Eves goes fastest in USF Pro 2000’s Freedom 90 practice with final lap

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography

Braden Eves continued his assertion over first place in USF Pro 2000’s track action at Indianapolis Raceway Park as he topped free practice on Friday.

The Exclusive Autosport driver was fastest in pre-event testing on Thursday, then took pole for the Freedom 90 – USFP2000’s only oval race – in qualifying later in the day.

In the 15-minute practice session it was Turn 3 Motorsport’s Danny Dyszelski who was quickest at first, setting a 19.985s on his second lap. It was a time that he would be unable to improve on and kept him on top until Eves set a 19.946s with five minutes-and-20 seconds to go.

Eves had been near the top throughout, sitting in third place after two minutes, dropping to fifth but then going second fastest and 0.052 seconds off Dyzelski’s benchmark just over six minutes in with his 12th lap.

He improved again two laps later, trimming the gap to 0.034s, then again on his 18th lap with five-and-a-half minutes remaining. That reduced Dyszelski’s advantage to 0.022s, and on his next lap (which was also his last) he beat him by 0.039s.

Turn 3’s Ethan Ho was initially in second, then DEForce Racing’s Mac Clark took ove the position three minutes in with his third lap. Like Dyszelski he was then unable to improve, but his 20.051s laptime was still good enough for third.

Ho was 0.191s behind in fourth, having also not improved after his third lap, Velocity Racing Development’s points leader Nikita Johnson was fifth and Jay Howard Driver Development’s Frankie Mossman was able to improve several times as he clocked up 36 laps (more than anyone else) and rose from 15th to 11th halfway through practice then went seventh fastest on his next lap and sixth fastest on his 22nd.

Just 0.673s covered the top 17, with FatBoy Racing!’s Charles Finelli and Turn 3’s Tyke Durst (who missed qualifying) the only drivers more than a second off the pace.

In USF2000 it was a similar story in practice with seven drivers not improving after their fifth lap.

DEForce’s Nicolas Giaffone – who has already secured pole for today’s Freedom 75 race – went fastest one-and-a-half minutes in on his third lap, improved two laps later and stayed on top all the way to the chequered flag.

He had knocked JHDD’s Michael Costello off top spot, and there was just 0.09s between them. Costello’s pace peaked on his fourth lap, earlier than all of his team-mates. Among those was Tanner DeFabis, who went third fastest with his 10th lap.

Free practice results