By Patrick Stephan

#22: Myles Rowe, Pabst Racing, Penske Entertainment. Road to Indy Photo credit: Gavin Baker Photography/Road to Indy

The Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship took to the track for qualifying with the ambient temperature at 85, and the track at 107F.  Again this is the only qualifying session for the series this weekend. The fastest lap in this session will be used to set the grid for race one this evening. The second fastest lap sets the grid for races #2 and #3 UNLESS a driver goes faster in the preceding race – then they can use that lap.

Myles Rowe’s Pabst Racing crew told TSO Ladder that the issue in the first practice was that they ran him out of fuel. He got the fuel light on that final lap – but had to pull off at Turn 9 – bringing out the caution in that practice.

As with IndyPro 2000, this qualifying session will be 20 minutes of green in a 30 minute window – whichever comes first.

With about 8 minutes completed, Lochie Hughes was P1, with Myles Rowe then taking that spot with a lap of 1:22.3592.  This is Hughes first weekend in a USF2000 car. He is currently leading the F4 United States Championship and won race #2 of 3 here last weekend at Mid-Ohio.

With 7 minutes to go, and some drivers just starting to head out for their second run on new tires, it’s Rowe, Hughes, Nepveu, Denmark and Frazer.

With 5 minutes to go, Jace Denmark puts in a 1:22.2070 to take P1, but that wouldn’t last as Michael d’Orlando – the point leader – drops a 1:22.1603 to move in to P1.

Jagger Jones jumps to P5, briefly, then he gets bested by Nikita Johnson as half the screen is now green with fastest laps.

Rowe moves back to P2, and is 0.0275 behind d’Orlando with 2 minutes to run.

Rowe then goes P1 with a lap of 1:22.0932.

Time expires with Rowe P1 and most of the field still on the track, so we’ll see if anyone can go quicker on this final lap…and not all the way up front, but Jacob Douglas does move up to 8th.

Per race control cars #5 (Nicky Hays), #9 (Jorge Garciarce), and #6 (Evagoras Papasavvas) will get grid penalties for staying on the track after taking the checkered flag.

With Rowe and Michael d’Orlando timing in 1-2, that puts the points leaders together on the front row, albeit in reverse order as d’Orlando came in to the weekend leading 217 to 211.

Unofficial Qualifying Results – Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship – Mid-Ohio:

Pos Car # Driver Best Time Diff Total Laps Best Lap Team
1 22 Myles Rowe 1:22.0932 1:22.0932 13 11 Pabst Racing
2 4 Michael d’Orlando 1:22.1464 0.0532 13 11 Cape Motorsports
3 23 Jace Denmark 1:22.2070 0.1138 13 9 Pabst Racing
4 7 Lochie Hughes 1:22.2123 0.1191 11 9 Jay Howard Driver Development
5 17 Nikita Johnson 1:22.2439 0.1507 11 9 VRD Racing
6 92 Billy Frazer 1:22.2633 0.1701 13 11 Exclusive Autosport
7 11 Dylan Christie 1:22.2937 0.2005 12 10 DEForce Racing
8 90 Jacob Douglas 1:22.3203 0.2271 13 13 Exclusive Autosport
9 12 Bijoy Garg 1:22.3455 0.2523 13 10 DEForce Racing
10 3 Jagger Jones 1:22.3610 0.2678 12 9 Cape Motorsports
11 10 Thomas Nepveu 1:22.4484 0.3552 13 10 DEForce Racing
12 32 Christian Weir 1:22.6548 0.5616 13 10 Turn 3 Motorsport
13 5 Nicky Hays 1:22.7204 0.6272 11 9 Cape Motorsports
14 33 Spike Kohlbecker 1:22.7282 0.635 13 9 Turn 3 Motorsport w/Ignite Autosport
15 30 Viktor Andersson 1:22.7823 0.6891 13 11 VRD Racing
16 61 Nicholas d’Orlando 1:22.8486 0.7554 12 12 VRD Racing
17 2 Jackson Lee 1:23.2571 1.1639 12 9 Cape Motorsports
18 9 Jorge Garciarce 1:23.2704 1.1772 10 9 Jay Howard Driver Development
19 8 Danny Dyszelski 1:23.4233 1.3301 10 8 Jay Howard Driver Development
20 6 Evagoras Papasavvas 1:23.7992 1.706 10 4 Jay Howard Driver Development