By Steve Wittich
The last five minutes of the second Pro Mazda Presented By Cooper Tire qualifying session had six different drivers hold the provisional pole, but it was a familiar name that ended up on the pole.
BN Racing’s rookie David Malukas went an astounding nine-tenths of a second under the track record he set yesterday to grab his third pole in four Mazda Road To Indy Presented by Cooper Tires races at Road America.
Juncos Racing’s Carlos Cunha will start outside of Malukas with newcomer Raul Guzman and Rinus VeeKay on starting in row two. Current championship leader Parker Thompson will start the Saturday’s race in the fifth spot.
If campers hit snooze on the earlier USF2000 alarm, the much louder and more powerful (275 HP) 2.0L power plants powering the 14 Pro Mazda Presented By Cooper Tire entries would be hard to ignore.
Harrison Scott, Parker Thompson, David Malukas, Rinus VeeKay and Toby Sowery were the five quickest drivers after the first ten minutes of the 20-minute qualifying session.
Similar to yesterday’s qualifying session, most drivers and teams came to pit road at this point for adjustments and fresh Cooper Tire rubber.
Team Pelfrey’s Andres Gutierrez was the first driver to go faster and grab the provisional pole with five minutes remaining in the session but was quickly surpassed by VeeKay who went quicker.
Thompson, Guzman, Cunha all grabbed the provisional pole until Malukas was the first driver to turn a sub-120-second lap.
The session came to a close not long after when the No. 10 RP Motorsport machine of Scott came to a halt on track in Turn 8, forcing race control to throw the red flag.
Provisional Pro Mazda Presented By Cooper Tire Race #2 qualifying results
RANK | CAR NO. | DRIVER | QUICK LAP | DIFFERENCE |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 79 | David Malukas | 1:59.815 | –.—- |
2 | 1 | Carlos Cunha | 2:00.145 | 0.3300 |
3 | 27 | Raul Guzman | 2:00.251 | 0.4358 |
4 | 2 | Rinus VeeKay | 2:00.301 | 0.4861 |
5 | 90 | Parker Thompson | 2:00.386 | 0.5712 |
6 | 78 | Toby Sowery | 2:00.477 | 0.6616 |
7 | 81 | Andres Gutierrez | 2:00.840 | 1.0247 |
8 | 10 | Harrison Scott | 2:01.028 | 1.2134 |
9 | 9 | Robert Megennis | 2:01.048 | 1.2330 |
10 | 82 | Sting Ray Robb | 2:01.073 | 1.2584 |
11 | 3 | Oliver Askew | 2:02.192 | 2.3771 |
12 | 8 | Nikita Lastochkin | 2:02.351 | 2.5357 |
13 | 91 | Antonio Serravalle | 2:02.554 | 2.7393 |
14 | 83 | Charles Finelli | 2:05.468 | 5.6526 |
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- live timing – Indy Lights, Pro Mazda, USF2000, and IndyCar Race Control
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The Pro Mazda Presented By Cooper Tire series will be back on track for their first race of the weekend at 2:20 PM.