We’ll be back after the upcoming Pro Mazda race with a full recap.

Anthony Martin, the Cape Motorsports with /WTR sophomore took the pole for the fifth time this season. It was the eighth straight pole for Cape driver.

Parker Thompson, who is currently tied with Martin for the USF2000 championship lead and is the only Canadian in the field, qualified third.

ArmsUp Motorsports veteran Victor Franzoni qualified second for the third race in a row.

Jordan Lloyd, who is driving a car borrowed from John Cummiskey Racing, will join Parker Thompson in the second row.

Championship contender Luke Gabin starts fifth, and Afterburner Autosport rookie Dakota Dickerson joins him on the third row.

USF2000 qualifying results

The lone Canadian entered for the Allied Building Products USF2000 Grand Prix of Toronto double header in Toronto is Parker Thompson. The 17 year-old has spent the last couple of days flat-out doing media appearances across T.O., and the Red Deer, Alberta native was also flat-out on the 11-turn, 1.786-mile Exhibition Place temporary street course, leading the combined USF2000 time-sheet.

Parker Thompson – No. 2 – Cape Motorsports with /WTR

First session recap:

The Honda Indy Toronto weekend began promptly at 8am when the buzz of the Mazda MZR 2.0L engines powering the USF2000 series began echoing around the 11-turn, 1.786-mile Exhibition Place temporary street course. The buzz didn’t last long though as Jordan Lloyd (Pabst Racing) and Robert Megennis (Team Pelfrey) had separate incidents on their out-laps.

Rookie Megennis made a mistake at Turn 8 and slid into the barriers. Further down the track, Lloyd made significant contact with the concrete barriers in Turn 11. The No. 21 from Pabst Racing hit the barriers hard enough to move the barriers, and suffered significant damage to three of the four corners. (More on the Lloyd situation below).

The track went back to green after a 10+ minute delay to repair the barriers, and the USF2000 field were able to complete five or six laps before a simultaneous red/checkered flag ended the session when Anthony Martin made contact in Turn 8 and Garth Rickards spun in the off-camber Turn 10.

TSO had a chance to chat with Rickards after the session. The 23 year-old told us that overall, the track is quite a bit bumpier, and the final Turn 8 through Turn 11 section is certainly tricky. Rickards went on to explain that he thinks that section will require a “slow is fast” approach.

Martin told TSO that Turn 8 is a little narrower this year, and that caught him out when he was pushing. TSO note: the barrier on the inside of the corner was moved at least two feet into the racing line this year, making the corner slower as well as narrower.

Due to a lack of funding, there was some question whether Luke Gabin would make the trip to Toronto, but the 21 year-old who currently sits fifth in the championship standings was able to find the funding to continue. The Australian that is currently living in Indianapolis, Indiana told TSO that the track wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be, and that keeping your car in one piece would certainly be the name of game this weekend.

The first session was led by Cape Motorsports with /WTR’s Martin, and he was joined in the top five by his teammates Parker Thompson in second, Jordan Cane in fourth, and Nikita Lastochkin in fifth. The last member of the top five, was ArmsUp Motorsports veteran Victor Franzoni.

Session 2

The second USF2000 session of Friday began at 1:45pm under overcast skies and the half-hour practice quickly ground to a stop when a red flag came out for the No. 92 of Luke Gabin, who ground to a halt at the exit of Turn 3. He received a tow-in from the Holmatro Safety Team, and was not able to get back out. TSO was able to confirm with JAY Motorsports team owner Jay Green that the problem was not terminal.

For the second session in a row, the exit of Turn 11 bit another driver when Clint McMahan had a hard impact, knocking the right front off the No. 20 RJB Motorsports machine. With only five minutes left in session, the red flag also caused an end to the session.

Unfortunately for championship contender Jordan Lloyd, the Pabst Racing crew determined that the No. 21 that Lloyd crashed in the first practice session was unrepairable. That set team principal Augie Pabst, III in search of a solution.

Fortunately for Lloyd, John Cummiskey Racing, who Lloyd contested the first four rounds of the 2015 USF2000 championship with, entered the picture. The Brownsburg, Indiana based team had an extra car become available this weekend when Ayla Agren’s funding unfortunately fell through at the last minute (more on that later). Proving that the Mazda Road To Indy paddock is one big family, Cummiskey has loaned a car to Pabst for the remainder of the weekend.

After hard crash for @JordanLloyd94, @followJCRacing is loaning a car to @PabstRacing for the weekend. #Camaraderie pic.twitter.com/YmMIjjNI6Y

— TSO Ladder (@TSOLadder) July 15, 2016

Despite turning no laps in the first practice session Lloyd was able to recover in the borrowed car and turn the fifth quickest lap of the session.

The Cape Motorsports with /WTR crew was able to get the Burgess BLA sponsored No. 8 of Anthony Martin repaired, and the morning Turn 8 shunt sure didn’t seem to phase the Kalgoorlie, Australia born driver. The 21 year-old was able to put the shunt behind him and turn the third quickest lap of the afternoon session.

Joining Lloyd and Martin in the top five were: Canadian Thompson, who led a USF2000 practice for the third time this season, Franzoni, who in second was 0.3 seconds behind Thompson, and Yufeng Luo (Pabst Racing) who excelled with a win and second place finish at the last street circuit event in St. Petersburg.

TSO had a chance to catch up with Franzoni after the session, and the veteran two time USF2000 winner told us that he has a great car, and that he made a couple of mistakes, and that he expects to be even quicker tomorrow when he able to put a complete lap together.

Leading the way in the National Class was Eric Filgueiras.

USF2000 combined practice results:

The Cooper Tires USF2000 Powered by Mazda series is back on track bright and early on Saturday morning at 7:50am for qualifying. Their first race of the weekend takes place at 11:30am.

I came across this post on Facebook earlier today and while it’s not an uncommon tale, it’s a tale that the TSO Ladder needs to do a better job of highlighting and sharing when we hear about it, so please hear us out.

If you are a Toronto based business looking for some extra exposure in your home market, a small business itching to dip a toe in the motorsports sponsorship waters, or just a good samaritan that would like to help a wonderful young man continue his dreams, please get in touch with Jay Green of JAY Motorsports at jaymotorsports1@gmail.com or 304-610-5663, or don’t hesitate to get in contact with steve@tracksideonline.com and I’ll be happy to pass along your info.

More about Luke Gabin the racer:

Luke Gabin – No. 91 – JAY Motorsports

Gabin, originally from Perth, Australia, but now living in Indianapolis, Indiana came to the U.S. in 2013 with very little money and the singular goal of one day winning a Verizon IndyCar Series championship.  Gabin won the Australian CIK Stars of Karting KF Pro Light State Championship in Queensland in 2013, that win turned into an opportunity for Gabin to compete in the Skip Barber Karting Shootout.  Gabin, a second year university student joined current IndyCar drivers Ryan Hunter-Reay, Alexander Rossi, and Spencer Pigot as Karting Shootout Champions and for his efforts won a scholarship that allowed him to compete in the full Skip Barber Summer Series.

The 21 year-old destroyed the competition in the 2014 Skip Barber Summer Series, winning 10 of 16 races, parlaying his Summer Series dominance into an invite to the Skip Barber Championship Series Shootout, and a chance to win a $200,000 Mazda Motorsports Advancement Scholarship to use to move up to the Cooper Tires USF2000 Powered by Mazda series.

The Shootout was held over three days and included five races, media interviews and instructor evaluations. After three days of intense competition it came down to the last lap of the last race, where Gabin made a pass for the lead of the race that allowed him to beat his fellow competitors to the Mazda Motorsports Advancement Scholarship.

Gabin used his $200,000 scholarship to join the all-rookie, first year Team Pelfrey USF2000 squad. Immediately showing he would have the pace to compete during Cooper Tires Winterfest, Gabin also made it clear his race craft needed some work. Gabin’s struggles carried over to the beginning of the 2015 season where he had a slow start to the season with four of his first six results ending up near the back-end up the USF2000 grid.

Luke Gabin a JAY Motorsports sophomore in the Cooper Tires USF2000 Powered by Mazda series. (Photo courtesy of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC Photography)

Clearly learning from his early season struggles, Gabin improved tremendously to finish off the season with eight top 10 finishes in the final 10 races. Included in that were four top-fives, his first podium (at Toronto), and the second quickest lap of the race in Mid-Ohio race #2.  Gabin ended the season in sixth place in the championship and was the third highest placed rookie.

A lack of funding meant no off-season testing, and worse, a bleak outlook for finding a ride for 2016. Just before the season opening event at St. Petersburg, Gabin and JAY Motorsports announced that they had scraped enough funding together to go racing on an event-by-event basis. A strong fourth, and fifth place finish in the season opener allowed Gabin and the team to continue to Barber where they scored another fourth place and also their first podium of the year, a second place finish in the second race of the weekend.

Gabin left Alabama second in points, and has had a few good and a few so-so outings since. The so-so included a 20th place in the first race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road-course and an 11th place on the oval at Lucas Oil Raceway. The good included two more podiums, a nice comeback for a third place finish at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and as part of an all Australian podium during the first race at Road America.

A third place and seventh place finishes were fantastic results at Road America for the squad. The No. 91 suffered a failure of a fairly new engine in the first practice session and it looked like Gabin might have to miss the race weekend, but Team Pelfrey stepped up to lease the JAY Motorsports squad an engine for the weekend. What little budget Gabin had left, went towards making sure they could race at Road America.

More about Luke Gabin the person

One of my favorite things about covering the Mazda Road To Indy is having the opportunity to watch how drivers develop as people, and Gabin has been no different.

It was pretty obvious that after winning just the majority of the races he entered in 2013 and 2014, Gabin’s 2015 start to USF2000 season came as quite a shock to the system, and it showed early on.

“Adversity introduces a man to himself” was one of many eye-opeing piece’s of advice written by H.L. Mencken and it certainly fits this situation.

Once he realized he wasn’t going to win every race, Gabin started to drive with less urgency, and therefore made fewer mistakes.

Gabin’s growth didn’t end last season, as he has continued his obvious maturation during the 2016 season. Not one time has he complained about his dire funding situation, and even though each event might be his last he has continued to drive intelligently.

One thing that I watch very closely when looking at the character of a veteran driver is how they interact with a younger rookie teammate, and it’s here where Gabin has impressed me the most this season. Gabin has taken Cameron Das, a USF2000 rookie, under his wing and the 15 year-old  has definitely benefited from the tutelage of the more experienced Gabin.

It won’t just be Gabin that you will be helping out, you will also be helping out JAY Motorsports and team owner Jay Green. Based in Palmetto, Florida, Green has been part of the USF2000 series since 2012, and after a tough year in 2015 with a driver walking away mid-season, the long-time SCCA competitor doubled-down in 2016 and made a commitment to competing at the pointy end of the grid. Bringing Gabin on board along with hiring experienced and successful engineer Daryl Bear was a big commitment for the family oriented team, but they’ve proven they belong at the top end of the grid, with three podiums, and six top fives. JAY Motorsports currently sits an impressive fourth in the USF2000 team points.