D’Orlando pips Johnson to Portland pole in USF Pro 2000

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography

Turn 3 Motorsport’s Michael d’Orlando pipped Velocity Racing Development’s Nikita Johnson to pole in USF Pro 2000 qualifying at Portland.

Everyone had set one laptime at the start of the session before red flags waved as Pabst Racing’s Jordan Missing lost control going into turn 10 then spun several times on the grass before going rear-first into the tyre barriers.

Although his car had to be retrieved from there, he was then able to drive it back to the pits. However he did not rejoin the session when it restarted with just under 17 minutes left on the clock.

DEForce Racing’s Kiko Porto had laid down a 1m10.6602s benchmark prior to the stoppage, but he fell far down the order when the first improvements came in following the restart.

Pabst’s Jace Denmark went to the top briefly with a 1m10.3843s, but was shuffled down to fourth behind d’Orlando, his team-mate Jonathan Browne and TJ Speed’s Francesco Pizzi.

D’Orlando improved again to keep himself on top, a 1m09.1009s putting him half a second clear of Browne until Porto cut the gap to 0.1015 seconds and his team-mate Bijoy Garg got into third with a 1m09.4591s.

The next change in the top four was with 11-and-a-half minutes to go, as Garg assumed top spot with a 1m09.0653s and Johnson set a 1m09.3488s to get into fourth.

He was shuffled down to fifth by two improvements from Rowe, who could not quite threaten the top three who were covered by just 0.0301s.

Johnson made it into second place with five-and-a-half minutes left on the clock by lapping within 0.0253s of Garg’s pace, then on the next laps the order changed as the top four impoved.

D’Orlndo set a 1m08.7101s to go top, Johnson was just 0.0233s slower, Garg was 0.1870s off the new benchmark and Rowe improved to sit 0.2753s behind in fourth.

Porto briefly snatched fourth from Rowe before he responded with an improvement of just 0.0352s, but then with a minute remaining Porto found even more pace and got into third with a 1m08.8931s.

D’Orlando improved then pitted, which was a brave decision as Rowe set a personal best with 20s to go, but remained 0.2915s off the top, and after the chequered flag Johnson – who is also racing in USF2000 this weekend – set a 1m08.726s to get within 0.0716s of pole.

An impressive seventh in his maiden USFP2000 qualifying session was Turn 3’s Danny Dyszelski, who was only 0.4149s slower than d’Orlando.

Qualifying results