By Tony DiZinno
Heading into L&W Supply Grand Prix of Road America at Elkhart Lake, Wis., the USF Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires sees Pabst Racing with Force Indy’s Myles Rowe at the top of the tables with a 32-point lead on Exclusive Autosport’s Joel Granfors (165-133).
That 32-point margin from Rowe to Granfors is the exact same margin as Granfors in second has to sixth place, which right now is a three-way tie among Reece Ushijima (Jay Howard Driver Development), Jack William Miller (Miller Vinatieri Motorsports) and Jonathan Browne (Turn 3 Motorsport).
Sandwiched among them are Francesco Pizzi (TJ Speed Motorsports), Salvador de Alba (Exclusive Autosport) and Kiko Porto (DEForce Racing), so there’s seven different teams among the top eight drivers in points.
You can read Steve’s extensive USF Pro 2000 weekend preview here.
We don’t expect the USF Pro 2000 track records to fall this weekend, but we do expect the times to tumble significantly from 2022 owing to the fresh new surface covering the 4.014-mile Road America.
The reasoning? Compared to when the Tatuus PM-22 was first introduced in 2018 (pre-halo addition and other chassis enhancements), the Andersen Promotions-operated series made an engine spec adjustment (slightly reduced horsepower and rpm) that has improved reliability.
Heading into the weekend, lap records were:
- Race: Toby Sowery, June 22, 2018, 2:01.3306
- Qualifying: David Malukas, June 22, 2018, 1:59.8151
So while the times are unlikely eclipse those marks, they should be much quicker than in 2022.
Last year’s winners came from Exclusive Autosport (Louis Foster) and Jay Howard Driver Development (Braden Eves).
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Practice 1 Notes
The best time in any 2022 session was 2:04.3105 in Q1 set by Reece Gold. And in Thursday’s second test session, the fastest time was three seconds under that, set by Michael d’Orlando (Turn 3 Motorsport). D’Orlando ran a best time of 2:01.2671.
In Friday’s official practice session, Turn 3 Motorsport was a solid 1-2-4. Jonathan Browne led it at 2:01.4481 with d’Orlando second and Louka St. John fourth. The lone interloper was Ushijima, best of the JHDD brigade, in third.
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Qualifying 1 Notes
The aforementioned team parity carried into the first qualifying session of the weekend, with four different teams in the top four positions.
The Peter Dempsey-led Turn 3 squad continued its momentum with d’Orlando capturing the pole at 2:01.7851, edging TJ Speed’s Christian Weir by just 0.0056 of a second (2:01.7907). That’s a nice bounce back for Weir after an incident on the Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park oval last month.
Ushijima (JHDD) and Rowe (Pabst with Force Indy) complete the top four.
Qualifying 1 Unofficial Results
| P | No | Name | Team | FTime | Diff | Laps | FL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Michael d’Orlando | Turn 3 Motorsport | 2:01.7851 | 2:01.7851 | 6 | 5 |
| 2 | 32 | Christian Weir | TJ Speed Motorsports | 2:01.7907 | 0.0056 | 8 | 5 |
| 3 | 6 | Reece Ushijima | Jay Howard Driver Development | 2:02.1503 | 0.3652 | 8 | 6 |
| 4 | 99 | Myles Rowe | Pabst Racing | 2:02.2038 | 0.4187 | 6 | 3 |
| 5 | 3 | Louka St-Jean | Turn 3 Motorsport | 2:02.2329 | 0.4478 | 8 | 6 |
| 6 | 7 | Bijoy Garg | DEForce Racing | 2:02.3165 | 0.5314 | 8 | 8 |
| 7 | 12 | Kiko Porto | DEForce Racing | 2:02.4049 | 0.6198 | 8 | 3 |
| 8 | 55 | Francesco Pizzi | TJ Speed Motorsports | 2:02.5072 | 0.7221 | 8 | 6 |
| 9 | 2 | Jonathan Browne | Turn 3 Motorsport | 2:02.5073 | 0.7222 | 8 | 6 |
| 10 | 20 | Jace Denmark | Pabst Racing | 2:02.5760 | 0.7909 | 7 | 6 |
| 11 | 4 | Ricardo Escotto | Jay Howard Driver Development | 2:02.6823 | 0.8972 | 7 | 5 |
| 12 | 10 | Lirim Zendeli | TJ Speed Motorsports | 2:02.6879 | 0.9028 | 7 | 2 |
| 13 | 91 | Salvador De Alba | Exclusive Autosport | 2:02.7646 | 0.9795 | 7 | 5 |
| 14 | 19 | Jordan Missig | Pabst Racing | 2:03.0014 | 1.2163 | 8 | 4 |
| 15 | 47 | Jackson Lee | Turn 3 Motorsport | 2:03.1827 | 1.3976 | 6 | 5 |
| 16 | 90 | Yuven Sundaramoorthy | Exclusive Autosport | 2:03.4858 | 1.7007 | 8 | 8 |
| 17 | 93 | Lindsay Brewer | Exclusive Autosport | 2:03.6928 | 1.9077 | 8 | 6 |
| 18 | 92 | Joel Granfors | Exclusive Autosport | 2:03.8542 | 2.0691 | 7 | 3 |
| 19 | 40 | Jack William Miller | Miller Vinatieri Motorsports | 2:04.0310 | 2.2459 | 8 | 8 |
| 20 | 81 | Nicholas Monteiro | NeoTech Motorsport | 2:04.6963 | 2.9112 | 6 | 6 |
| 21 | 83 | Charles Finelli | FatBoy Racing | 2:06.9823 | 5.1972 | 9 | 6 |
USF Pro 2000 has its second qualifying session of the weekend Saturday at 8:00 a.m., with races occurring Saturday at 2:40 p.m. and Sunday at 8:00 a.m.