Not surprisingly, the first Cooper Tires USF2000 Powered by Mazda session was led by the three championship contenders. Victor Franzoni led the way, and was followed by Parker Thompson and Anthony Martin.
It was no surprise that the three veterans led the field, but the amount they were ahead of the field was somewhat of a surprise. Thompson and Martin were both within three-tenths of a second from Franzoni’s quickest lap of 1:26.791, but the rest of the field were all over one second behind the Brazilians top lap time.
The remainder of the top five were Nikita Lastochkin and Robert Megennis, who was the quickest rookie.
The quickest of the three drivers making their series debut was Team Pelfrey’s Phillippe Denes who had the 8th quickest lap of the session.
The entire session ran green, and the 18 drivers turned a total of 243 laps. John Cummiskey Racing newcomer Michael Scott led the way with 16 circuits of the 2.238-mile, 11-turn road course.
The 18-car Cooper Tires USF2000 Powered by Mazda field took to the 2.238-mile, 11-turn Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca road course for their first practice session of the “Soul Red Finale” weekend.
First Cooper Tires USF2000 Powered by Mazda practice session time-sheet
| RANK | RANK | QUICK LAP | GAP |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Victor Franzoni | 1:26.791 | 0.000 |
| 2 | Parker Thompson | 1:27.036 | -0.2456 |
| 3 | Anthony Martin | 1:27.156 | -0.3653 |
| 4 | Nikita Lastochkin | 1:27.883 | -1.0923 |
| 5 | Robert Megennis | 1:27.991 | -1.2001 |
| 6 | Jordan Lloyd | 1:28.004 | -1.2134 |
| 7 | Luke Gabin | 1:28.011 | -1.2208 |
| 8 | Phillippe Denes | 1:28.383 | -1.5926 |
| 9 | Dakota Dickerson | 1:28.478 | -1.6875 |
| 10 | Cameron Das | 1:28.500 | -1.7094 |
| 11 | Tazio Ottis | 1:28.706 | -1.9156 |
| 12 | Michael Scott | 1:28.884 | -2.0929 |
| 13 | Yufeng Luo | 1:28.963 | -2.1722 |
| 14 | Garth Rickards | 1:29.146 | -2.355 |
| 15 | Lucas Kohl | 1:29.303 | -2.5121 |
| 16 | Kaylen Frederick | 1:29.589 | -2.7979 |
| 17 | Christian Munoz | 1:32.096 | -5.3049 |
| 18 | Robert Armington | 1:35.577 | -8.7865 |
The second Cooper Tires USF2000 Powered by Mazda session of the weekend takes place at 3:05pm this afternoon.