By Patrick Stephan
The first of two qualifying sessions today for Saturday’s pair of USF2000 Pro presented by Cooper Tires races got started promptly at 10:25am ET here at the Mid-Oho Sports Car Course. Ambient temp was 72F, the track at 83F and the humidity a balmy 80F.
With everyone using a carry over set of tires in this morning’s practice, this session will see the driver’s using the first of their three new sets of Cooper Tires.
On the out lap, we saw Yuven Sundaramoorthy spin at Turn 9. He had caught the car in front of him (blue/white car, not quite sure who it was) that was still warming tires. Yuven was carrying more speed and had to cut hard right and spun off to the inside of Turn 9.
He was able to get out of the grass and continue on.
The car #3 of Louka St-Jean was given a warning for qualifying interference, didn’t hear if this was directly related to the Sundaramoorthy spin.
Michael d’Orlando would take the top spot at 1:18.2226 with his fourth lap of the sesson, followed by Bijoy Garg and Kiko Porto.
The red would come out after 7:41 of green flag time when Sundaramoorthy again had trouble. This time it started earlier but he would up in the Turn 9 gravel trap. The AMR INDYCAR Safety team was able to pull him out and he continued back to the pits.
As part of that incident, the car #6 of Reece Ushijima had their fast lap invalidated as it was set while going through a local (later full course) yellow flag area.
Back to green, and lap times continue to drop. d’Orlando is still P1, but his 7th lap is 1:17.6283, and he’s followed by de Alba, Jace Denmark, Joel Granfors, Porto…
Lap 8 and Kiko Porto jumps to P2 with Garg now P3.
Same two up front after Lap 9, but both qo faster as d’Orlando leads Porto with a lap of 1:17.4897. Interesting to see the cars going faster on these 9/10 lap old tires as the tires wear and get hotter while the fuel is also burning off.
d’Orlando comes to the pits after his 11th lap, with about 90 seconds remaining in the session.
The checkered falls with d’Orlando still on top at 1:17.4897. Car #55 of Francesco Pizzi will pick up a penalty for missing the checkered flag and running another lap.
This is d’Orlando’s 3rd pole of the season to go along with Sebring Race #2 and Road America race #1 – where he scored his first victory of the season. He is currently 11th in series points.
USF Pro 2000 Mid-Ohio Race #1 Qualifying Results:
| Pos | Car # | Driver | Hometown | Best Time | Diff | Gap | Best Lap | Total Laps | Team |
| 1 | 1 | Michael d’Orlando | Hartsdale NY | 1:17.4897 | — | ‑‑.‑‑‑‑ | 9 | 11 | Turn 3 Motorsport |
| 2 | 12 | Kiko Porto | Recife Brazil | 1:17.5466 | 0.0569 | 0.0569 | 9 | 13 | DEForce Racing |
| 3 | 92 | Joel Granfors | Eskilstuna Sweden | 1:17.5608 | 0.0711 | 0.0142 | 10 | 14 | Exclusive Autosport |
| 4 | 91 | Salvador de Alba | Guadalajara Mexico | 1:17.5920 | 0.1023 | 0.0312 | 11 | 14 | Exclusive Autosport |
| 5 | 7 | Bijoy Garg | Stanford CA | 1:17.6375 | 0.1478 | 0.0455 | 9 | 13 | DEForce Racing |
| 6 | 6 | Reece Ushijima | Laguna Hills CA | 1:17.7983 | 0.3086 | 0.1608 | 8 | 12 | Jay Howard Driver Development |
| 7 | 99 | Myles Rowe | Powder Springs GA | 1:17.8372 | 0.3475 | 0.0389 | 9 | 13 | Pabst Racing |
| 8 | 20 | Jace Denmark | Phoenix AZ | 1:17.8629 | 0.3732 | 0.0257 | 9 | 12 | Pabst Racing |
| 9 | 40 | Jack William Miller | Westfield IN | 1:17.9596 | 0.4699 | 0.0967 | 14 | 14 | Miller Vinatieri Motorsports |
| 10 | 10 | Lirim Zendeli | Bochum Germany | 1:17.9782 | 0.4885 | 0.0186 | 10 | 14 | TJ Speed Motorsports |
| 11 | 3 | Louka St‑Jean | Laval Quebec Canada | 1:18.0339 | 0.5442 | 0.0557 | 8 | 11 | Turn 3 Motorsport |
| 12 | 90 | Yuven Sundaramoorthy | Oconomowoc WI | 1:18.1141 | 0.6244 | 0.0802 | 7 | 11 | Exclusive Autosport |
| 13 | 55 | Francesco Pizzi | Rome Italy | 1:18.2259 | 0.7362 | 0.1118 | 13 | 13 | TJ Speed Motorsports |
| 14 | 2 | Jonathan Browne | Dublin Ireland | 1:18.2439 | 0.7542 | 0.018 | 9 | 11 | Turn 3 Motorsport |
| 15 | 32 | Christian Weir | Naperville IL | 1:18.2909 | 0.8012 | 0.047 | 12 | 13 | TJ Speed Motorsports |
| 16 | 47 | Jackson Lee | Indianapolis IN | 1:18.3136 | 0.8239 | 0.0227 | 9 | 12 | Turn 3 Motorsport |
| 17 | 19 | Jordan Missig | Joliet IL | 1:18.3681 | 0.8784 | 0.0545 | 10 | 13 | Pabst Racing |
| 18 | 4 | Ricardo Escotto | Mexico City Mexico | 1:18.4260 | 0.9363 | 0.0579 | 14 | 14 | Jay Howard Driver Development |
| 19 | 81 | Nicholas Monteiro | Sao Paulo Brazil | 1:18.4956 | 1.0059 | 0.0696 | 11 | 13 | NeoTech Motorsport |
| 20 | 93 | Lindsay Brewer | Denver CO | 1:19.4124 | 1.9227 | 0.9168 | 9 | 14 | Exclusive Autosport |