By Patrick Stephan
This USF2000 Championship presented by Cooper Tires qualifying session is the only one for the series this weekend. This will set the grid for Race #1 and potentially all the races. Races #2 and #3 will be set by a driver’s second and third quickest laps, unless a driver can set a new fastest lap in the preceding race.
Conditions for the session remain overcast/smoky with the ambient at 73, track at 85 and the humidity at 80F.
We’d only get in two laps before the 11 car of Brady Golan found the gravel trap at Turn 11. That brought out the red after 5:09 of official green flag time. The AMR INDYCAR Safety team got the car out of the pits quickly and we went green again with approximately 14 minutes of green flag still possible.
Simon Sikes was leading the session after 7 laps, followed by Garcia, Clark, Papasavvas, Gardner, Ho, Garciarce, Hughes.
As the session wound down, Sikes still had P1 with his 8th of 10 laps at 1:21.6539, Mac Clark moved to P2, Lochie Hughes up to P3.
Ethan Ho takes P2 with about 90 seconds to run, splitting Sikes and Clark.
Al Morey moves to P7, and Papasavvas P10 about the same time. Morey then briefly dropped off at Turn 1 and returned to the track.
Papasavvas was the first to take the checkered flag and he jumped to P1 with a lap of 1:21.4204. Sikes was already on pit lane, so we watched the rest of the field come through.
Car 93 of Avery Towns got called out by Race Control for taking two checkered flags (running the checkered, aka, “We’ve got a flyer.”
Heard race control say the initial checkered flag of Papasavaas was under review (presumably to make sure he was at the line before time expired). We waited for the timing and scoring from USF officials and Papasavaas would indeed go from crashing in practice to the pole in just a couple hours. This is his first career pole after having previously started on the outside of row 1 twice.
Thomas Schrage was unable to turn a lap. His car had either a fire or fire extinguisher issue on pit lane before the session even started. His Exclusive Autosport crew was seen cleaning up the engine bay area, but the Bethel, OH driver will have to start Race #1 from the back.
USF2000 Mid-Ohio Qualifying:
| Pos | Car # | Driver | Hometown | Best Time | Diff | Gap | Best Lap | Total Laps | Team |
| 1 | 6 | Evagoras Papasavvas | Kirkland WA | 1:21.4024 | — | ‑‑.‑‑‑‑ | 12 | 12 | Jay Howard Driver Development |
| 2 | 22 | Simon Sikes | Atlanta GA | 1:21.6539 | 0.2515 | 0.2515 | 8 | 12 | Pabst Racing |
| 3 | 68 | Ethan Ho | Los Angeles CA | 1:21.7472 | 0.3448 | 0.0933 | 10 | 12 | DC Autosport |
| 4 | 1 | Mac Clark | Toronto ON Canada | 1:21.7523 | 0.3499 | 0.0051 | 9 | 12 | DEForce Racing |
| 5 | 8 | Lochie Hughes | Gold Coast Australia | 1:21.9430 | 0.5406 | 0.1907 | 9 | 12 | Jay Howard Driver Development |
| 6 | 17 | Nikita Johnson | St Petersburg FL | 1:21.9733 | 0.5709 | 0.0303 | 12 | 12 | VRD Racing |
| 7 | 24 | Max Garcia | Miami FL | 1:21.9923 | 0.5899 | 0.019 | 8 | 13 | Pabst Racing |
| 8 | 7 | Al Morey | Fortville IN | 1:22.0160 | 0.6136 | 0.0237 | 10 | 11 | Jay Howard Driver Development |
| 9 | 14 | Sam Corry | Cornelius NC | 1:22.0337 | 0.6313 | 0.0177 | 8 | 12 | VRD Racing |
| 10 | 23 | Jacob Douglas | Christchurch New Zealand | 1:22.0445 | 0.6421 | 0.0108 | 10 | 13 | Pabst Racing |
| 11 | 18 | Danny Dyszelski | Charlote NC | 1:22.0710 | 0.6686 | 0.0265 | 8 | 11 | VRD Racong |
| 12 | 10 | Jorge Garciarce | Guadalajara Mexico | 1:22.1320 | 0.7296 | 0.061 | 10 | 12 | DEForce Racing |
| 13 | 95 | Chase Gardner | Sherman TX | 1:22.1824 | 0.78 | 0.0504 | 7 | 13 | Exclusive Autosport |
| 14 | 9 | Logan Adams | Greenfield IN | 1:22.2804 | 0.878 | 0.098 | 10 | 12 | Jay Howard Driver Development |
| 15 | 97 | Zack Ping | Gainesville FL | 1:22.3434 | 0.941 | 0.063 | 12 | 12 | VRD Racing |
| 16 | 33 | Max Taylor | Greenwich CT | 1:22.5433 | 1.1409 | 0.1999 | 11 | 12 | VRD Racing |
| 17 | 67 | Elliot Cox | Indianapolis IN | 1:22.5542 | 1.1518 | 0.0109 | 4 | 7 | Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Development |
| 18 | 12 | Maxwell Jamieson | Houston TX | 1:22.5946 | 1.1922 | 0.0404 | 9 | 12 | DEForce Racing |
| 19 | 19 | Gordon Scully | Chicago IL | 1:23.0111 | 1.6087 | 0.4165 | 5 | 12 | VRD Racing |
| 20 | 11 | Brady Golan | Houston TX | 1:23.5879 | 2.1855 | 0.5768 | 9 | 11 | DEForce Racing |
| 21 | 93 | Avery Towns | Dallas TX | 1:23.7815 | 2.3791 | 0.1936 | 10 | 12 | Exclusive Autosport |
| 22 | 57 | Carson Etter | Villa Park CA | 1:24.1201 | 2.7177 | 0.3386 | 9 | 13 | DC Autosport |
| 23 | 90 | Thomas Schrage | Bethel OH | No Time | ‑‑‑ | ‑‑‑ | ‑‑ | ‑‑‑ | Exclusive Autosport |