Pirelli World Challenge: O’Connell, Roush Jr. win Long Beach poles

By Apr 13, 2014, 2:30 AM EDT
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Johnny O’Connell earned the GT pole and Jack Roush Jr. did the same in the GTS class ahead of tomorrow’s Pirelli World Challenge race on the streets of Long Beach.

O’Connell (No. 3 Cadillac Racing Cadillac CTS-V.R) set a new GT track record with a time of 1:20.386, toppling the previous mark of 1:21.087 set by James Sofronas last year.

His Cadillac Racing teammate, Andy Pilgrim, will start alongside him on the GT front row after logging a time of 1:20.633.

As for Roush Jr. (No. 60 ROUSH Road Racing Ford Mustang Boss 302R), he too set a track record in GTS with his lap of 1:27.325. That eclipsed Andy Lee’s old record of 1:27.662, which was set last year.

Nic Jonsson (No. 36 Kia Motors America Kia Optima) earned P2 on the GTS grid for tomorrow’s race thanks to his time of 1:27.509. St. Petersburg GTS winner and defending GTS class champion Lawson Aschenbach qualified third with a 1:27.512 in his No. 1 Blackdog Speed Shop Chevrolet Camaro.

Fastest in the GT-A subcategory for gentlemen drivers was Nick Mancuso (No. 16 R.Ferri Motorsports Ferrari 458 Italia), who will start 7th on the GT grid after posting a 1:21.329.

World-ChallengeTV.com will stream tomorrow’s race starting at 7 p.m. ET, while NBCSN will air the race broadcast next Sunday, April 20, at 5:30 p.m. ET.

PIRELLI WORLD CHALLENGE – LONG BEACH
Qualifying Results

GT Class
1. No. 3 – Johnny O’Connell, Cadillac Racing Cadillac CTS-V R, 1:20.386, 88.1347 mph
2. No. 8 – Andy Pilgrim, Cadillac Racing Cadillac CTS-V R, 1:20.633, 87.864 mph
3. No. 61 – Anthony Lazzaro, R.Ferri Motorsports Ferrari 458 GT3 Italia, 1:20.698, 87.794 mph
4. No. 9 – Alex Figge, K-PAX Racing McLaren 12C GT3, 1:20.729, 87.760 mph
5. No. 21 – Andrew Palmer, GMG Racing Audi R8 Ultra, 1:20.964, 87.505 mph
6. No. 6 – Robert Thorne, K-PAX Racing McLaren 12C GT3, 1:21.144, 87.311 mph
7. No. 16 – Nick Mancuso(A), R.Ferri Motorsports Ferrari 458 GT3, 1:21.329, 87.112 mph
8. No. 14 – James Sofronas, Spyder/The Thermal Club Audi R8 Ultra, 1:21.629 86.792 mph
9. No. 2 – Mike Skeen, Hawk Performance Audi R8 Ultra, 1:21.756, 86.657 mph
10. No. 31 – Tim Bergmeister, EFFORT Racing Porsche GT3R, 1:22.137, 86.255 mph
11. No. 64 – Mike Hedlund, DragonSpeed/ESM Ferrari 458 GT3 Italia, 1:22.181, 86.209 mph
12. No. 10 – Henrik Hedman(A), DragonSpeed Ferrari 458 GT3, 1:22.422, 85.957 mph
13. No. 41 – Michael Mills(A), EFFORT Racing Porsche GT3R, 1:22.648, 85.722 mph
14. No. 44 – Brent Holden(A), GMG Racing Audi R8 Ultra, 1:23.146, 85.209 mph
15. No. 80 – Dan Knox(A), ACS MFG/Performance SpeedTech SRT Viper GT3R, 1:23.377, 84.973 mph
16. No. 32 – Bret Curtis(A), Spectra/United Steel/Valspar Audi R8 Ultra, 1:23.645, 84.700 mph
17. No. 99 – Jeff Courtney(A), Kenda/RecStuff.com Audi R8 Ultra, 1:24.058, 84.284 mph
18. No. 54 – Tim Pappas(A), Black River Caviar Mercedes AMG SLS GT3, 1:24.136, 84.206 mph
19. No. 15 – Tomy Drissi, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Aston Martin GT3, 1:24.462, 83.881 mph
20. No. 95 – Bill Ziegler(A), Swisher Racing/GMG Audi R8 Ultra, 1:25.354, 83.004 mph
(A) denotes GT-A subcategory drivers

GTS Class
1. No. 60 – Jack Roush Jr., ROUSH Road Racing Ford Mustang Boss302R, 1:27.325, 81.131 mph
2. No. 36 – Nic Jonsson, Kia Motors America Kia Optima, 1:27.509, 80.960 mph
3. No. 1 – Lawson Aschenbach, Blackdog Speed Shop Chevrolet Camaro, 1:27.512, 80.958 mph
4. No. 33 – Tony Buffomante, Capaldi Racing/Ford Racing Ford Mustang Boss302S, 1:27.862, 80.635 mph
5. No. 73 – Jack Baldwin, RESET-MD/StopTech/Motul Porsche Cayman S, 1:27.871, 80.627 mph
6. No. 17 – Alec Udell, Watson Racing Ford Mustang Boss 302S, 1:28.297, 80.238 mph
7. No. 38 – Mark Wilkins, Kia Motors America Kia Optima, 1:28.328, 80.210 mph
8. No. 20 – Andy Lee, Crown7.com/BestIT Racing Chevrolet Camaro, 1:28.331, 80.207 mph
9. No. 52 – David Sterckx, BG Reach Out Worldwide Ford Mustang Boss 302S, 1:28.568, 79.992 mph
10. No. 02 – Drew Regitz, TRG-AMR North America Aston Martin GT4, 1:28.814, 79.771 mph
11. No. 96 – Brad Adams, VoodooMusic/DatDog/Yo MTVRaps! Ford Mustang Boss 302S, 1:29.206, 79.420 mph
12. No. 51 – Ric Bushey, Nissan/Motul/SPL/OSGiken Nissan 370Z, 1:29.436, 79.216 mph
13. No. 97 – Mitch Landry, VersaCrane/DeepSouth Ford Mustang Boss 302S, 1:29.558, 79.108 mph
14. No. 11 – Tony Gaples, BlackDog Speed Shop Chevrolet Camaro, 1:29.594, 79.076 mph
15. No. 01 – Don Istook, Forge Motorsports/Recaro Audi TTRS, 1:29.934, 78.777 mph
16. No. 40 – Geoff Reeves, BestIT/Bondurant School Chevrolet Camaro, 1:31.335, 77.569 mph
17. No. 75 – Erik Davis, Reach Out Worldwide Ford Mustang Boss302S, 1:31.611, 77.335 mph
18. No. 72 – Buz McCall, RESET-MD/StopTech/Motul Porsche Cayman S, 1:32.443, 76.639 mph
19. No. 34 – Nick Esayian, Natural Cures Aston Martin GT4, 1:34.147, 75.252 mph
20. No. 04 – Jorge De La Torre, TRG-AMR North America Aston Martin GT4, 1:37.469, 72.687 mph

Winner Josef Newgarden earns $3.666 million from a record Indy 500 purse of $17 million

By May 29, 2023, 6:01 PM EDT
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INDIANAPOLIS — The first Indy 500 victory for Josef Newgarden also was the richest in race history from a record 2023 purse of just more than $17 million.

The two-time NTT IndyCar Series champion, who continued his celebration Monday morning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway earned $3.666 million for winning the 107th running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

The purse and winner’s share both are the largest in the history of the Indianapolis 500.

It’s the second consecutive year that the Indy 500 purse set a record after the 2022 Indy 500 became the first to crack the $16 million mark (nearly doubling the 2021 purse that offered a purse of $8,854,565 after a crowd limited to 135,000 because of the COVID-19 pandemic).

The average payout for IndyCar drivers was $500,600 (exceeding last year’s average of $485,000).

Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Roger Penske, whose team also fields Newgarden’s No. 2 Dallara-Chevrolet, had made raising purses a priority since buying the track in 2020. But Penske but was unable to post big money purses until the race returned to full capacity grandstands last year.

The largest Indy 500 purse before this year was $14.4 million for the 2008 Indy 500 won by Scott Dixon (whose share was $2,988,065). Ericsson’s haul made him the second Indy 500 winner to top $3 million (2009 winner Helio Castroneves won $3,048,005.

Runner-up Marcus Ericsson won $1.043 million after falling short by 0.0974 seconds in the fourth-closest finish in Indy 500 history.

The 107th Indy 500 drew a crowd of at least 330,000 that was the largest since the sellout for the 100th running in 2016, and the second-largest in more than two decades, according to track officials.

“This is the greatest race in the world, and it was an especially monumental Month of May featuring packed grandstands and intense on-track action,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said in a release. “Now, we have the best end card possible for the 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500: a record-breaking purse for the history books.”

Benjamin Pedersen was named the Indy 500 rookie of the year, earning a $50,000 bonus.

The race’s purse is determined through contingency and special awards from IMS and IndyCar. The awards were presented Monday night in the annual Indy 500 Victory Celebration at the JW Marriott in downtown Indianapolis.

The payouts for the 107th Indy 500:

1. Josef Newgarden, $3,666,000
2. Marcus Ericsson, $1,043,000
3. Santino Ferrucci, $481,800
4. Alex Palou, $801,500
5. Alexander Rossi, $574,000
6. Scott Dixon, $582,000
7. Takuma Sato, $217,300
8. Conor Daly, $512,000
9. Colton Herta, $506,500
10. Rinus VeeKay, $556,500
11. Ryan Hunter‐Reay, $145,500
12. Callum Ilott, $495,500
13. Devlin DeFrancesco, $482,000
14. Scott McLaughlin, $485,000
15. Helio Castroneves, $481,500
16. Tony Kanaan, $105,000
17. Marco Andretti, $102,000
18. Jack Harvey, $472,000
19. Christian Lundgaard, $467,500
20. Ed Carpenter, $102,000
21. Benjamin Pedersen (R), $215,300
22. Graham Rahal, $565,500*
23. Will Power, $488,000
24. Pato O’Ward, $516,500
25. Simon Pagenaud, $465,500
26. Agustín Canapino (R), $156,300
27. Felix Rosenqvist, $278,300
28. Kyle Kirkwood, $465,500
29. David Malukas, $462,000
30. Romain Grosjean, $462,000
31. Sting Ray Robb (R), $463,000
32. RC Enerson (R), $103,000
33.  Katherine Legge, $102,000

*–Broken down between two teams, $460,000 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, $105,500 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports