Exclusive Autosport’s Jack Jeffers claims pole for USF Pro 2000 opener

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography

Exclusive Autosport’s Jack Jeffers claimed pole position in the first USF Pro 2000 qualifying of 2026 on the streets of Arlington.

Jeffers set a laptime 0.421 seconds quicker than anyone else, with Turn 3 Motorsport’s Leonardo Escorpioni claiming second after a late mistake.

He went down the escape road at the difficult turn four with two minutes to go of qualifying, and was still manoeuvring to get back onto the track when TJ Speed’s Leandro Juncos ran into trouble at turn eight and red flags waved.

Juncos’s error brought was deemed the cause of the session-ending stoppage by race control, meaning Escorpioni did not lose his fastest lap. 

Escorpioni had spent the first half of qualifying trading top spot with Jay Howard Driver Development by Ed Carpenter Racing’s Andres Cardenas. Jeffers than jumped to provisional pole with a lap more than three tenths of a second quicker than reigning USF Juniors champion Escorpioni’s.

He continued to improve and was comfortably ahead when qualifying was stopped for the first time. The track turned green again with enough time for one flying lap. Jeffers set another personal best, a 1m47.1552s. 

Escorpioni held onto second, ahead of team-mate Michael Costello and Andres Cardenas who also improved on his final tour.

Pabst Racing’s Jacob Douglas qualified fifth, and Velocity Racing Development’s Teddy Musella and Frankie Mossman occupied the next spots. Completing the top 10 were Thomas Schrage (TJ Speed), G3 Argyros (Pabst) and Christian Cameron (TJ Speed).

Drivers’ second-best laptimes from qualifying will set the grid for the second race of the weekend, and the season. Jeffers and Escorpionio will provisionally start first and second again, while Cardenas beat Musella to third.

Qualifying results