For the 10th straight race, a driver from the Team Pelfrey has put one of the familiar yellow and black machines on pole. This time, it’s the Rice Lake Weighing sponsored No. 82 of Aaron Telitz that beat Pato O’Ward to the top spot. It’s the third straight pole for the 24 year-old, and his the fourth of the 2016 season and sixth of his Mazda Road To Indy career.
The steely eyes of Aaron Telitz, a Team Pelfrey rookie in the Pro Mazda presented by Cooper Tire series. (Photo courtesy of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC Photography)
The Pro Mazda presented by Cooper Tire series served as an alarm clock for the neighbors of Exhibition place when the Mazda Renesis cars took to the 11-turn, 1.786-mile Exhibition Place temporary street course for a 20 minute qualifying session at 7:50am.
Pelfrey teamates O’Ward and Telitz spent the first half of the session trading quick laps. The order ten minutes into the 20 minute session was: O’Ward, Telitz, Nico Jamin, Will Owen, Jake Parsons, Jorge Cevallos, Nicolas Dapero, Bobby Eberle, and TJ Fischer.
O’Ward, and Teltiz, the two championship contenders continued to trade quick laps for the next five minutes when Teltiz took pole and also the important bonus point that goes along with it.
After have the fourth quickest time in qualifying, Team Pelfrey rookie Fischer had a forgettable qualifying session. If it wasn’t bad enough that the 22 year-old Californian had an issue with his transponder, Fisher also tagged the wall in Turn 11 damaging his suspension and ending his session early.
For the third straight race, reigning USF2000 champion Nico Jamin will start from the inside of row 2. Starting beside Jamin is Jake Parsons, the first of three Juncos Racing drivers.
After destroying his primary car in the first Pro Mazda practice session on Friday, the 21 year-old recovered for his sixth straight top five start. Unfortunately, the Juncos Racing team will have to go back to work after Parsons ended the session against outside barriers at the exit of the tricky Turn 1.
Complete Pro Mazda Qualifying Results:
| RANK | DRIVER | QUICK LAP | GAP |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aaron Telitz | 1:10.763 | 0.000 |
| 2 | Pato O’Ward | 1:11.019 | 0.2555 |
| 3 | Nico Jamin | 1:11.261 | 0.4980 |
| 4 | Jake Parsons | 1:11.342 | 0.5785 |
| 5 | Will Owen | 1:11.540 | 0.7767 |
| 6 | Jorge Cevallos | 1:11.798 | 1.0349 |
| 7 | Nicolas Dapero | 1:11.915 | 1.1517 |
| 8 | Bobby Eberle | 1:13.607 | 2.8434 |
| 9 | TJ Fischer | 2:06.754 | 55.9903 |