After dominating both practice sessions on Friday, ArmsUp Motorsports veteran Victor Franzoni will start on pole for the second time in 2016. The 21-year old is a long-shot to win the championship, but scoring the single point for pole certainly won’t hurt. Next up, Franzoni will need to secure his fourth Mazda Road To Indy presented by Cooper Tire win of his career.
Surprisingly it’s only the Brazilian’s second career pole (the other one came in Toronto earlier this year).
Franzoni set his quickest lap very early in the session and had the luxury of sitting on pit-road for 13 minutes to see if anybody could catch him. The team did send him back out in the final few minutes just to make sure he could cover anybody that was able to go quicker.
The lap of 1:26.307 ended up over three-tenths of a second ahead of the next quickest driver.
After trailing Parker Thompson, his Cape Motorsports with /WTR teammate and championship chaser in both practice sessions, Anthony Martin was able to dig deep and beat the Canadian to the front row by only six-hundredths of a second.
Pabst Racing’s Jordan Lloyd will join Thompson on the second row. Martin and Thompson’s Cape Motorsports with /WTR teammate Nikita Lastochkin will start this afternoon’s race in fifth, equaling his best start of the season.
Aussie Luke Gabin and Kiwi newcomer Michael Scott will start sixth and seventh.
For fans of Geography, four of the first seven drivers are form the Continent of Australasia.
The half-hour qualifying session for the first of two Cooper Tires Grand Prix of Monterey Powered by Mazda began promptly at 10:50am
Halfway through the 30 minute session and the top five were: Franzoni, Martin, Thompson, Lloyd, and Michael Scott.
The entire session ran green.
Seven of the 17 drivers that took part in qualifying were all within one second of Franzoni’s pole lap.
Cooper Tires USF2000 Powered by Mazda qualifying results:
| RANK | DRIVER | QUICK LAP | GAP |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Victor Franzoni | 1:26.307 | 0.000 |
| 2 | Anthony Martin | 1:26.647 | -0.3405 |
| 3 | Parker Thompson | 1:26.710 | -0.4034 |
| 4 | Jordan Lloyd | 1:26.717 | -0.4104 |
| 5 | Nikita Lastochkin | 1:26.963 | -0.6559 |
| 6 | Luke Gabin | 1:27.031 | -0.7245 |
| 7 | Michael Scott | 1:27.187 | -0.8808 |
| 8 | Lucas Kohl | 1:27.545 | -1.2385 |
| 9 | Yufeng Luo | 1:27.575 | -1.2683 |
| 10 | Garth Rickards | 1:27.614 | -1.3071 |
| 11 | Robert Megennis | 1:27.640 | -1.3336 |
| 12 | Kaylen Frederick | 1:27.732 | -1.4252 |
| 13 | Dakota Dickerson | 1:27.751 | -1.4446 |
| 14 | Cameron Das | 1:27.789 | -1.4827 |
| 15 | Phillippe Denes | 1:28.082 | -1.7749 |
| 16 | Tazio Ottis | 1:28.312 | -2.0058 |
| 17 | Robert Armington | 1:31.386 | -5.0796 |
The first of two Cooper Tires Grand Prix of Monterey Powered by Mazda races this weekend is scheduled for 4:15pm (PT) or 7:15pm (ET). Your options to follow along are:
- live timing – Indy Lights, Pro Mazda, & USF2000
- on twitter –Indy Lights, Pro Mazda, USF2000, Cooper Tire, Mazda Racing and TSO Ladder
- via the Road To Indy TV app – Android or Apple iOS
- on IndyCar.com — INDYCAR Race Control
- on all social media channels via the #SoulRedFinale #TeamCooperTire and #MRTI hashtags
Or directly here: