At exactly 9am the heavy South Florida air was filled with the buzz of Mazda MZR 2.0L power plants powering a swarm of brand new Tatuus USF-17s that took to the 2.21-mile, 14-turn Homestead-Miami Speedway road course.
One of the big question marks entering the first season of USF-17 competition is which team will have the early advantage in developing the new car. For the past five years, the series has been dominated by drivers from the Cape Motorsports stable, and it was a rookie driver from their two car effort that led the first official 2017 USF2000 session.
MRTI $200K Scholarship Shootout winner and Team USA Scholarship winner Oliver Askew and his No. 3 Cape Motorsports Mazda/Tatuus turned the quickest lap of the session at 1:24.8257. Askew has not officially signed as of today, but TSO fully expects to see Askew’s Soul Red machine in the St. Petersburg, Florida based team’s stable.
It was two other unsigned drivers, Kaylen Frederick (Team Pelfrey) and Rinus Van Kalmthout (Newman Wachs Racing) that fell second and third on the time sheet, and Frederick’s Team Pelfrey teammates Ayla Agren and Robert Megennis who rounded out the top five.
Five different teams were represented among the top seven lap times, with Pabst Racing and Exclusive Autosport joining Cape Motorsports, Team Pelfrey and Newman Wachs Racing.
The majority of the session was led by the 16 year-old Van Kalmthout, but when the teams went to fresh rubber in the final fifteen minutes of the session, he fell down the time sheet.
The entire one hour session ran clean and green and the 21 drivers representing 10 different teams turned a total of 487 laps with Van Kalmthout’s 30 circuits representing the most laps turned.
Complete USF2000 time sheet:
RANK | CAR NO. | DRIVER | TEAM | QUICKEST LAP | GAP | TOTAL LAPS |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 3 | Oliver Askew | Cape Motorsports | 1:24.826 | 0.000 | 22 |
2 | 81 | Kaylen Frederick | Team Pelfrey | 1:25.095 | 0.2689 | 26 |
3 | 38 | Rinus VeeKay | Newman Wachs Racing | 1:25.172 | 0.3464 | 30 |
4 | 82 | Ayla Agren | Team Pelfrey | 1:25.203 | 0.3770 | 27 |
5 | 80 | Robert Megennis | Team Pelfrey | 1:25.236 | 0.4098 | 25 |
6 | 22 | Calvin Ming | Pabst Racing | 1:25.240 | 0.4140 | 31 |
7 | 90 | Parker Thompson | Exclusive Autosport | 1:25.937 | 1.1117 | 12 |
8 | 23 | Lucas Kohl | Pabst Racing | 1:26.020 | 1.1945 | 27 |
9 | 37 | Andre Castro | Newman Wachs Racing | 1:26.130 | 1.3044 | 22 |
10 | 2 | Ricky Donison | Cape Motorsports | 1:26.385 | 1.5593 | 24 |
11 | 36 | Dakota Dickerson | Newman Wachs Racing | 1:26.462 | 1.6363 | 26 |
12 | 31 | Kyle Kirkwood | Benik | 1:26.573 | 1.7476 | 22 |
13 | 34 | Kris Wright | John Cummiskey Racing | 1:27.023 | 2.1975 | 27 |
14 | 12 | Moises de la Vara | DEForce Racing | 1:27.181 | 2.3552 | 25 |
15 | 20 | Chandler Horton | RJB Motorsports | 1:27.638 | 2.8125 | 21 |
16 | 11 | Kory Enders | DEForce Racing | 1:27.668 | 2.8428 | 22 |
17 | 91 | Luke Gabin | Exclusive Autosport | 1:27.719 | 2.8933 | 16 |
18 | 9 | Victor Franzoni | ArmsUp Motorsports | 1:28.579 | 3.7534 | 27 |
19 | 92 | Dev Gore | Exclusive Autosport | 1:29.606 | 4.7799 | 12 |
20 | 8 | Bruna Tomaselli | ArmsUp Motorsports | 1:30.180 | 5.3538 | 23 |
21 | 7 | Devin Wojcik | ArmsUp Motorsports | 1:30.476 | 5.6506 | 20 |
Newly signed Team Pelfrey Pro Mazda presented by Cooper Tire driver Nikita Lastochkin led the seven Pro Mazda drivers who completed a total of 182 laps in the one-hour session that ran green the entire time.
Complete Pro Mazda time sheet:
RANK | CAR NO. | DRIVER | TEAM | QUICKEST LAP | GAP | TOTAL LAPS |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 80 | Nikita Lastochkin | Team Pelfrey | 1:24.471 | 0.000 | 29 |
2 | 8 | Anthony Martin | Cape Motorsports | 1:24.652 | 0.1813 | 31 |
3 | 82 | TJ Fischer | Team Pelfrey | 1:24.924 | 0.4535 | 31 |
4 | 13 | Bobby Eberle | World Speed Motorsports | 1:26.332 | 1.8613 | 29 |
5 | 14 | Sting Ray Robb | World Sport Motorsports | 1:26.817 | 2.3456 | 23 |
6 | 81 | Carlos Cunha | Team Pelfrey | 1:27.570 | 3.0994 | 11 |
7 | 5 | Jeff Green | Green Racing | 1:31.279 | 6.8084 | 28 |
The schedule for the remainder of the day is:
- 12:15pm – 1:15pm — Cooper Tires USF2000 Powered by Mazda test session #2
- 1:30pm – 2:30pm — Pro Mazda presented by Cooper Tire test session #2
- 2:45pm – 3:45pm — Cooper Tires USF2000 Powered by Mazda test session #3
- 4pm – 5:15pm — Pro Mazda presented by Cooper Tire test session #3