Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park – Mac Clark Claims Freedom 75 USF2000 Pole – Qualifying Notes and Quick Preview

By Tony DiZinno

Mac Clark will led the 16-car field to green for tonight’s USF2000 Championship presented by Cooper Tires race, the Cooper Tires Freedom 75, at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.

The young Canadian in the Tatuus USF-22 drove his No. 1 DEForce Racing car to two laps at 44.962 seconds and an average speed of 109.853mph around the 0.686-mile oval.

Evagaoras Papasavvas was next in the first Jay Howard Driver Development entry ahead of Chase Gardner (Exclusive Autosport), Nikita Johnson (VRD Racing) and points leader Lochie Hughes (JHDD).

Second in points, Simon Sikes, will roll off from ninth in his Pabst Racing entry.

Michael d’Orlando of Cape Motorsports won the last two USF2000 races on the oval in 2021 and 2022. Christian Rasmussen (JHDD) took the 2020 win, with other winners with this Tatuus chassis including Cameron Shields (Newman Wachs Racing) in 2019 and Kyle Kirkwood (Cape) in 2018.

The only oval on the schedule means the USF2000 field has a slightly different points structure.

A win is 45 points, second 38, third 33, fourth 29, fifth 26, with the remainder of the top 10 23-21-20-18-17 and then 15 for 11th down to 2 for 20th.

Hughes holds a 14-point lead on Sikes (185-171) with Johnson on 144, Papasavvas on 106 and Sam Corry on 94 completing the top five.

Qualifying Results

Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Lap 1	Lap 2	Total Time	Avg. Speed
1	1	Mac Clark	DEForce Racing	22.437	22.525	44.962	109.853
2	6	Evagoras Papasavvas	Jay Howard Driver Development	22.566	22.453	45.019	109.714
3	95	Chase Gardner	Exclusive Autosport	22.587	22.636	45.223	109.219
4	17	Nikita Johnson	VRD Racing	22.697	22.755	45.452	108.668
5	8	Lochie Hughes	Jay Howard Driver Development	22.802	22.693	45.495	108.566
6	7	Al Morey	Jay Howard Driver Development	22.968	22.829	45.797	107.850
7	10	Jorge Garciarce	DEForce Racing	22.943	22.938	45.881	107.652
8	14	Sam Corry	VRD Racing	22.922	23.005	45.927	107.545
9	22	Simon Sikes	Pabst Racing	23.040	22.836	45.876	107.664
10	93	Avery Towns	Exclusive Autosport	22.932	23.060	45.992	107.393
11	67	Elliot Cox	Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Dev	23.042	23.023	46.065	107.222
12	24	Max Garcia	Pabst Racing	23.283	23.163	46.446	106.343
13	91	Joey Brienza	Exclusive Autosport	23.251	23.234	46.485	106.254
14	12	Maxwell Jamieson	DEForce Racing	24.061	23.888	47.949	103.009
15	19	Gordon Scully	VRD Racing	-.—-	-.—-	No Time	No Speed
DQ	18	Danny Dyszelski	VRD Racing	22.616	22.717	45.333	108.954