New Zealander Hunter McElrea has smashed the Indy NXT Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course lap record to top yesterday’s Open Test.
McElrea’s best time in the five-hour session was 1min 14.0499sec, more than six tenths quicker than the previous lap record held by Ed Jones from 2016 Indy Lights qualifying.
The pace increase in this year’s Indy NXT field was evident during yesterday’s run, with ten other drivers also going under Jone’s best.
It was a super-positive day,” McElrea said. “I just wanted to understand the tire on a track we’ve raced at. We blew, unofficially, the track record away by a lot.
“Hat’s off to the Firestone guys. The (tyre) degradation was way less than I was expecting, as well. Whenever you have more grip, it’s always more fun. I had a really good time. The whole Andretti team left here very positive.”
The second fastest was McElrea’s teammate, Louis Foster, who also recently competed in the Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship on our shores. He was more than two-tenths behind the Kiwi with a best time of 1min 14.2921
St. Petersburg race-winner Daniel Frost could only manage the eighth-best time of the day out of the 20 cars that took to the 14-turn, 3.93km track.
McElrea finished fifth on the Streets of St. Petersburg Indy NXT season-opener and is looking to continue the form that saw him claim last year’s Rookie of the Year title.
Indy NXT next returns on April 30 at Barber Motorsport Park in Alabama.
