The Metal Works Custom Fabrication sponsored No. 23 of Jace Denmark Photo credit: Gavin Baker Photography/Road to Indy

By Steve Wittich

For the first time this season, Pabst Racing rookie Jace Denmark, who is in a dogfight for the Hyperco Rookie of the Year honors, set the quickest lap during Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship practice.

However, it was close throughout the field, with four of the 22 drivers within a tenth-of-a-second of Denmark, eight of the 22 drivers within a half-second, and 16 within one second.

Within a tenth of a second of Denmark were Josh Green, Yuven Sundaramoorthy, and championship contender d’Orlando. The championship leader Kiko Porto had the sixth quickest practice time.

The 17-year-old Denmark’s best lap of 81.1154 seconds was quicker than the race track record of 81.2979 seconds, set by Kyle Kirkwood in 2018.

Saturday’s VP Racing Fuels Championship Weekend Presented by Cooper Tires got underway at 8:40 am, with the sun still rising over The Carousel at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. The blue skies were dotted with puffy white clouds, and the temperature was struggling to reach 50F.

The 22-entries quickly got to work on the green track, which has not held a four-wheeled race event since Independence Day Weekend’s Road To Indy/INDYCAR event.

With three fresh sets and one carryover set of Cooper Tire slicks available for the one practice, two qualifying sessions, and pair of races, the teams stayed on their carryover set for the half-hour practice.

A pair of drivers named Josh – Cape Motorsports’ Green and Pabst Racing’s Pierson – were the early leaders in the session, but with the cool temperatures, times continued to improve as the Cooper Tire slicks got up to temperature.

Also near the top of the timing screens in the first half of the session were the two championship contenders, Porto and d’Orlando.

At the halfway point of the session, Hyperco Rookie Of The Year Contender Denmark, with a lap time of 81.8601 seconds, was the quickest pilot in the field. Alos in the top ten were Green, Siegel, Sundaramoorthy, Porto, d’Orlando, Pierson, Campbell, and Stamer.

Somewhat surprisingly, lap times were below what the drivers were running during practice in July.

d’Orlando, who needs max points to have a shot at the $401,305 scholarship, was the quickest driver with ten minutes remaining, over two-tenths of a second clear of Porto.

With ten minutes remaining in practice, the top eight were separated by only three-tenths of a second.

The 22 drivers completed 418 laps in the 30-minute practice that was green for the entirety.

Cooper Tires USF2000 Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio Presented by VP Stay Frosty Practice #1 results

RANK NO. NAME TEAM FAST TIME DIFFERENCE TOTAL LAPS
1 23 Jace Denmark Pabst Racing 1:21.1154 —— 21
2 33 Josh Green Turn 3 Motorsport 1:21.1486 0.0332 18
3 22 Yuven Sundaramoorthy Pabst Racing 1:21.1777 0.0623 21
4 4 Michael d’Orlando Cape Motorsports 1:21.2097 0.0943 20
5 24 Josh Pierson Pabst Racing 1:21.2774 0.1620 21
6 12 Kiko Porto DEForce Racing 1:21.2882 0.1728 19
7 10 Nolan Siegel DEForce Racing 1:21.3020 0.1866 20
8 5 Spike Kohlbecker Ignite Autosports w/Cape Motorsports 1:21.3827 0.2673 20
9 99 Myles Rowe Force Indy 1:21.4919 0.3765 18
10 11 Prescott Campbell DEForce Racing 1:21.7491 0.6337 18
11 32 Christian Weir Turn 3 Motorsport 1:21.7759 0.6605 19
12 2 Thomas Nepveu Cape Motorsports 1:21.8257 0.7103 20
13 6 Bijoy Garg Jay Howard Driver Development 1:21.8754 0.7600 21
14 1 Ely Navarro DEForce Racing 1:21.9336 0.8182 20
15 3 Evan Stamer Ignite Autosports w/Cape Motorsports 1:21.9444 0.8290 20
16 34 Dylan Christie Turn 3 Motorsport 1:22.0824 0.9670 18
17 8 Jackson Lee Jay Howard Driver Development 1:22.2404 1.1250 20
18 91 Billy Frazer Exclusive Autosport 1:22.4032 1.2878 14
19 63 Trey Burke Joe Dooling Autosports 1:22.6353 1.5199 18
20 19 Andre Castro Legacy Autosport 1:22.6463 1.5309 18
21 42 Michael Myers Michael Myers Racing 1:23.2987 2.1833 17
22 16 Kent Vaccaro Miller Vinatieri Motorsports 1:23.6572 2.5418 17

The remainder of the USF2000 weekend schedule is as follows

Saturday, October 2

  • 11:45am – 12:15pm – USF2000 Qualifying #2
  • 3:50pm – 4:30pm – USF2000 Race #1

Sunday, October 3

  • 8am – 8:30am – USF2000 Qualifying #2
  • 11am – 11:40am – USF2000 Race #2

Don’t miss any of the Road To Indy Presented by Cooper Tires action: