By Steve Wittich

Oh Canada! Canadian driver Parker Thompson, and Canadian team Exclusive Autosport will start on pole for the first of two Cooper Tires USF2000 Grand Prix of Toronto Presented by Allied Building Products.

Thompson’s quickest lap of 1 minute 12.816 seconds was just quick enough to pip current points leader Oliver Askew by 0.0689 seconds, to take his second pole of the season and fifth of his MRTI career.

Starting behind Thompson is Askew’s closest competition for the Mazda Motorsports Advancement Scholarship, Rinus VeeKay. A pair of rookies, David Malukas and Kaylen Frederick round out the top five.

Jose Sierra, who is making his USF2000 debut with DEForce Racing this weekend with start outside of the third row for his maiden race.

For the first 10 minutes of the 20 minute session, Parker Thompson and Oliver Askew quickest laps, and halfway through the session, and it was Thompson who had the quickest lap time at 1 minute, 13.053 seconds.

With eight minutes left in the session, Road America race #1 pole sitter David Malukas went to the provisional pole. That didn’t last long before first Askew, and then Thompson went quicker yet.

With just over four minutes left in the session, DEForce Racing rookie Moisés de la Vara made contact with the concrete barriers in Turn 6. When it became obvious that the Holmatro Safety Team would not be able to get the No. 12 of the young Mexican driver cleaned up, the red flag turned into the checkered flag, handing the pole position to Parker Thompson.

Cooper Tires USF2000 Grand Prix of Toronto Presented by Allied Building Products Qualifying #1 Results

RANK CAR NO. DRIVER QUICK LAP GAP
1 90 Parker Thompson 1:12.816 –.—-
2 3 Oliver Askew 1:12.885 0.0689
3 21 Rinus VeeKay 1:12.937 0.1202
4 79 David Malukas 1:13.041 0.2245
5 81 Kaylen Frederick 1:13.187 0.3707
6 10 Jose Sierra 1:13.538 0.7217
7 80 Robert Megennis 1:13.558 0.7412
8 4 Alex Baron 1:13.575 0.7584
9 22 Calvin Ming 1:13.878 1.0615
10 7 Devin Wojcik 1:14.125 1.3085
11 11 Kory Enders 1:14.162 1.3451
12 23 Lucas Kohl 1:14.593 1.7769
13 12 Moises de la Vara 1:14.678 1.8614
14 36 Darren Keane 1:14.739 1.9223
15 93 Jayson Clunie 1:15.824 3.0077
16 92 Dev Gore 1:15.880 3.0633
17 2 Ricky Donison 1:52.758 39.9418

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