ZENDELI CHARGES BACK TO TOP 10 IN DIFFICULT WEEKEND

May 13, 2023

Monaco Increase Management driver Lirim Zendeli, 23, took the best ouf of a difficult weekend in the USF Pro 2000 series on the Indianapolis road course, managing to climbi back to tenth place after being rammed at the start by another car. It was not an easy weekend for both Zendeli and TJ Speed Motorsports despite a good qualifying session where the German-Albanian driver backed by MIM had managed fifth best on a drying track, while the drivers that crossed the finish line at the very last moment gained an advantage. Friday’s Race-1 proved a disappointment for Zendeli though: after taking fourth place at the start, in a race that was interrupted several times by the safety car intervention, Lirim’s #10 car could not keep the same pace once the whole field had to switch to wet tires. He struggled for speed in the fast sections and eventually came out in 16th place. Race 2 (aka round 6 of the championship) looked more promising as Zendeli went for maximum attack from P6 on the grid, but already in Turn 1, while battling for fourth, he got bumped off by another car and had to resume his race at the bottom of the field, quickly gaining positions in a race that was marred by several full-course yellow flag periods and incidents littering the track with debris. Eventually, Zendeli entered the top-10 group and hanged on there through the checkered flag. Now he and his team will regroup as the series moves on to the next round on the iconic Indy Speedway on May 25-26.