Sunday, June 3, 2007

By Dave Lewandowski
indycar.com

WEST ALLIS, Wis. – Family and friends from Illinois watched Jonathan Klein compete in the Road Runner 100 at The Milwaukee Mile. The second-year Indy Pro Series driver treated them to quite a show.

Klein, competing in his fourth race in the No. 2 Team Moore Racing car, matched his season high of third in round five of 16. Next up is a pair of races on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.

"For the first time I had all my best friends from high school come," said Klein, who turns 20 on June 23. "So that was fun to have them watching. I know they enjoyed it."

So did Klein for the most part in the first Indy Pro Series race that encompassed practice, qualifying and the race in one day. Klein qualified second and ran third most of the race. He finished behind Mike Potekhen and Alex Lloyd, who recorded his series-record fifth consecutive victory.

"I saw there's not going to be a point in Mike and I going wheel to wheel for 90 laps all race long, so I kind of just slotted in and those guys took off, and I looked after my tires," said Klein, who also finished third in the event at Milwaukee last year. "You know, it paid off last year, so I knew to do the same thing this year, which was good. I think if we had another lap or two, it could have been second. But 'coulda, woulda, shoulda'."

Last year, competing in a car prepared by Andretti Green Racing, Klein posted 10 top-five finishes in 12 races. He finished runner-up in the championship standings by four points – the closest in Indy Pro Series history. This year, it's been the Lloyd show the first third of the season.

"It just means that everyone else has to step it up," Klein said of Lloyd's Sam Schmidt Motorsports team. "That's what it's going to take. Last year was the most competitive season to date. Now this year the game has been stepped up again. It's up to us drivers and the teams to really pull together and start making progress."