Jagger Jones behind the wheel of the No. 3 Cape Motorsports race car. The 19-year-old from Scottsdale, Arizona was the quickest driver on Saturday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (Photo Courtesy Of Andersen Promotions)
By Steve Wittich
On only his third day in an open-wheel car on a dry track, Jagger Jones was the quickest of the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship pilots during the first day of the Chris Griffis Memorial Test.
The third-generation racer, piloting the No. 3 for Cape Motorsports, ended the first day of testing with a best lap of 105.9984 seconds, only a hundredth-of-a-second ahead of Legacy Autosport veteran Simon Sikes on the combined Saturday timesheet.
A pair of DEForce Racing pilots from North Of The Border was the next on the combined timesheet, with newcomer Mac Clark going a little quicker than USF2000 winning teammate Thomas Nepveu.
Jackson Lee, testing with Cape Motorsports, rounded out the top five.
The top ten drivers were all within one second of Jones’ quickest lap.
The most consistent driver of the group was Clark. The debutant, who won five races on the way to a second-place championship finish in the just-completed F4 United States Championship Powered By Honda season, was the only driver to end each of the three 45-minute test sessions in the top five.
The 17-year-old from Milton, Ontario led the first test session on a damp 2.58-mile, 14-turn Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, finished the second session on an almost dry track, and third in the final session on a dry track. Also in the top three in the early morning session were Dylan Christie and Jones.
Mac Clark behind the wheel of the No. 12 DEForce Racing machine on a wet Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course (Photo Courtesy Of Andersen Promotions)
The quickest driver in the second test session on a quickly drying track was Legacy Autosport’s, Simon Sikes. The four-time USF2000 podium finisher was joined in the top three in that session by Jackson Lee and Trey Burke.
The top five average sessions finish during Saturday’s three test sessions were:
- Mac Clark – 3.0
- Jagger Jones – 4.7
- Jackson Lee – 5.0
- Simon Sikes – 5.0
- Thomas Nepveu – 5.3
The 13 drivers with operable transponders completed 600 laps. The busiest of the drivers was Exclusive Autosport’s Ethan Ho.
Viktor Anderson does not show up as turning laps, but the Legacy Autosport newcomer was on track but did not have an operational transponder.
Chris Griffis Memorial Test USF2000 Test Day #1 Combined Timesheet
| RANK | CAR NO. | DRIVER | TEAM | TIME | DIFF. | TOTAL LAPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | Jagger Jones | Cape Motorsports | 105.9984 | 44 | |
| 2 | 19 | Simon Sikes | Legacy Autosport | 106.0112 | -0.0128 | 39 |
| 3 | 12 | Mac Clark | DEForce Racing | 106.2502 | -0.2518 | 44 |
| 4 | 10 | Thomas Nepveu | DEForce Racing | 106.3935 | -0.3951 | 37 |
| 5 | 2 | Jackson Lee | Cape Motorsports | 106.5407 | -0.5423 | 53 |
| 6 | 4 | Nicholas d’Orlando | Cape Motorsports | 106.5654 | -0.567 | 45 |
| 7 | 63 | Trey Burke | Joe Dooling Autosports | 106.5744 | -0.576 | 39 |
| 8 | 24 | Ayrton Houk | Pabst Racing | 106.6535 | -0.6551 | 57 |
| 9 | 11 | Dylan Christie | DEForce Racing | 106.8669 | -0.8685 | 36 |
| 10 | 91 | Lucas Mann | Exclusive Autosport | 106.8824 | -0.884 | 56 |
| 11 | 7 | Yeoroo Lee | Jay Howard Driver Development | 107.3261 | -1.3277 | 46 |
| 12 | 92 | Ethan Ho | Exclusive Autosport | 107.6122 | -1.6138 | 58 |
| 13 | 9 | TJ Thompson | Jay Howard Driver Development | 107.6122 | -1.6138 | 46 |
| 14 | 20 | Viktor Andersson | Legacy Autosport | —— | —— | —— |