling only 0.0283sec short.
Peroni was only six tenths behind this pair with Kirkwood a further 0.4sec down. Lundqvist remained ahead of DeFrancesco, but Megennis passed Frost for seventh on the very last lap, albeit 17sec from the lead battle.
P |
No |
Name |
Laps |
LapTime |
FL |
FTime |
Diff |
Gap |
Led |
ST |
Status |
Speed |
FSpeed |
Elapsed |
Team |
I1 |
I2 |
I3 |
Points |
1 |
79 |
David Malukas |
35 |
1:18.9496 |
25 |
1:17.2483 |
LAP 35 |
35 |
1 |
Active |
111.215 |
113.665 |
45:18.5916 |
HMD Motorsports |
38.7031 |
26.9475 |
24.6567 |
151 |
|
2 |
51 |
Toby Sowery |
35 |
1:18.6305 |
34 |
1:17.1985 |
0.0283 |
0.0283 |
3 |
Active |
111.667 |
113.738 |
45:18.6199 |
Juncos Racing |
37.3351 |
26.7699 |
24.3562 |
105 |
|
3 |
5 |
Alex Peroni |
35 |
1:18.5442 |
23 |
1:17.1692 |
0.7047 |
0.6764 |
4 |
Active |
111.789 |
113.781 |
45:19.2963 |
Carlin |
38.5857 |
26.8320 |
24.5692 |
101 |
|
4 |
28 |
Kyle Kirkwood |
35 |
1:18.1130 |
23 |
1:17.0380 |
1.1236 |
0.4189 |
6 |
Active |
112.406 |
113.975 |
45:19.7152 |
Andretti Autosport |
38.9078 |
26.8542 |
24.5283 |
124 |
|
5 |
26 |
Linus Lundqvist |
35 |
1:17.5438 |
23 |
1:17.3820 |
8.1975 |
7.0739 |
2 |
Active |
113.231 |
113.468 |
45:26.7891 |
Global Racing Group w/HMD Motorsports |
36.4387 |
26.5754 |
24.3241 |
140 |
|
6 |
17 |
Devlin DeFrancesco |
35 |
1:17.8451 |
23 |
1:17.3586 |
9.5712 |
1.3737 |
8 |
Active |
112.793 |
113.503 |
45:28.1628 |
Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport |
35.3264 |
26.7012 |
24.3767 |
99 |
|
7 |
27 |
Robert Megennis |
35 |
1:19.7039 |
25 |
1:17.4506 |
17.4062 |
7.8350 |
9 |
Active |
110.163 |
113.368 |
45:35.9978 |
Andretti Autosport |
30.0754 |
27.6070 |
24.4484 |
83 |
|
8 |
68 |
Danial Frost |
35 |
1:20.6047 |
27 |
1:17.4603 |
17.8252 |
0.4190 |
7 |
Active |
108.932 |
113.354 |
45:36.4168 |
Andretti Autosport |
34.2878 |
27.7373 |
24.5475 |
95 |
|
9 |
24 |
Benjamin Pedersen |
35 |
1:18.0029 |
30 |
1:17.6005 |
22.7898 |
4.9646 |
10 |
Active |
112.565 |
113.149 |
45:41.3814 |
Global Racing Group wHMD Motorsports |
33.4640 |
26.8143 |
24.5008 |
88 |
|
10 |
2 |
Sting Ray Robb |
35 |
1:17.9649 |
34 |
1:17.9580 |
28.7035 |
5.9137 |
5 |
Active |
112.620 |
112.630 |
45:47.2951 |
Juncos Racing |
26.6182 |
26.8867 |
24.4600 |
72 |
|
11 |
11 |
Antonio Serravalle |
35 |
1:18.7695 |
34 |
1:17.8706 |
30.1059 |
1.4024 |
11 |
Active |
111.470 |
112.756 |
45:48.6975 |
Pserra Racing |
27.2345 |
26.8215 |
24.7135 |
64 |
|
12 |
7 |
Christian Bogle |
35 |
1:18.3035 |
34 |
1:17.8281 |
37.2713 |
7.1654 |
13 |
Active |
112.133 |
112.818 |
45:55.8629 |
Carlin |
26.8574 |
26.8683 |
24.5778 |
59 |
|
13 |
59 |
Nikita Lastochkin |
35 |
1:18.3567 |
30 |
1:17.8904 |
39.5541 |
2.2828 |
12 |
Active |
112.057 |
112.728 |
45:58.1457 |
HMD Motorsports |
26.8749 |
26.8541 |
24.6277 |
61 |
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