Bobby Wilson passed for the lead on Turn 1 of the opening lap of Race 2 of the Liberty Challenge on the road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and then cruised to a 10.5-second victory over series points leader Alex Lloyd.
Wilson started on the outside of Row 1 in the No. 1 Ocala Gran Prix entry as a result of a seventh-place finish in Race 1 on June 16. (The top eight finishers were inverted for the start of Race 2). Wilson made a move on polesitter Ryan Justice in the first corner and drove all 18 laps unchallenged on the 13-turn, 2.605-mile circuit.
The victory was Wilson’s second in the Indy Pro Series and the first while driving for Brian Stewart Racing.
“It’s been an up-and-down year,” said Wilson, whose previous victory in the series came at Watkins Glen last June. “I’m so happy to be here (victory lane). It’s been a long time coming, I know these guys worked hard – the Brian Stewart race team was working all night on the car. I’m ecstatic right now. It was a great win, cruise to win, no pressure, just everything fell in to place.”
Lloyd, who maintains a 104-point advantage in the point standings, finished second for the second consecutive race after coming into race weekend with a record five-race winning streak.
Lloyd started seventh in the race, moved up several positions on the start, and passed Justice for second on Lap 14.
“The only downside was we were starting seventh,” Lloyd said. “That was our biggest problem. Maybe we would have something for the win if the yellow hadn’t been out in the first corner for so long because I kept being able to chase Ryan, my teammate, for second and had to keep backing off because of the yellow. So, we lost half the race because of that, and by the time we eventually got through to second,we had a good car. But Bobby was way out front.”
Hideki Mutoh, who earned his first Indy Pro Series victory in Race 1, improved from the eighth starting position to finish on the podium. He passed Justice on the final straightaway, beating him to the line by 0.003 of a second.
“It was a great race,” Mutoh said. “I started from eighth position and made third place, so yeah, I feel thankful for the team, and I think I drove quite well today.”
Justice earned a career-best finish in fourth while Andretti Green Racing’s Jaime Camara was fifth.
Logan Gomez, a Sam Schmidt Motorsports teammate of Lloyd and Justice and a native of Crown Point, Ind., recorded a career-best finish of sixth.
Jonathan Klein improved 12 positions from the start to finish seventh. Mike Potekhen, Richard Antinucci and Daniel Herrington rounded out the top 10.
IndyCar SeriesTim Harms – indycar.com