By Steve Wittich
For the second time this season, Cape Motorsports rookie Braden Eves will start the first race of a weekend on the pole.
It is the ninth straight Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship pole on the 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course for Cape Motorsports and the tenth in 11 opportunities.
The 20-year-old turned in a lap of 84.720 seconds, only four-hundredths of a second off the qualifying track record and that same four-hundredths of a second ahead of his teammate Darren Keane.
The top seven drivers were within a half-second of Eves, and all but three of the 21 drivers were within a second in the super close field.
The Cape Motorsports front row will be followed by Hunter McElrea (Pabst Racing) and Manuel Cabrera (Exclusive Autosport) in the second row. Newcomer Jak Crawford (DEForce Racing) will start on the inside of the third row with BN Racing driver Zach Holden to his outside.
The first of two USF2000 qualifying session got underway on time at 8 am, but went to red flag conditions immediately for ‘debris’ between Turn 3 and Turn 4. It was actually reported to be wildlife on track. There is a family of foxes that have taken up residence in that area.
The green flag came back out quickly and the first driver to jump to the top of the timesheet was McElrea.
At the half-way point of the 20-minute session, it was Cape Motorsports veteran Darren Keane who was at the top of the timing screens. He was followed closely by teammate and points leader Eves.
Eves went quicker than Keane on the next lap. At that point of the session, 17 of 21 drivers were within one second of Eves.
With five minutes remaining in the session, Pabst Racing rookie Hunter McElrea was able to go four-hundredths quicker than Eves and move to the point.
With two minutes left in the session and on his 11th lap, Eves retook the provisional pole. Darren Keane was able to turn his quickest lap of qualifying, but ended up just four-hundredths behind his teammate and will start on the outside of the front row.
Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Grand Prix of Indianapolis Qualifying #1 (Unofficial) Results.
|
RANK |
CAR NO. |
DRIVER |
TEAM |
QUICK LAP |
DIFFERENCE |
TOTAL LAPS |
|
1 |
8 |
Braden Eves |
Cape Motorsports |
1:24.720 |
–.—- |
14 |
|
2 |
2 |
Darren Keane |
Cape Motorsports |
1:24.760 |
0.0404 |
13 |
|
3 |
22 |
Hunter McElrea |
Pabst Racing |
1:24.844 |
0.1237 |
14 |
|
4 |
90 |
Manuel Cabrera |
Exclusive Autosport |
1:24.920 |
0.2003 |
14 |
|
5 |
52 |
Jak Crawford |
DEForce Racing |
1:25.027 |
0.3071 |
12 |
|
6 |
27 |
Zach Holden |
BN Racing |
1:25.197 |
0.4769 |
11 |
|
7 |
23 |
Colin Kaminsky |
Pabst Racing |
1:25.213 |
0.4932 |
14 |
|
8 |
12 |
Manuel Sulaiman |
DEForce Racing |
1:25.322 |
0.6023 |
12 |
|
9 |
40 |
Jack William Miller |
Miller Vinatieri Motorsports |
1:25.389 |
0.6693 |
14 |
|
10 |
14 |
Alex Baron |
Legacy Autosport |
1:25.433 |
0.7130 |
14 |
|
11 |
28 |
Anthony Famularo |
BN Racing |
1:25.441 |
0.7216 |
9 |
|
12 |
36 |
Nolan Siegel |
Newman Wachs Racing |
1:25.447 |
0.7272 |
14 |
|
13 |
73 |
Cameron Shields |
Newman Wachs Racing |
1:25.461 |
0.7409 |
14 |
|
14 |
21 |
Yuven Sundaramoorthy |
Pabst Racing |
1:25.518 |
0.7980 |
14 |
|
15 |
41 |
Eduardo Barrichello |
Miller Vinatieri Motorsports |
1:25.546 |
0.8259 |
14 |
|
16 |
77 |
Dakota Dickerson |
Legacy Autosport |
1:25.600 |
0.8806 |
14 |
|
17 |
24 |
Bruna Tomaselli |
Pabst Racing |
1:25.620 |
0.9001 |
15 |
|
18 |
5 |
Matt Round-Garrido |
Jay Howard Driver Development |
1:25.663 |
0.9436 |
13 |
|
19 |
3 |
Reece Gold |
Cape Motorsports |
1:25.965 |
1.2450 |
13 |
|
20 |
6 |
Christian Rasmussen |
Jay Howard Driver Development |
1:26.011 |
1.2914 |
14 |
|
21 |
7 |
Christian Bogle |
Jay Howard Driver Development |
1:26.577 |
1.8570 |
13 |
The lowest rung of the Road To Indy Presented by Cooper Tires is back on track in just over two hours at 10:55 am for their second qualifying session