Good morning race fans. Real quick weather, standings, and schedule update before the action gets started bright and early here in Toronto when USF2000 takes to the track at 8:30am ET.
It’s currently 61F, heading toward a high of 79F on what should be a sunny and dry day of practice and qualifying action for USF2000 and USF Pro 2000, both of course (like TSO) presented by Cooper Tires.
I will be back with more after the practice sessions.
USF2000 standings entering Toronto weekend:
Pos.
Driver
Points
1
Simon Sikes
311
2
Lochie Hughes – R
271
3
Nikita Johnson
271
4
Mac Clark – R
246
5
Evagoras Papasavvas
235
6
Chase Gardner – R
176
7
Sam Corry – R
164
8
Jorge Garciarce
160
9
Max Garcia – R
141
10
Danny Dyszelski
141
11
Jacob Douglas
133
12
Al Morey – R
118
13
Ethan Ho – R
111
14
Elliot Cox – R
101
15
Gordon Scully – R
96
16
Maxwell Jamieson – R
82
17
Avery Towns – R
78
18
Zack Ping – R
60
19
Max Taylor – R
51
20
Thomas Schrage – R
31
21
Trey Burke
29
22
Joey Brienza – R
27
23
Nicholas d’Orlando
23
24
Louka St-Jean – R
22
25
Brady Golan – R
21
26
Jack Jeffers – R
19
27
Lucas Mann – R
17
28
Carson Etter – R
17
29
Andre Castro
13
30
Dane Scott – R
12
31
Logan Adams – R
8
USF Pro2000 standings entering Toronto
Pos.
Driver
Points
1
Myles Rowe – R
251
2
Kiko Porto
187
3
Joel Granfors – R
185
4
Salvador de Alba
173
5
Francesco Pizzi – R
171
6
Michael d’Orlando – R
169
7
Jace Denmark – R
166
8
Jonathan Browne
152
9
Jack William Miller
147
10
Lirim Zendeli – R
142
11
Reece Ushijima – R
140
12
Ricardo Escotto – R
110
13
Christian Weir – R
106
14
Yuven Sundaramoorthy
101
15
Jordan Missig
98
16
Bijoy Garg
94
17
Jackson Lee – R
84
18
Nicholas Monteiro – R
68
19
Lindsay Brewer
65
20
Christian Brooks – R
47
21
Louka St-Jean – R
45
22
Charles Finelli
12
Friday, July 14th Honda Indy Toronto Schedule:
Time
Series
Session
8:00 AM
GATES OPEN
8:30 AM – 9:00 AM
USF2000
Practice 1
9:15 AM – 9:45 AM
USF Pro 2000
Practice 1
10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Radicals
Practice
11:00 AM – 11:30 AM
USF2000 & USF Pro 2000
Autograph Session (Heritage Court in Enercare Centre)
11:15 AM – 12:35 PM
NASCAR Pinty’s Series
Practice & Qualifying
12:30 PM – 1:30 PM
NTT INDYCAR SERIES
Autograph Session (Heritage Court in Enercare Centre)
12:50 PM – 1:20 PM
Sports Car Championship Canada
Practice & Qualifying
1:30 PM – 2:30 PM
NASCAR Pinty’s Series
Autograph Session (Heritage Court in Enercare Centre)
Conditions for the first of two USF Pro 2000 races today at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course are a little iffy. Ambient is 77F, Track just 85F and the humidity is 81%. The forecast says it’ll rain today…but they haven’t been overly specific on when that will happen.
The field came out of the carousel and on to the front stretch under the control of Michael d’Orlando with Salvador de Alba alongside. They made it through the first turn and the keyhole and things then got spicy down at Turn 5. Involved are Kiko Porto and Jordan Missig who get the worst of that and will not complete the first lap as we are now full course yellow. Jackson Browne also got a damage in that incident I believe (sorry, didn’t see a replay for exactly what happened). Car #91 of Salvador de Alba will pick up an avoidable contact penalty.
Under the yellow we hear the pace car driver, Gail Truess, report light rain in Turn 2, but it quickly stops.
Back to green to complete Lap 5 and d’Orlando keeps the lead with the field running single file through Turn 1 and then Jace Denmark runs alongside Ushijima through Turn 2 and they are two wide, possibly three wide all the way down to Turn 4.
Lap 8 and the order is d’Orlando, Denmark, Miller, Ushijima and Granfors (who is stalking the battle for 3rd as Ushijima really wants that spot). Behind them are Garg, Rowe, Sundaramoorthy, St. Jean, Zendelli, Weir, Lee, Escotto, Pizzi, Brewer, Monteiro, de Alba, Browne, Porto, Missig.
Lap 10 and it’s sprinkling again lightly in the keyhole and down to Turn 4.
Lap 12 and we haven’t lost the track, even as it gets noticeably darker outside. St. Jean had passed Sundaramoorthy the prior lap for 9th.
With 2nd starting Porto out along with 4th starting de Alba at the back due to his penalty, we’ve had some big movers in the order.
Lap 13 shows Denmark up to 2nd from 8th, and Miller is 3rd from 9th.
Lap 14 and Ushijima has gone off the track in the Turn 9 gravel trap, and is not able to drive out.
YELLOW – Lap 15 with the rain now being called “light” but it’s coming down, and the pace car has the windshield wipers on.
Almost back to green, and Ushijima is out of the gravel trap, but as he hustled back to catch the field he spins and is high centered heading down the hill out of Turn 2.
Pace car has called in a surface change, and race control calls all cars to pit lane. They are to report to their pit boxes, but crews may not yet touch their cars. Race control will wait until all cars are stopped and then a 5 minute window will be opened to change to the rain tires. In dirt track parlance, this is an open red with the exception that putting on the rain tires is REQUIRED. But, crews can optimize the car for the wet.
The rain was enough to wet the track, and has almost, but not completely, stopped again.
The order under RED Lap 17 of 30. d’Orlando, Denmark, Miller, Granfors, Garg, Rowe, St. Jean, Zendelli, Sundaramoorthy, Weir (10th), Lee, Escotto, Brewer, Monteiro, de Alba, Pizzi, Browne, Ushijima, Porto, Missing.
Work time has expired and the field is being lined up on pit lane behind the pace car.
Report via USF broadcast is the backstretch does NOT have rain, but Turn 9 does.
Ushijima did not change tires…but he’s two laps down, so not sure if the tire change applied to him. (Update – yep, it does. Have to take green on rain tires and then you can pit).
But, that won’t happen soon as after rolling back on the track, Lindsay Brewer spins (again looked like exit of the keyhole when getting on the throttle – this is getting pretty common among all series running this weekend), and she will need the AMR INDYCAR Safety team to get her back on the track.
18 laps completed…and the track is now damp, not wet.
Back to green to complete Lap 19, but the race is now close to the time limit. We won’t get all 30 laps for sure – or even close really.
Lap 20 and there it is – the field gets the white flag with d’Orlando leading Denmark by 1.3. Miller, Granfors, Garg, Zendelli, St. Jean, Weir, Rowe, Sundaramoorthy, Ecotto, Lee, Monteiro, de Alba, Pizzi, Brewer, Browne,
Race control reported the 47 of Jackson Lee off track, but he is able to drive it back around to the pits and will finish 14th, final car on the lead lap.
CHECKERED FLAG LAP 21: d’Orlando takes the win over Jace Denmark by 1.5 seconds.
This is Michael d’Orlando’s second win of the season, (Road America #1). The 21 year old Hartsdale, NY driver is the reigning USF2000 champion.
Michael d’Orlando USF Pro 2000 Race #1 Winner at Mid-Ohio. Photo Credit: Gavin Baker Photography
The third and final USF2000 presented by Cooper Tires race of the weekend will run under different conditions than all the other races today. The sun is shining brightly and the air temp is up to 82F with the track temp at 105F and the humidity at 66%.
Big troubles for Jacob Douglas’ Pabst Racing car. He was scheduled to start 6th, but was unable to fire on pit lane. The crew was hard at work near the rear of the engine trying to get his car going. The field rolled off without him.
Lochie Hughes would also have an issue. His car stopped on the track coming down the hill from Turn 2 and would stall and need a tow back to the pits. Hughes rolled several times earlier today in that same car – so amazing the second place driver (and his car) in the points even made it to the grid and how he’s coming back behind a safety truck as the race has officially started but under yellow.
When we do start, it’s to begin the 3rd lap. Simon Sikes and Mac Clark will bring the field down two wide to get the race going, but it won’t stay green for long.
Turn 1 was ok, but cars and parts are scattered around Turn 2. Can’t tell for sure which are it was, but as Rob Howden said, one of the VRD cars wound up over the inside curb and made contact with the rear of Jorge Garciarce, spinning him and it stacked up behind them. Just too many cars in too little space.
Back to green single file on Lap 6 as Sikes and Clark again get away from the field, with Johnson and Papasavvas in tow.
When they got back to the timing line to score Lap 7 – the first fully under green – the order is Sikes, Clark, Johnson, Papasavvas, Garcia, Corry, Gardner, Dyszelski, Schrage, Golan, Morey, Etter, Towns, Ho, Douglas, Scully (out), Jameison (out), Ping (out), Taylor (out), Garciarce (out), Adams (out), Hughes (out), Cox (DNS).
Douglas is on the track, but two laps down. He came in to race 9th in the points. Really suffering in the championship battle due to the issues following his Race #2 Crash is Lochie Hughes. He was just 7 behind Simon Sikes and will finish 22nd, while Sikes is currently leading Mac Clark by 3.6 seconds on Lap 12.
Following Clark is Nikita Johnson who just three tenths back, and they will spend much of Lap 14 side by side from Turn 4 through Turn 9 with Clark keeping the spot. That lets Papassavas and Corry close down as we have a nose to tail train from 2nd through 7th.
Sikes is happy to see that battle and on Lap 15 has a 6.6 second (and growing) lead over Clark. Lap 15 saw the Top 5 turn their fastest lap of the race.
Lap 17 sees Sikes lead grow to 7.1, with Clark, Johnson, Papasavvas and Corry still close to each other.
Lap 20 and Nikita Johnson is able to get by Clark who hangs on to the final podium spot. Papassavas and Corry round out the Top 5. Further back, Ethan Ho moved by Golan on the final lap for 13th.
As has been noted previously, Sikes has a familiar problem in racing – he’s short on budget. Rob Howden, USF broadcaster, confirmed on the race call that Sikes is essentially race to race at this point, and likely needs to win the championship (and it’s scholarship) to continue his racing career.
Sikes has won this year at Sebring (#2) and IMS (#2), and Road America (#1). On the podium he noted how has had speed all weekend, and was finally able to convert that to a win in race #3. He also thanked Doug Mockett (long time racing supporter) – for keeping him on the track this year.
Here are the results, more to follow on the weekend – tomorrow or Monday as there is a LOT to go over from this weekend.
Here is the report from USF2000 presented by Cooper Tires race #2 of 3 this weekend at Mid-Ohio.
Max Taylor initially has trouble getting going on pit lane but is able to rejoin in time for the start.
Pole sitter Simon Sikes get the jump, but we have a couple cars off track at Turn 1 as we stay green anyway with Logan Adams buried in the gravel and Danny Dysyelski also off the track over there. Max Taylor was also involved in the incident. Yellow then waves as the leaders were allowed to race for most of the lap.
The order at the end of Lap 1 is Sikes, Clark, Hughes, Papasavvas, Johnson, Garcia, Douglas, Ho, Corry, Gardner, Ping, Garciarce, Schrage, Morey, Towns, Golan, Etter, Jameison, Scully, Dyszelski, Adams, Taylor, Cox (DNS).
Dyszelski drives back to the pits to make repairs his rear wing. Taylor had tried to get back but has to stop at the entry to the keyhole and will be brought back by the safety team. Adams is also back on the track, but is a lap down after being pulled out of the gravel trap.
Schrage – again starting at the back due to not turning any laps in qualifying is able to get from 21st to 13th avoiding the carnage on the first lap.
Back to green on Lap 4 and Sikes the lead as the restart on at the flag stand (not back stretch like INDYCAR series and INDY NXT). Sikes keeps the lead, but Hughes goes inside of Mac Clark, who is also passed by Papasavvas, but gets the spot back down at Turn 6.
Lap 5 order is Sikes, Hughes, Clark, Papasavvas, Johnson, Garcia, Corry, Douglas, Gardner, and Ho is 10th.
Lots of action further back, especially over at the keyhole (Turn 2) with several cars side by side.
Lap 9 and Nikita Johnson moves to 4th by passing Papasavvas. Up front Skikes is out to a 4.7 second lead, with much of the field behind him almost nose to tail around the track.
Lap 10 of 20 planned and Sikes lead is up another seconds to 5.7. Very competitive event – if we ignore the the lead Sikes is creating. Lots of looking inside at 2, 4, and 5, etc., but appreciate the good judgment at this point of the race to not push a bad position.
Scratch that. Johnson and Clark are battling for 3rd, and Johnson goes off the track as his move around the outside at Turn 4 didn’t work out with perhaps slight contact from the inside car of Clark. He goes through the grass and rejoins, but drops back a few spots.
Lap 14 and we are under yellow as Ping is side by side with (perhaps Adams??) lots of tire smoke entering Turn 4 and Ping slides off the outside at corner entry and winds up stopped in the gravel trap. They would get Ping back on the track, but he drives the car back with suspension damage.
Lap 15 order is Sikes, Hughes, Clark, Papasavvas, Garcia, Corry, Johnson, Douglas, Gardner, Garciarce, Ho, Morey, Schrage, Dyszelski, Towns, Golan, Scully, Jameison, Etter, Ping, Adams, Taylor, Cox (DNS).
Back to green completing Lap 16 and the single file restart works up to Turn 2 — and we’ve got another car barrel rolling today (See our INDYCAR coverage from TrackSideOnline.com – though that site might not be up at the moment – so check NBC Sports/Peacock/Twitter).
Hughes tried to take the lead on the inside of the key hole, but there isn’t any room (would love an overhead to see if the door was ever open – but it was certainly being shut when they got to the corner). Hughes left front and the right rear of Sikes make contact. Hughes starts to roll and is turning over as they continue through the corner. Sikes rear wing is ripped off with Hughes rolling over the top of Sikes and continuing to barrel roll through the Turn 2 gravel trap.
He is attended to by the AMR INDYCAR Safety team and is out of the car.
Lap 17 order is Clark, Sikes, Papasavvas, Garcia, Corry, Johnson
Lap 19 completed and we get the green and white flags to restart as Sikes heads to pit lane…he won’t try to run without a rear wing assembly.
More contact on this restart toward the back of the field, but up front Mac Clark takes the win over Papasavvas, Corry, Johnson, Garcia, Douglas, Gardner, Garciarce, Ho, Morey, Schrage, Jameison, Golan, Etter, Scully, Dyszelski, Towns, Sikes, Hughes, Ping, Adams, Taylor, Cox.
This is Mac Clark’s 3rd USF2000 win. He won earlier this season at Indianapolis Raceway Park and last year at Portland (#2). He is also the reigning USF Juniors champion.
“It was a crazy second race here at Mid-Ohio. That was insane,” said Clark, 19, from Milton, Ontario, Canada – oh and it’s Canada Day! “We managed to take advantage on the second to last restart and just be smart, keep our nose clean and managed to come away with the win. It is really special on Canada Day weekend for me to get it done and just a really big thank you to the team. This is really good for us in terms of the point standings, so I am really excited. A big thank you to all my sponsors. I wouldn’t be here without them.”
Provisional championship points after 12 of 18 races:
1. Simon Sikes, 277
2. Lochie Hughes, 270
3. Nikita Johnson, 246
4. Mac Clark, 224
5. Evagoras Papasavvas, 216
6. Chase Gardner, 147
7. Jorge Garciarce, 161
8. Sam Corry, 159
9. Jacob Douglas, 127
10 Max Garcia, 127
Mac Clark at Mid-Ohio: Photo Credit: Gavin Baker Photography
USF2000 presented by Cooper Tires Mid-Ohio Race #2 Results:
Simon Sikes brought the 23 car field to the green with ambient at 84F, the track up to 109F, and the humidity at 64%. As they ran down from the keyhole to Turn 3, we saw some dirt flying on the exit of Turn 3 as everyone fanned out when the green flag flew.
Evagoras Papasavvas was able to move from his 3rd starting spot to the lead on the first lap. Papasavvas had turned the fastest time in qualifying, but lost two starting positions due to taking the checkered flag twice.
The field made it around the first time,but the next time in to the keyhole, Avery Towns had gotten past a couple cars and was looking for more on the outside of Turn 2, when he got squeezed in to the grass and spun in to the gravel trap.
The AMR INDYCAR Safety team was able to pull him out of the gravel, but he would lose a couple laps in the process.
Back to green on Lap 4, with Papasavvas, Sikes, Hughes and Clark up front.
That didn’t last though as a group of cars got together at Turn 5/6 and Elliot Cox gets the worst of it – and is off track after Turn 6. Max Garcia was also involved, picking up rear wing damage. He immediately heads to the pits to get help from the Pabst Racing crew.
Watching the replay, Cox was on the outside as Douglas was inside entering Turn 6.. Douglas made contact with Garcia, with Douglas then spinning and collecting Eliott Cox. Cox would have been on the inside at Turn 7, and probably gotten the spots of both Douglas and Garcia.
Race Control assessed Douglas an avoidable contact penalty – to be enforced after the race since both Douglas and Cox cars will return to the paddock on the back of a tow truck.
Order Lap 8 under Yellow: Papasavvas, Sikes, Hughes, Clark, Ho, Gardner, Morey, Taylor, Dyszelski, Corry, Garciarce, Schrage, Johnson, Jameison, Ping, Adams, Scully, Golan, Etter, Garcia, Town, Cox, Douglas.
Big movers are Gardner to 6th from 13th and Taylor to 8th from 16th. Schrage who didn’t get to turn a lap in qualifying is now 12th from 22nd.
Lap 9 and we’re back to green. Papasavvas keeps the lead over Sikes and Hughes.
Mac Clark takes 3rd from Lochie Hughes on lap 10 at Turn 6, Sam Corry also gets 7th from Al Morey.
Papasavvas leads Lap 11 by 0.3245 over Sikes, Clark, and Hughes who broken away slightly as Ho is 1.3 back in 5th.
Lap 15 Papasavvas leads Sikes by 0.3609, then it’s Clark, Hughes, and Ho Chase Gardner is 6th, Nikita Johnson has gotten back to 7th.
Lap 17 and Sikes is 0.2752 back and looking for a way to pass Papasavvas. Lap 18 and the gap is 0.2260 from Papasavvas to Sikes.
Nikita Johnson takes 6th from Gardner, Lap 18.
Coming to the white flag, Papasavvas leads by 0.2739 and Sikes tries to pop out at turn 3 and Turn 4. He goes around the outside at Turn 4 and they stay side by side through 5 and almost again through 6 with Papasavvas holding the inside and getting just ahead. There was some tire smoke and possibly some contact on that last lap for the lead – and also some great driving by both of them to make it through to Turn 7.
Papasavvas holds on the rest of the way and he will take the victory in USF2000 presented by Cooper Tires Discount Tires Race #1 at Mid-Ohio. Sikes gave it a great shot to finish second, just 0.3341 out of first.
Nikita Johnson moved to 5th on the final lap, with Chase Gardner dropping to 10th…as Sam Corry, Jorge Garciarce, and Al Morey moved up.
Took a bit to get going but great race over the last few laps – even as Papasavvas was able to lead every lap.
We’ll be back with more stats, etc., from this race later tonight.
Here is tomorrow’s schedule followed by the unofficial results from this race:
Time
Series
Session
7:55 AM – 8:15 AM
Porsche Sprint Challenge
Qualifying
8:35 AM – 9:20 AM
Indy NXT
Practice 2
9:45 AM – 10:45 AM
NTT INDYCAR SERIES
Practice 2
11:00 AM – 11:40 AM
USF 2000
Race 2
11:55 AM – 12:45 PM
USF Pro 2000
Race 1
1:00 PM – 1:40 PM
Porsche Sprint Challenge
Race 1
1:30 PM – 1:55 PM
USF2000
Autograph Session in Midway
2:00 PM – 2:30 PM
USF Pro 2000
Autograph Session in Midway
2:05 PM – 2:25 PM
Indy NXT
Qualifying
2:45 PM – 4:15 PM
NTT INDYCAR SERIES
Qualifying
4:30 PM – 5:10 PM
USF2000
Race 3
4:30 PM – 5:00 PM
INDY NXT
Autograph Session in Midway
5:25 PM – 6:15 PM
USF Pro 2000
Race 2
After Dusk
Fireworks
There were a couple calls that race control wanted to review post race…could be adjustments to the order coming. Though not up front to our current knowledge.
The qualifying session to set the field for USF Pro 2000 started out with the air temp at 78, track up to 96 and the humidity down slightly to 74F.
Michael d’Orlando was P1 as we approached the final five minutes of the session with a lap of 1:17.5200, followed by Kiko Porto, Salvador de Alba, Jace Denmark, and Myles Rowe -mostly set on their 10th lap as driver’s came in and took fresh rubber for the final run to the end of this qualifying session.
Myles Rowe moved to P1 with his 8th lap, at 1:17.4863, just edging d’Orlando, Alba, Porto and Bijoy Garg.
Rowe still has P1 as the checkered flies, but we have several cars still on the track. Garg had moved to P4 just before the clock expired. On these final laps, Denmark moves to 7th, Jackson Lee moves forward to 14th.
Car 55 of Francesco Pizzi gets a post session penalty for qualifying interference. He is currently 16th, but we’ll see where he winds up starting after the penalty is applied.
This is Rowe’s 2nd pole (Indy GP Race #2), to go along with his three wins this season at St. Pete #2 and Sebring #1 and #2.
PROVISIONAL USF Pro 2000 Qualifying for Race #2 Results (appears to apply penalty to Pizzi):
Turns out that Papasavaas did indeed take checkered flag twice, thinking it was pretty close, especially as race control had to review post session. The penalty for blowing the checkered flag is loss of two starting positions.
Here is the corrected starting line-up for Race #1:
SP Car Driver Name Time 1 22 Simon Sikes 01:21.654 2 68 Ethan Ho 01:21.747 3 6 Evagoras Papasavvas 01:21.402 4 1 Mac Clark 01:21.752 5 8 Lochie Hughes 01:21.943 6 17 Nikita Johnson 01:21.973 7 24 Max Garcia 01:21.992 8 7 Al Morey 01:22.016 9 14 Sam Corry 01:22.034 10 23 Jacob Douglas 01:22.045 11 18 Danny Dyszelski 01:22.071 12 10 Jorge Garciarce 01:22.132 13 95 Chase Gardner 01:22.182 14 9 Logan Adams 01:22.280 15 97 Zack Ping 01:22.343 16 33 Max Taylor 01:22.543 17 67 Elliot Cox 01:22.554 18 12 Maxwell Jamieson 01:22.595 19 19 Gordon Scully 01:23.011 20 11 Brady Golan 01:23.588 21 57 Carson Etter 01:24.120 22 90 Thomas Schrage 23 93 Avery Towns 01:23.78
NOTES: Pursuant to Rule 8.5.4, Car 11 – best lap time was disallowed in this session Pursuant to Rule 8.5.7, Car 93 – penalized loss of two positions. Pursuant to Rule 8.5.7, Car 6 – penalized loss of two positions.
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.
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.
By Patrick Stephan The USF2000 presented by Cooper Tires session had a couple interesting announcements before it started. First, race control announced that the track had adjusted the braking markers for Turn 2 (the Keyhole) overnight. They were moved 100 feet deeper in to the corner, definitely something the driver’s would want to know about…
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