Frost, Shields Claim First Road to Indy Victories at Lucas Oil Raceway - Speedway Digest

The Dave Steele Carb Night Classic at the Lucas Oil Raceway oval featured a pair of exciting races for drivers on the Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires open-wheel development ladder. Both included first-time winners as Singapore’s Danial Frost led from flag to flag for Exclusive Autosport in Round Five of the Indy Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires, while Australian Cameron Shields emerged victorious in Round Five of the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship for Newman Wachs Racing.

Frost, 17, was in imperious form on the ultra-fast oval. He was comfortably fastest in last week’s prerace test, led the way in qualifying and, after fighting off an early challenge from last year’s dominant USF2000 champion Kyle Kirkwood, controlled the proceedings to score a thoroughly well-deserved victory in the Cooper Tires Freedom 90. He also took home the first PFC Award this season for Michael Duncalfe’s Exclusive Autosport team, which also triumphed at Lucas Oil Raceway in 2018.

Frost’s only serious challenge came following the race’s only full-course caution, which came after 51 laps when Nikita Lastochkin’s Exclusive Autosport Tatuus PM-18 ground to a halt with a mechanical failure. Frost took the restart directly ahead of Sting Ray Robb, from Payette, Idaho, who had found a way past Kirkwood in Turn One moments before the yellow, but didn’t take long to reestablish a clear advantage. His final margin of victory after 90 laps was 4.8048 seconds.

Championship leader Rasmus Lindh (Juncos Racing), from Gothenburg, Sweden, chased both his teammate, Robb, and Kirkwood virtually throughout the race before finally finding a chink in Kirkwood’s armor on the very last lap when he took advantage of an open-door opportunity on the high line into Turn One. Robb moved quickly alongside, then carried his momentum through Turn Two to edge ahead and hold off Kirkwood for third on the line.

Jacob Abel (Abel Motorsports, from Louisville, Ky.), was the only unlapped finisher in fifth, while DEForce teammates Kory Enders, from Sugar Land, Texas, and Moises de la Vara, from Guadalajara, Mexico, finished in that order after a race-long scrap which also involved Phillippe Denes, from Carmel, Calif., who earned the Tilton Hard Charger Award after starting 12th on the grid.

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Adam Sinclair

NHRA, IHRA, Motocross and other forms of motorsports Staff writer
About Me: Adam has been a race fan since the first time he went through the tunnel under the Daytona International Speedway almost 30 years ago. He has had the privilege of travelling to races all across the state of Florida (as well as one race in Ohio), watching nearly everything with a motor compete for fame and glory, as well as participating in various racing schools to get the feel of what racecar drivers go through every week. Adam has spent the last three years covering motorsports for Examiner.com., where he had the opportunity to see the racing world from behind the scenes as well as the grandstands. He invites everyone to follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus, and looks forward to sharing his enthusiasm for all things racing with the readers of SpeedwayDigest.com.Be sure to tune in for his weekly sports talk program, Thursday Night Thunder, where he discusses the latest in motorsports news with drivers, crew members, and fans. The show takes place every Thursday at 8:00 pm EST on the Speedway Digest Radio Network.