INDYCAR stars lined up 1-2-3 for the start of the 10th RoboPong 200 endurance karting race at New Castle (Ind.) Motorsports Park, and Josef Newgarden teamed with Mark Dismore Jr. to win the 3-hour, 45-minute race on the .987-mile serpentine layout.
Click it: Results of the Dan Wheldon Pro-Am Karting Challenge
It was the second victory in the past three years for Newgarden, who recently completed his second IZOD IndyCar Series season in a Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing car. Dismore, son of former Indy car driver Mark Dismore, won for the third time. His first was in 2005 with Dan Wheldon. They started second among the 43-kart field.
Among other INDYCAR drivers competing, Simona De Silvestro teamed with Hanna Zellers in the No. 78 Pink Ribbon entry to earn the Chastain Motorsports Hard Charger Award. After starting 39th, they drove to an eighth-place finish. The team of Conor Daly and Jimmy Simpson finished seventh.
Ed Carpenter, the 2009 race winner, co-drove with Nathan O'Rourke (Newgarden's engineer at Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing) to finish ninth for Ed Carpenter Racing. Carpenter was co-winner of the Dan Wheldon Pro-Am Karting Challenge at New Castle Motorsports Park a day earlier. The Davey Hamilton Racing team of Davey Hamilton Jr., Logan Gomez and Adrian Starrantino finished 10th. Team Tall, featuring Anders Krohn and Stefan Wilson, finished 18th.
Firestone Indy Lights champion Sage Karam and championship runner-up Gabby Chaves, co-driving the No. 8 I-Kart Factory Racing entry, earned the pole position and finished 14th. Will Power claimed the third starting spot in the KartSport Team AMR1 entry with James Davison and placed 37th.
Cruise through the gallery by IMS photographer Chris Owens: