Kohlbecker Emerges Victorious in Chaotic Race 1 at Indy

Photo: Fred Hardy/SRO

Spike Kohlbecker emerged victorious in the penultimate Toyota GR Cup North America race of the season at Indianapolis Motor Speedway following a chaotic race.

The RVA Graphics Motorsports by Speed Syndicate driver finished 0.370 seconds ahead of teammate Will Robusto in Saturday’s wild 45-minute contest that saw championship runner-up hopeful Jaxon Bell crash out from the lead.

Bell, who started from pole in his No. 7 Copeland Motorsports Toyota GR86 Cup, slammed into the wall entering Turn 1 on Lap 11 after contact with second-placed Ethan Goulart, bringing out the race’s only full-course caution.

The incident will be reviewed post-race by race control.

Goulart, who took the restart in the lead, got passed by the No. 22 Copeland Toyota of Jeremy Fletcher and pitted the following lap with right-front wheel damage, likely caused by the incident with Bell.

Fletcher, however, then lost the lead to Kohlbecker, amid a late-race four-way battle that also involved the No. 2 Toyota of Robusto and champion-elect Westin Workman.

An incident between Fletcher and Workman, however, resulted in Fletcher getting a five-second post-race time penalty.

Despite making a bold last-lap pass around Kohlbecker to finish first on the road, Fletcher was demoted to eighth in the provisional results.

Workman took his BSI Racing Toyota to a third place finish, ahead of Lucas Weisenberg and Max Schweid, who completed the top-five.

The results remain unofficial pending a potential post-race penalty for Goulart, who finished 25th, for his contact with Bell, who entered the race second in the drivers’ championship.

The season-ending race is set for Sunday at 11:05 a.m. EST with live coverage on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel and on GRCup.com.

RESULTS: Race 1

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John