Power is closing gap to IndyCar leaders

Toowoomba teen moves up

A podium finish has edged Will Power closer to the leader in the IndyCar series.

Power started from pole position at the Mid-Ohio Indy 200 and finished second to Penske team mate Josef Newgarden.

The win sees Newgarden take the lead in the drivers’ championship, 52 points ahead of Power in fifth for the series.

The Toowoomba driver went into the Mid-Ohio Indy 200 64 points behind previous leader Scott Dixon, who is now third in the series, so it was a successful weekend for Power.

“I know we started on the pole and finished second, and that could be viewed as coming up short in some way, but it was a very good finish for the Verizon Chevrolet,” he said on www.indycar.com.

“We really weren’t on the pace all weekend and really got the most out of qualifying.

“So second (place), for the pace of my car, that was as good as we could get today.

“We’ve had too many seconds in this place though.”

There are four races left in the series, with the next round on August 20.

Cameron Shields has moved up to second in the Australian Formula 4 Championship but the series leader has kicked further ahead after the Ipswich round.

Shields was putting together a strong round at Queensland Raceway finishing second and first in the opening two races of the weekend on Saturday before he ran seventh in the third race on Sunday.

Those results were good enough for second-place for the round, which moved the Toowoomba driver up to a share of second spot in the series with Liam Lawson.

Nick Rowe took out the Ipswich round with two wins and a third from the three races to extend his lead in the championship.

Shields went into the Ipswich round 29 points behind Rowe but that deficit has grown to 45 points with two rounds left in the series.

“It was really good (Saturday) to come away with the race win … but pretty disappointing in race three,” Shields said.

“I was involved in a bit of an incident there on lap one, but pushed on and worked my back up the field a little bit. Still, second for the round it’s really good, now looking forward to Sydney Motorsport Park.”

The Sydney round is scheduled for August 18-20.

Jordan Lloyd and Will Brown took out the first two years of the Australian F4 Championship, so Shields was in place to have a shot to become the third-straight Toowoomba driver to win the series in its short three-year history. It has been a strong series already for teen talent Shields.

“Pretty good to get three wins under my belt. I’ve been on the podium every single race this year, except for round one,” he said.

“It’s good to always be up here, hope we can keep doing that for the rest of the year.”