For the first time in his Road To Indy career, Pabst Racing rookie Hunter McElrea will start a race from the pole.

The Kiwi’s pole is the fifth straight for Pabst Racing on the 4.014-mile, 14-turn natural terrain road course, joining Colin Kaminsky, Tonis Kasemets, Rasmus Lindh, and Rinus VeeKay as pole winners for the Oconomowoc, Wisc. team.

For the second straight day, campers around the historic Road America road course were awoken by the buzzing of the 2.0L engines powering the lowest rung on the Road To Indy Presented by Cooper Tires.

Darren Keane (Cape Motorsports) and Cameron Shields (Newman Wachs Racing) were the early leaders in qualifying for Sunday’s second USF2000 race.

At just past the half-way point of the 20-minute session, McElrea was the first driver to turn a lap under 130 seconds, going quicker on his next two laps.

At that point of the session, McElrea’s lap was over seven tenths quicker than any of his competitors.

Rassumssen was the second driver to break the 130-second barrier but was still over a half-second behind McElrea. The Jay Howard Driver Development rookie went quicker on his next lap to get within three-tenths and will start on the inside of the second row.

Championship leader Eves moved to the third spot with two minutes remaining and went quicker yet on his next lap to move to within two-tenths of McElrea.

The pole sitter for race #1, Colin Kaminsky, was in the middle of the pack until his eighth and final lap, when he was able to move up to fourth.

Cooper Tires Grand Prix of Road America Powered by Elite Engines USF2000 Unofficial Race #1 Qualifying Results.

RANK CAR NO DRIVER TEAM QUICK LAP DIFFERENCE TOTAL LAPS
1 22 Hunter McElrea Pabst Racing 2:09.427 –.—- 7
2 8 Braden Eves Cape Motorsports 2:09.655 0.2284 9
3 6 Christian Rasmussen Jay Howard Driver Development 2:09.761 0.3341 8
4 23 Colin Kaminsky Pabst Racing 2:09.769 0.3426 8
5 2 Darren Keane Cape Motorsports 2:09.775 0.3489 9
6 12 Manuel Sulaiman DEForce Racing 2:09.895 0.4681 9
7 52 Jak Crawford DEForce Racing 2:09.992 0.5657 8
8 27 Matt Round-Garrido BN Racing 2:10.189 0.7620 8
9 14 Alex Baron Legacy Autosport 2:10.201 0.7748 8
10 73 Cameron Shields Newman Wachs Racing 2:10.327 0.8999 8
11 24 Bruna Tomaselli Pabst Racing 2:10.394 0.9677 8
12 3 Reece Gold Cape Motorsports 2:10.431 1.0042 9
13 41 Eduardo Barrichello Miller Vinatieri Motorsports 2:10.573 1.1462 8
14 36 Nolan Siegel Newman Wachs Racing 2:10.620 1.1937 8
15 21 Yuven Sundaramoorthy Pabst Racing 2:10.736 1.3091 7
16 28 Anthony Famularo BN Racing 2:11.877 2.4504 8
17 40 Jack William Miller Miller Vinatieri Motorsports 2:12.010 2.5834 8
18 7 Christian Bogle Jay Howard Driver Development 2:13.312 3.8851 8

The first Cooper Tires Grand Prix of Road America Powered by Elite Engines, a 12-lap race, rolls off at noon.