By Steve Wittich

For the fourth time this season, Kyle Kirkwood and Cape Motorsports will start on the pole in a Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda race. With the single bonus point for being the quickest qualifier Kirkwood’s lead in the title, chase grows to 95 points.

The 19-year-old American joins Neil Alberico (twice), Florian Latorre (twice), Nico Jamin (twice), Anthony Martin (twice), and Oliver Askew (once) as Cape Motorsports pole sitters in Toronto. The St. Petersburg, Fla team now scored ten of 11 possible USF2000 poles.

Kyle Kirkwood gets into his Cape Motorsports race car for qualifying (Photo courtesy of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC Photography)

For the second straight USF2000 race, Pabst Racing sophomore Kaylen Frederick will start on the outside of the front row with his teammates Rasmus Lindh and Calvin Ming starting fourth and fifth.

Dakota Dickerson, who is making his second appearance with ArmsUp Motorsports used a last-minute lap to move up to third.

Early in the brief 20 minutes of qualifying, the No. 23 Pabst Racing Mazda/Tatuus of Lucas Kohl made contact with the concrete barriers coming to rest on the back straight.

The green flag came back out with 12 minutes remaining, and it was Exclusive Autosport’s Igor Fraga who set the early pace, but the 19-year-old hit the wall exiting Turn 11, the final corner on the 1.786-mile Exhibition Place street circuit.

Fraga drove his No. 91 into the run-off in Turn 1 causing the second red flag of the session and losing his fastest laps.

The green flag came back out with just over three minutes remaining the top five times were held by Rasmus Lindh, Kirkwood, Kaylen Frederick, Keith Donegan and Calvin Ming.

Frederick held the provisional pole position when the checkered flag came out, but Kirkwood’s last-minute flyer two-tenths quicker.

Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda Unofficial Qualifying #1 results

RANK CAR NO. DRIVER QUICK LAP DIFFERENCE
1 8 Kyle Kirkwood 1:12.438 –.—-
2 24 Kaylen Frederick 1:12.632 0.1940
3 9 Dakota Dickerson 1:12.662 0.2238
4 23 Rasmus Lindh 1:12.864 0.4257
5 21 Calvin Ming 1:12.987 0.5489
6 12 Jose Sierra 1:13.020 0.5823
7 28 Keith Donegan 1:13.043 0.6049
8 11 Kory Enders 1:13.092 0.6537
9 80 Julian Van der Watt 1:13.134 0.6959
10 36 Darren Keane 1:13.138 0.7000
11 92 Danial Frost 1:14.277 1.5458
12 27 Colin Kaminsky 1:14.467 2.0286
13 38 Oscar DeLuzuriaga 1:14.548 2.1101
14 82 Bruna Tomaselli 1:14.559 2.1209
15 29 Russell McDonough 1:14.603 2.1651
16 81 Kyle Dupell 1:15.126 2.6881
17 91 Igor Fraga 5:55.945
18 14 Max Peichel No Time
19 22 Lucas Kohl No Time

The first of two Cooper Tires USF2000 Grand Prix of Toronto Presented by Allied Building Products races rolls off at 11:45 AM on Saturday morning.