Gold grabs first career USF2000 pole – five different teams in the top five in qualifying for race #2

Pole winner for USF2000 race #2, Reece Gold, on track in front of his Cape Motorsports teammates (Photo Courtesy Of Andersen Promotions)

By Steve Wittich

After starting on the outside of the first row in six of the last eight USF2000 races, Reece Gold, the pilot of The Ticket Clinic sponsored No 3, will start on the pole for the first time in his USF2000 career.

The pole win is the 28th for Cape Motorsports, breaking an eight race Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (Mid-Ohio) pole-winning drought of eight races.

Eduardo Barrichello, a Pabst Racing sophomore, recovered from a mechanical issue in the first qualifying session and will start Saturday afternoon’s race from the outside of the front row.

Starting on the second row will be DEForce Racing’s Cameron Shields and Exclusive Autosport’s Christian Brooks.

The top six drivers were within a half-second of pole winner Gold, with the top 14 only a second adrift of the top spot.

The first five spots in qualifying for Race #2 includes drivers from five different teams.

With tires limited for the triple-header weekend, two-thirds of the field was still on pit road after the first five minutes of available qualifying time. The quickest driver at the point of the session was Sundaramoorthy.

Times were falling quickly, and at the halfway point of the session, it was Rasmussen, Round-Garrido, d’Orlando, Siegel, Barrichello, Shields, Sundaramoorthy, Green, Dupell, and Sikes that held down the top ten spots on the timing screen.

At just past the session’s ten-minute mark, the red flag came out for an incident involving d’Orlando. The Focused Project Management/DB Collaborative No. 4 ended up in the tire barriers in Turn 6 with reasonably heavy damage. The Hartsdale, New York native, was able to climb from his stricken car under his power.

d’Orlando was transported to the medical center and quickly checked, released, and cleared to drive.

The AMR INDYCAR Safety Team got the incident cleared, and the green flag came out with ten minutes remaining in the qualifying session.

The first driver to improve in the second half of the session was Gold, who moved to second on the timing screens, before grabbing the provisional pole on his next lap.

On their final laps, Barrichello, Shields, Brooks, and Siegel were all able to move into the top five, pushing Rasmussen to sixth.

After an incident in Qualifying #1, Miller Vinatieri Motorsports driver Max Kaeser could not make qualifying. The Keystone, Colo. based driver visited the medical center. He was checked, released, and cleared to drive.

The lowest rung of the Road To Indy Presented by Cooper Tires has a pair of races on Saturday. The first rolls off at 8:30 am, and the second is scheduled for 1:05 pm.

Cooper Tires USF2000 Grand-Prix of Mid-Ohio Qualifying #2 Unofficial Results