For the second straight Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship race, Pabst Racing veteran Colin Kaminsky will start on pole, but, it wasn’t by very much. A pair of drivers, Baron and McElrea, were both within three-hundredths of the Homer Glen, Ill. native.

The 18 USF2000 drivers entered for the Cooper Tires Grand Prix of Road America Powered by Elite Engines were the first of three straight Road To Indy Presented by Cooper Tires qualifying sessions on Friday afternoon.

The Cape Motorsports trio of Braden Eves, Reece Gold, and Darren Keane, along with Pabst Racing’s Hunter McElrea and Colin Kaminsky were the last five drivers to take to the iconic circuit.

Veteran Alexandre Baron was the early leader and was the only driver in the 130-second range.

McElrea, on his second lap of the session, went to provisional pole.

At the half-way point of the 20-minute session, the quickest driver with a lap at 130.2975 seconds was rookie McElrea. Kaminsky, Christian Rasmussen (Jay Howard Driver Development), Baron, Matthew Round-Garrido (BN Racing), Cameron Shields (Newman Wachs Racing), Jak Crawford (DEForce Racing), Braden Eves Cape Motorsports), Eduardo Barrichello (Miller Vinatieri Motorsports) and Darren Keane (Cape Motorsports).

McElrea went quicker on his third lap, but his lap was bested by teammate Kaminsky, as well as Baron.

Baron was able to quicker on his fourth lap but missed grabbing the provisional pole by two-hundredths of a second. Kaminsky was another hundredth back.

With five minutes remaining, championship leader Eves came to pit road, having turned only the 10th quickest lap at that point in the session. The Cape Motorsports crew made a quick adjustment, and the No. 8 was able to complete one lap at speed, moving from 11th to eighth.

The only other driver to go quicker on their final lap was Shields, who moved up to sixth.

Unlike the shorter road courses that we visit, drivers and team did not have the time to come to pit road for adjustments and then get their Cooper Tires up to peak operating temperature.

Cooper Tires Grand Prix of Road America Powered by Elite Engines USF2000 Unofficial Race #1 Qualifying Results.

RANK CAR NO DRIVER TEAM QUICK LAP DIFFERENCE TOTAL LAPS
1 23 Colin Kaminsky Pabst Racing 2:10.268 –.—- 8
2 14 Alex Baron Legacy Autosport 2:10.292 0.0247 7
3 22 Hunter McElrea Pabst Racing 2:10.298 0.0300 8
4 2 Darren Keane Cape Motorsports 2:10.686 0.4185 8
5 12 Manuel Sulaiman DEForce Racing 2:10.774 0.5063 8
6 73 Cameron Shields Newman Wachs Racing 2:10.854 0.5863 8
7 6 Christian Rasmussen Jay Howard Driver Development 2:10.860 0.5926 7
8 8 Braden Eves Cape Motorsports 2:10.882 0.6142 7
9 41 Eduardo Barrichello Miller Vinatieri Motorsports 2:11.007 0.7391 8
10 21 Yuven Sundaramoorthy Pabst Racing 2:11.029 0.7611 6
11 24 Bruna Tomaselli Pabst Racing 2:11.111 0.8436 8
12 52 Jak Crawford DEForce Racing 2:11.198 0.9306 8
13 27 Matt Round-Garrido BN Racing 2:11.245 0.9777 8
14 36 Nolan Siegel Newman Wachs Racing 2:11.613 1.3453 8
15 3 Reece Gold Cape Motorsports 2:11.739 1.4712 8
16 40 Jack William Miller Miller Vinatieri Motorsports 2:12.223 1.9552 8
17 28 Anthony Famularo BN Racing 2:13.578 3.3101 8
18 7 Christian Bogle Jay Howard Driver Development 2:13.968 3.7001 8

Saturday’s USF2000 race gets the green flag at noon on Saturday, but first up they will qualifying tomorrow morning again at 8 am.