Road America – Race 1: Linus slips to fourth after brief lead in eventful opener

Linus rose from fifth on the grid to lead an action-packed opening Indy Lights race of the weekend for two laps in the early stages, but ultimately dropped to fourth after a difficult run in to the flag.

With chaos erupting at the start as front-row duo Danial Frost and David Malukas clashed at Turn 1, Linus sprinted to the lead thanks to subsequent moves on Juncos Racing pair Sting Ray Robb and Toby Sowery, working his way to the front as the field set out to start lap three.

Two laps later, however, Kyle Kirkwood was able to draft by on the run to Turn 5, taking a lead that would later be converted into victory.

On worn tyres, Linus then slipped back a further few positions in the closing stages, finishing behind Global Racing Group with HMD Motorsports team-mate Benjamin Pedersen and Kirkwood’s Andretti Autosport stablemate Robert Megennis.

LINUS:

“It was cool to take the lead early on, but there was no way I could keep up with Kyle today. For some reason, my tyres went off dramatically in the second half of the race, and currently we don’t know why. I did have some damage after tangling with DeFrancesco in that mess at the start, but I don’t think that’s the full reason.

“It’s really disappointing to fall out of the podium places like that, but sometimes that is what you get in this sport. It’s on days like these that you have to hang in there and take away whatever you can, and today that was P4. We’ll work hard to analyze overnight, try to do better tomorrow, and learn from today as much as we can.”

Linus now holds second place in the Indy Lights standings, eight points down on new leader Kirkwood heading into Sunday’s concluding Race 2, which starts at 🇺🇸8.50 am / 🇸🇪15.50.