Photo: Gavin Baker Photography
Alessandro de Tullio beat Max Garcia to the best time in qualifying as they split the first pole positions of the USF Pro 2000 season in St. Petersburg.
Reigning USF2000 champion Garcia had set the pace for Pabst Racing in Friday morning’s practice session with his final lap, a 1m09.7798s. That was 0.1166s ahead of Elliot Cox of Turn 3 Motorsport, with Garcia’s team-mate Jacob Douglas in third and Mac Clark fourth for Exclusive Autosport.
Garcia was soon below the 1m10s mark in qualifying too, working down to a time of 1m09.0455s with 12 minutes remaining that looked like it would remain unbeaten. With three minutes to go, he was the one lapping closest to his own benchmark, posting a new second-best time of 1m09.0575s.
Just seconds later though, Turn 3 Motorsport’s de Tullio went quickest by 0.0083 seconds and the Miami native would be confirmed on pole position once his team-mate Cox crashed in Turn 4 to cause a red flag and an early end to the session with just two seconds left on the clock. Cox had just gone third fastest on his previous lap, 0.896s off de Tullio’s time.
Garcia’s second-best time remained a tenth faster than that of de Tullio, putting him on pole for race two.
Douglas was fourth fastest ahead of fellow New Zealander Sebastian Manson, who moved up into the top five in the closing stages, in front of Clark.
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Alessandro de Tullio Turn 3 Motorsport 1m09.0372s
2 Max Garcia Pabst Racing +0.0083s
3 Elliot Cox Turn 3 Motorsport +0.0896s
4 Jacob Douglas Pabst Racing +0.3094s
5 Sebastian Manson TJ Speed Motorsports +0.4186s
6 Mac Clark Exclusive Autosports +0.4611s
7 Ariel Elkin TJ Speed Motorsports +0.4717s
8 Cooper Becklin Turn 3 Motorsport +0.6055s
9 Michael Costello Turn 3 Motorsport +0.6249s
10 Jace Denmark TJ Speed Motorsport +0.6534s
Race 2 grid
1 Garcia 1m09.0575s
2 de Tullio +0.0941s
3 Cox +0.2772s
4 Douglas +0.3291s
5 Clark +0.4850s
6 Elkin +0.4980s
7 Costello +0.6084s
8 Manson +0.6570s
9 Denmark +0.6642s
10 Max Taylor VRD Racing +0.6827s