Tan wins Pro Mazda race

Wieron Tan

This weekend saw Malaysian driver Weiron Tan race from pole position to his third win of the season, in the ninth round of the Pro Mazda Championship at the Lucas Oil Raceway, Indianapolis. Tan’s win is the third win for the Andretti Autosport team at the circuit in three consecutive years.

Making his oval circuit debut, Tan showed he was one to watch in the 25-minute qualifying session. Consistently putting in fast lap times, the #22 Andretti Autosport driver took pole position for the first and only race of the weekend, with a top time of 20.27s.

Powering off the start-line Tan controlled the race immediately. The short 0.686-mile oval circuit saw quick lap times but the 20-year-old maintained control of the race, whilst incidents bunched the pack up behind.

Tan soon caught the back of the field and with overtaking room hard to find, the Andretti Autosport driver had to plan his moves carefully. However with an up to five-second lead over second place, Tan had pulled out a long enough gap to be able to get past successfully and maintain his first place position.

As the Malaysian continued to increase his lead, contact mid-pack called for a yellow flag and saw the field close up. Ten laps later the green flag was waved, Tan masterfully handled the restart and went hard on the throttle to pull away from the chasing pack behind.

Wieron Tan (C)

With just a few laps left to go in the 90-lap race, the Malaysian once again found himself catching the back of the field. Tan got caught up in race traffic but skillfully fought his way through, despite coming under pressure from a chasing Will Owen in second. Tan escaped the traffic unscathed to take the win and the top points towards his championship campaign.

The next round of the Pro Mazda Championship will take place on the Streets of Toronto in Ontario, Canada.

Weiron Tan commented; “"First of all, I want to say thank you to the Andretti Autosport team – they did a great job all weekend. Thank you to Mazda engines, Cooper Tires and thanks to the fans that came out today. I think it was a great race, and I think everyone enjoyed it. It was my first oval race as well, so it was a great result to come away with pole position, to lead every lap right up until the checkered flag and to take that win!"

Below, are the results for today's Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper tires race at Lucas Oil Raceway Park.

P	#	Name	Laps	Diff	Gap	Led	ST	Speed	Team
1	22	Weiron Tan	90	0.0000	0.0000	90	1	103.243	Andretti Autosport
2	23	Will Owen	90	0.4261	0.4261	0	4	103.805	Juncos Racing
3	3	Neil Alberico	90	19.8398	19.4137	0	5	99.827	Cape Motorsports w/WTR
4	5	Garett Grist	90	21.3054	1.4656	0	7	103.209	Juncos Racing
5	7	Jose Gutierrez	90	21.5361	0.2307	0	11	102.988	Juncos Racing
6	21	Victor Franzoni	89	1 LAPS	6.1684	0	9	100.893	M1 Racing
7	82	Pato O'Ward	89	1 LAPS	3.8601	0	12	100.336	Team Pelfrey
8	10	Florian Latorre	89	1 LAPS	8.6786	0	3	97.221	Cape Motorsports w/WTR
9	2	Daniel Burkett	89	1 LAPS	0.9364	0	6	100.353	Cape Motorsports w/WTR
10	14	Alessandro Latif	88	2 LAPS	1 LAPS	0	14	100.271	World Speed Motorsports
11	13	Bobby Eberle(E)	82	8 LAPS	5 LAPS	0	15	92.950	World Speed Motorsports
12	6	Timothe Buret	31	17.9429	1.0515	0	13	31.732	Juncos Racing
13	28	Dalton Kellett	27	16.0366	0.2824	0	2	101.223	Andretti Autosport
14	80	Raoul Owens	27	8 LAPS	0.8425	0	8	101.872	Team Pelfrey
15	81	Santiago Urrutia	27	7 LAPS	329.4181	0	10	6.483	Team Pelfrey