Cardenas quickest in USF Pro 2000 post-season testing at Indianpolis

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography

Andres Cardenas was quickest for Jay Howard Driver Development in USF Pro 2000 post-season testing on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course last weekend.

There were three 35-minute sessions on Saturday and three on Sunday, and Exclusive Autosport’s USF2000 champion Jack Jeffers was fastest in the first. He set a 1m21.4442s on his penultimate to lead Pabst Racing’s even later improver G3 Argyros by 0.0272 seconds.

His team-mate Ivan Domingues was third, 0.1016s off, with Mac Clark (Exclusive) and Jacob Douglas (Pabst) also within 0.2s of the pace as a second covered the top 14.

Velocity Racing Development’s Frankie Mossman lowered the pace to 1m21.3462s in session two, leading Jeffers by 0.1168s, Cardenas by 0.1383s and Clark by 0.1519s. This time the top 17 was split by a second, and at JHDD there was a change as JT Hoskins sat out the session and Joao Balesteiro drove.

Day one ended with more improvements, as Eurocup-3 podium-finisher Cardenas moved to the top with a 1m21.1331s. His final lap put him 0.0334s and 0.0422s ahead of Argyros and Douglas, and Turn 3 Motorsport’s Michael Costello trailed by 0.1271s in fourth. Hoskins and Balesteiro swapped again.

The fastest laps of testing came on Sunday morning, with 13 of the 22 drivers present setting their personal bests in session four.

Cardenas posted a 1m20.7744s that would not be be beaten, with a 0.1322s gap at the top to Clark. Mossman was 0.1904s back in third, and Argyros pipped Costello to fourth by 0.0284s. There was only 0.0918s between eighth and 13th place, and at the top of that was group was Euroformula champion Tymek Kucharczyk who had replaced Tyke Durst in one of Turn 3’s cars. A second covered the top 15.

A 1m21.2463s was enough to put Jeffers in first place during session five, and eighth overall in the test, but it took a long time to beat the 1m21.3085s benchmark that Clark had set on just his third lap.

Comet/NCMP Racing’s Logan Adams, Cardenas and Mossman were within 0.2s of Jeffers, and JHDD was running all three of its drivers with Balesteiro the only driver more than a second off the pace.

Three drivers were able to find more pace in the final session, and the quickest of those was Domingues who went fourth fastest and ninth overall. Cardenas set another session-topping time, a 1m21.1009s, edging Douglas by 0.0748s. Argyros was third, 0.1942s off Cardenas and 0.0035s ahead of Domingues.

Test results