d’Orlando fastest at Road America to get USF Pro 2000 race one pole

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography

Turn 3 Motorsport’s Michael d’Orlando did just enough to earn pole for the first USF Pro 2000 race at Road America.

He set the pace in the series’ first qualifying session of the weekend by 0.0056 seconds, going fastest with five minutes to go.

TJ Speed’s Christian Weir was the driver to beat at first, with DEForce Racing’s Kiko Porto in second place.

Eventually Weir was bettered by the slimmest of margins, with Bijoy Garg and Jace Denmark knocking him to third but with Weir only 0.011s off the new pace.

The track got faster through the session, and with five minutes to go d’Orlando led the way with a 2m01.7851s lap. Weir was just 0.0056s slower, while Garg was third with a 2m02.340s.

Pabst Racing’s Myles Rowe rose to third with three minutes left of qualifying, a tenth of a second faster than Garg who was also demoted by Turn 3’s debuting Louka St.-Jean stepping up from USF2000.

The session was stopped with just over two minutes remaining after Denmark crashed. By the time he had got going again the red flags were already out, so he joined the rest of the field in the pits waiting for a restart.

Jay Howard Driver Development’s Reece Ushijima had got himself into third place before the red flags appeared, and stayed there to the chequered flag as very few – who got to set a lap after the restart – were able to improve.

Bjoy Garg qualified sixth with his final lap, half a second off the laptime that earned d’Orlando pole.

Turn 3’s Jonathan Browne, who had set the pace in practice by 0.2494s with a 2m01.4481s could only qualify ninth.

Qualifying results