By Steve Wittich

Rinus VeeKay, who needs to score maximum points in the lone Mazda USF2000 Watkins Glen Grand Prix Presented by Cooper Tires in order to catch Oliver Askew in the chase for the $400,000 Mazda Advancement Scholarship, started the weekend off on the right foot.

The 16 year-old, who also led recent testing at the 3.4-mile, 11-Turn natural terrain road course, turned the quickest lap of the 30-minute session at 107.034 seconds. That was almost eight-tenths of a second quicker than David Malukas, and 1.4 seconds ahead of championship leader Oliver Askew.

The lone red flag came out near the halfway point of the session when Newman Wachs Racing rookie Darren Keane made heavy contact between Turn 1 and Turn 2 on his out lap. The No. 36 sustained heavy front and rear right-side damage, and the Mundelein, Ill. team will have a lot of work to do to get the car ready

With the majority of the field testing, only 14 of the 20 entered drivers turned laps as the entire field turned 155 laps.

Complete time sheet for the Mazda USF2000 Watkins Glen Grand Prix Presented by Cooper Tires practice #1

RANK NUMBER DRIVER QUICK LAP DIFFERENCE TOTAL LAPS
1 21 Rinus VeeKay 1:47.034 –.—- 9
2 79 David Malukas 1:47.823 0.7886 8
3 3 Oliver Askew 1:48.442 1.4080 12
4 22 Calvin Ming 1:48.456 1.4223 12
5 10 Andres Gutierrez 1:48.736 1.7019 11
6 72 Zach Holden 1:48.799 1.7648 11
7 23 Lucas Kohl 1:49.097 2.0626 12
8 11 Kory Enders 1:49.141 2.1064 12
9 80 Robert Megennis 1:49.229 2.1950 12
10 82 Phillippe Denes 1:49.437 2.4025 12
11 90 Parker Thompson 1:49.680 2.6456 11
12 93 Jayson Clunie 1:52.509 5.4753 12
13 92 Dev Gore 1:52.519 5.4854 11
14 97 Bruna Tomaselli 1:53.475 6.4413 10

USF2000 is back on track for another 30 minute practice session at 1pm.

 

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