Home News Cape’s d’Orlando fastest in USF2000’s second New Jersey qualifying

Cape’s d’Orlando fastest in USF2000’s second New Jersey qualifying

by Ida Wood

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography / Road to Indy

Cape Motorsports’ Michael d’Orlando took pole for the second USF2000 race at New Jersey Motorsports Park by a tiny margin.

While it was a closely-contested qualifying session on Sunday, there was actually very few improvements by drivers in the session with limited space for flying laps on a busy track.

Pabst Racing’s Yuven Sundaramoorthy initially set the pace with a 1m17.4918s lap, but he then couldn’t go faster than that and was shuffled down the order.

His team-mate Josh Pierson was the first to push him from the top, and DEForce Racing duo Kiko Porto and Nolan Siegel quickly demoted him too.

The positions at the top went unchanged until with seven minutes to go Jace Denmark found clear air on a fresh set of tyres and leapt up to third for Pabst.

A minute later Porto took provisional pole, with Pierson improving but not reclaiming top spot. Siegel then lowered the benchmark with five minutes to go by a hundredth of a second, and he looked set for pole when d’Orlando – the next frontrunner with clear air – could only go fifth fastest with his improvement.

However d’Orlando then set a second consecutive flying lap and that took him to pole by 0.0941s over Siegel.

Porto and Pierson will start on the second row, while Turn 3 Motorsport’s Josh Green rose up to fifth place at the very end. Denmark qualified sixth ahead of DEForce’s Prescott Campbell, while Sundaramoorthy ended up half a second off the pace in eighth.

Qualifying results
Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps
1 Michael d’Orlando Cape Motorsports 1m16.9750s 13
2 Nolan Siegel DEForce Racing 1m17.0692s +0.0941s 10
3 Kiko Porto DEForce Racing 1m17.0890s +0.1140s 9
4 Josh Pierson Pabst Racing 1m17.2474s +0.2724s 11
5 Josh Green Turn 3 Motorsport 1m17.2742s +0.2992s 9
6 Jace Denmark Pabst Racing 1m17.3023s +0.3273s 10
7 Prescott Campbell DEForce Racing 1m17.3602s +0.3852s 11
8 Yuven Sundaramoorthy Pabst Racing 1m17.4918s +0.5168s 9
9 Christian Weir Turn 3 Motorsport 1m17.5297s +0.5547s 11
10 Myles Rowe Force Indy 1m17.5569s +0.5819s 10
11 Spike Kohlbecker Cape w/ Ignite Autosports 1m17.5800s +0.6050s 10
12 Christian Brooks Exclusive Autosport 1m17.5917s +0.6167s 10
13 Billy Frazer Exclusive Autosport 1m17.6375s +0.6625s 12
14 Ely Navarro DEForce Racing 1m17.6914s +0.7164s 11
15 Dylan Christie Turn 3 Motorsport 1m17.7260s +0.7510s 11
16 Thomas Nepveu Cape Motorsports 1m17.8602s +0.8852s 8
17 Bijoy Garg Jay Howard Driver Development 1m18.1226s +1.1476s 12
18 Michael Myers Michael Myers Racing 1m18.1993s +1.2243s 12
19 Trey Burke Joe Dooling Autosports 1m18.4615s +1.4865s 12
20 Evan Stamer Cape w/ Ignite Autosports 1m18.5179s +1.5429s 10
21 Peter Vodanovich Jay Howard Driver Development 1m18.6081s +1.6331s 12
22 Kent Vaccaro Miller Vinatieri Motorsports 1m19.0656s +2.0906s 13
23 Nathan Byrd Legacy Autosport 1m20.1329s +3.1579s 12