Clerical Medical backed 21 year old Alex Lloyd completed the final round of the Indy Pro Series at Chicagoland Speedway on September 9th. source: Alex-Lloyd.com Alex ran in 2 good practice sessions on Friday 8th, primarily trying to gain as much experience as possible in traffic on the oval, to enable him to use his knowledge in the race and ensure the car worked well in the draft, which is the most important thing on this 1.5 mile track. Upon qualifying, where the drivers run one at a time, Alex and the team ran a quick lap and qualified a creditable 4th on the grid. "Qualifying went well" proclaimed Alex. "We have been concentrating primarily on a good race set up and a car that worked well in the draft. This 2nd row starting position is very encouraging. I definitely feel we have a good shot at getting our 3rd win in 9 races tomorrow." On race day, as Alex sat on the grid ready to exit the pits for the warm up lap, he found he had some problems with his radio and was unable to communicate with the team or most importantly with his spotter. As the warm up lap continued, Alex's dash on the steering wheel froze, and so had no lights on the steering wheel to let him know which gear he was in or how many revs he was pulling. This made for an extremely tough race and it meant Alex had to drive the race car based on feel alone and use his mirrors the best he could. As the race started Alex quickly moved into 2nd position. With his mirrors vibrating, distorting the image of the chasing pack, and Alex unable to see challenging cars in the blind spot, he raced hard fighting in the lead pack 2 and 3 wide at close to 200mph. As a caution period came out for an accident this gave Alex an opportunity to glance at the scoring tower to see how many laps there were to go. On the restart Alex struggled getting the optimum start as he was unable to see the revs and when to shift up through the gears causing him to hit the limiter. This dropped him to 6th with 1 lap to go. As the cars exited turn 2 Alex got a good run around the outside of turn 3 and 4 crossing the line in a hard fought 4th place, delivering yet another good result for both himself and the team.
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