Kiko Porto on track at the New Jersey Motorsports Park in the Banco Daycoval/Petromega sponsored No. 12 Photo credit: Gavin Baker Photography/Road to Indy

By Steve Wittich

Championship leader Kiko Porto started the penultimate Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship weekend as the quickest of the 23 entries at the New Jersey Motorsports Park. The DEForce Racing veteran and Brazilain turned in a lap of 78.1749 seconds to lead the first and only practice session.

Leading the opening practice doesn’t always equate to success, with only one driver that lead practice in the first six events winning on that same weekend.

Joining Porto at the top of the practice timesheet were his DEForce Racing teammate Nolan Siegel and Prescott Campbell, who went second and fourth quickest.

Christian Brooks (Exclusive Autosport) was the third quickest driver, while Turn 3 Motorsport rookie Christian Weir went fifth quick.

Porto’s closest championship contender, Cape Motorsports veteran, was the sixth quickest in practice, almost a half-second slower than Porto.

The early part of the lone thirty-minute practice session was dominated by those DEForce Racing drivers, who, at one point, held the top three spots.

After 16-minutes of action, the red flag came out for Exclusive Autosport rookie Billy Frazer, who had just turned the seventh quickest lap of the session on his eighth lap of the day. The team reported that it was light contact and that the Kiwi was uninjured.

At that point in the 30-minute session, the quickest driver was championship leader, Porto, with a lap timed at 78.1749 seconds. Porto was joined in the top ten by Siegel, Brooks, Campbell, Weir, d’Orlando, Frazer, Kohlbecker, Garg, and Sundaramoorthy.

The green flag came back out with six minutes remaining, with the track quickly packed with the 23-entries taking the opportunity to work on their cars one more time.

Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship at New Jersey Motorsports Park Practice Results

RANK CAR NO. DRIVER TEAM FAST LAP DIFFERENCE TOTAL LAPS
1 12 Kiko Porto DEForce Racing 1:18.1749 —- 11
2 10 Nolan Siegel DEForce Racing 1:18.2804 0.1055 12
3 44 Christian Brooks Exclusive Autosport 1:18.4323 0.2574 15
4 11 Prescott Campbell DEForce Racing 1:18.6017 0.4268 12
5 32 Christian Weir Turn 3 Motorsport 1:18.6153 0.4404 13
6 4 Michael d’Orlando Cape Motorsports 1:18.6571 0.4822 16
7 33 Josh Green Turn 3 Motorsport 1:18.9648 0.7899 12
8 91 Billy Frazer Exclusive Autosport 1:19.0313 0.8564 8
9 5 Spike Kohlbecker Ignite Autosports w/Cape Motorsports 1:19.0420 0.8671 15
10 6 Bijoy Garg Jay Howard Driver Development 1:19.0625 0.8876 12
11 63 Trey Burke Joe Dooling Autosports 1:19.0638 0.8889 16
12 22 Yuven Sundaramoorthy Pabst Racing 1:19.1313 0.9564 15
13 24 Josh Pierson Pabst Racing 1:19.2733 1.0984 14
14 2 Thomas Nepveu Cape Motorsports 1:19.3047 1.1298 16
15 23 Jace Denmark Pabst Racing 1:19.3754 1.2005 16
16 3 Evan Stamer Ignite Autosports w/Cape Motorsports 1:19.5187 1.3438 15
17 34 Dylan Christie Turn 3 Motorsport 1:19.7470 1.5721 9
18 9 Peter Vodanovich Jay Howard Driver Development 1:19.7772 1.6023 11
19 99 Myles Rowe Force Indy 1:19.8100 1.6351 13
20 42 Michael Myers Michael Myers Racing 1:20.1001 1.9252 14
21 1 Ely Navarro DEForce Racing 1:20.1263 1.9514 13
22 16 Kent Vaccaro Miller Vinatieri Motorsports 1:20.1929 2.0180 16
23 20 Nathan Byrd Legacy Autosport 1:22.3080 4.1331 12

The bottom rung of the Road To Indy Presented by Cooper Tires is back on track for qualifying at 10:15 am.