By Patrick Stephan (@TSO_Patrick)
Before we start I wanted to note that Hi-Tide Boat lifts is a major sponsor of this weekend’s festivities. They are the title sponsor of race #1 for both Pro Mazda and USF2000. For USF2000, the official name is “Hi-Tide Boat Lifts Grand Prix of St. Petersburg” and for Pro Mazda it is “Hi-Tide Kids on Track Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.”
For both series, their second races of the season are “Allied Building Products Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.”
Ok, back to ProMazda qualifying for race #1.
About 9 minutes in to the 30 minute session, we the Top 5 were Victor Franzoni, Carlos Cunha, TJ Fischer, Anthony Martin, and Phillippe Denes.
The battle for the pole would turn in to a two-driver event, with Franzoni and Martin clearly adamant on starting up front.
We got a red flag with about 10 minutes to go, but I still don’t know why 🙂 Didn’t see a car stopped and the video folks didn’t show us anything.
When the checkered flag came down, it was Martin just beating out Franzoni by .0120 of a second. TJ Fisher was 0.4107 back to take the third spot.
For Martin, who hails from Australia, this is his first ProMazda pole. He won six USF2000 races in 2016, securing the championship and the scholarship money that comes with it.
Race #1 for ProMazda is tomorrow at 11:50am. Qualifying for Race #2 is tomorrow morning at 7:30am (ouch! – really!?!). Ok!
| Pos | Car # | Driver | Best Time | Dff | Laps | Best Lap | Team | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8 | Anthony Martin | 1:13.672 | 0.000 | 18 | 14 | Cape Motorsports | |
| 2 | 23 | Victor Franzoni | 1:13.684 | 0.0120 | 18 | 15 | Juncos Racing | |
| 3 | 82 | TJ Fischer | 1:14.082 | 0.4107 | 21 | 19 | Team Pelfrey | |
| 4 | 81 | Carlos Cunha | 1:14.201 | 0.5297 | 19 | 19 | Team Pelfrey | |
| 5 | 15 | Phillippe Denes | 1:14.588 | 0.9164 | 19 | 18 | World Speed Motorsports | |
| 6 | 80 | Nikita Lastochkin | 1:14.791 | 1.1195 | 19 | 18 | Team Pelfrey | |
| 7 | 14 | Sting Ray Robb | 1:15.513 | 1.8408 | 20 | 20 | World Speed Motorsports | |
| 8 | 6 | Max Hanratty | 1:15.530 | 1.8580 | 20 | 16 | ArmsUp Motorsports | |
| 9 | 13 | Bobby Eberle | 1:15.780 | 2.1085 | 19 | 19 | World Speed Motorsports | |
| 10 | 31 | Brendan Puderbach | 1:17.245 | 3.5729 | 20 | 16 | FatBoy Racing | |
| 11 | 44 | Kevin Davis | 1:17.502 | 3.8300 | 15 | 14 | Kevin Davis Racing | |
| 12 | 3 | Matt Machiko | 1:18.565 | 4.8936 | 20 | 16 | FatBoy Racing | |
| 13 | 60 | Jeff Green | 1:19.877 | 6.2051 | 20 | 20 | Juncos Racing | |
| 14 | 83 | Charles Finelli | 1:21.890 | 8.2181 | 18 | 7 | FatBoy Racing |