By Steve Wittich

For the first time in 109 career Mazda Road To Indy presented by Cooper Tire starts Juan Piedrahita will start from pole.

The 25 year old Colombian was the sixth driver to take to the Gateway Motorsports Park 1.25 mile paperclip oval, and after two laps, pipped provisional pole sitter Santiago Urrutia by only six-thousandths of a second.

Piedrahita was super excited, and gave credit to the Gary Neal led Team Pelfrey squad for giving him a perfect car.

Piedrahita hung on through seven drivers including championship leader Kyle Kaiser, who’s first lap of 160.610 was the quickest first lap. The Juncos Racing driver was the only driver to go slower on his second lap, and explained that he was too aggressive with his in-car adjustment after his first lap.

Mazda St. Louis Indy Lights Oval Challenge Presented by Cooper Tires qualifying results

RANK CAR NO. DRIVER LAP 1 LAP 2 AVERAGE
1 2 Juan Piedrahita 160.296 161.354 160.823
2 5 Santi Urrutia 160.600 161.044 160.822
3 27 Nico Jamin 160.242 161.325 160.782
4 48 Ryan Norman 159.797 160.749 160.272
5 18 Kyle Kaiser 160.610 159.850 160.229
6 13 Zachary Claman De Melo 160.019 160.400 160.209
7 98 Colton Herta 159.361 160.865 160.110
8 22 Neil Alberico 159.915 160.018 159.966
9 31 Nicolas Dapero 159.425 160.451 159.936
10 51 Shelby Blackstock 159.556 159.883 159.719
11 28 Dalton Kellett 158.593 160.627 159.603
12 26 Matheus Leist 158.963 159.620 159.291
13 9 Aaron Telitz 158.520 159.840 159.177
14 11 Garth Rickards 154.840 156.371 155.602
15 84 Chad Boat 153.834 156.182 154.999