For the second straight qualifying session, it was Christian Rasmussen and Darren Keane leading the way in the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship series. After turning the second quickest lap in Saturday’s qualifying session, it was Keane, the Cape Motorsports veteran that will start on the pole for Sunday’s race.

It’s Keane’s second pole of the season. The 19-year-old also started on the pole for the second race in St. Petersburg, Fla.

The pole is the 12th time that a Cape Motorsports driver will start on the pole in Toronto. Keane joins fellow Cape Motorsports pole sitters Oliver Askew, Anthony Martin, Nico Jamin, Florian Latorre, Neil Alberico, and J.R. Hildebrand.

Rasmussen, who will start on pole for today’s race will start to the outside of Keane.

Points leader Braden Eves (Cape Motorsports) and Pabst Racing veteran will start on the second row.

For the second straight day, it was the Elite 2.0L engines that served as a wake-up call for the residents of Liberty Village. The 17 Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship drivers took to the 1.786-mile, 11-turn Exhibition Place street circuit at 8:05 am for 20 minutes of qualifying.

Keane grabbed provisional pole early and held it until the half-way point of the session. Keane’s quick lap with 10 minutes remaining was 72.361 seconds. He was followed in the top five by his teammate and points leader Eves, Race # 1 pole winner Rasmussen, second generation driver Eduardo Barrichello and Pabst Racing’s Colin Kaminsky.

Keane and Rasmussen were the first two drivers to break the 72-second barrier.

With eight minutes remaining McElrea was on pit road with reports that he had brushed the wall. The Cape Motorsports crew was able to get him back out on track with seven minutes remaining. Unfortunately for the Mazda $200K Scholarship Shootout winner, a red flag negated a last minute run and the No. 22 Soul Red machine will start on the inside of row six.

With just over six minutes remaining, the red flag came out for Barrichello, who had an incident in Turn 8. At the time, the Brazilian was the fifth quickest driver. However, he lost his fastest lap for causing the red flag, dropping down to sixth.

The AMR INDYCAR Safety Team was able to get things cleaned up quickly, and drivers were given one flying lap to try and improve on their position. However, the red flag was shown on the final lap when Bruna Tomaselli spun in Turn 1.

The Legacy Autosport crew worked late into the night to get the Metalloid Corporation sponsored No. 14 prepared after Zach Holden found the tire barriers at the exit of Turn 8. Holden was able to turn nine laps and will start seventh.

Qualifying for Race #2 was the first session that 14-year-old Jak Crawford was able to turn laps at speed on the 1.786-mile, 11-turn Exhibition Place street circuit, and after 11 trouble-free laps, will start 13th.

USF2000 Unofficial Qualifying Results For Race #2

RANK CAR NO NAME TEAM QUICK LAP DIFFERENCE TOTAL LAPS
1 2 Darren Keane Cape Motorsports 1:11.747 –.—- 12
2 6 Christian Rasmussen Jay Howard Driver Development 1:11.874 0.1278 12
3 8 Braden Eves Cape Motorsports 1:11.960 0.2137 12
4 23 Colin Kaminsky Pabst Racing 1:12.587 0.8403 12
5 73 Cameron Shields Newman Wachs Racing 1:12.854 1.1078 12
6 41 Eduardo Barrichello Miller Vinatieri Motorsports 1:12.967 1.2202 8
7 14 Zach Holden Legacy Autosport 1:12.967 1.2204 11
8 12 Manuel Sulaiman DEForce Racing 1:13.057 1.3103 12
9 27 Matt Round-Garrido BN Racing 1:13.079 1.3325 12
10 7 Christian Bogle Jay Howard Driver Development 1:13.332 1.5856 12
11 22 Hunter McElrea Pabst Racing 1:13.377 1.6302 8
12 36 Nolan Siegel Newman Wachs Racing 1:13.671 1.9247 12
13 52 Jak Crawford DEForce Racing 1:13.699 1.9526 11
14 40 Jack William Miller Miller Vinatieri Motorsports 1:13.774 2.0270 11
15 21 Yuven Sundaramoorthy Pabst Racing 1:14.023 2.2762 12
16 24 Bruna Tomaselli Pabst Racing 1:14.261 2.5145 12
17 3 Reece Gold Cape Motorsports 1:15.337 3.5904 3

Teams will have just under three hours to get their USF-17s turned. The first of two Cooper Tires Grand Prix Presented by Allied Building Products races is scheduled for 11:20 am.