Eves sets test pace ahead of USF Pro 2000’s sole oval race of season

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography

Exclusive Autosport’s Braden Eves was fastest in pre-event testing for USF Pro 2000’s sole oval race of the season, the Freedom 90.

The test was split into two 45-minute sessions on Wednesday and two on Thursday at Indianapolis Raceway Park.

Turn 3 Motorsport’s Danny Dyszelski topped session one, setting a 20.1928s on the 47th of his 78 laps to lead the way by 0.023 seconds over TJ Speed’s Bryce Aron who is stepping down from Indy Nxt this weekend to make his oval racing debut.

Velocity Racing Development’s points leader Nikita Johnson was third, 0.0604s behind, with TJ Speed’s Francesco Pizzi and Turn 3’s Lochie Hughes completing a top five covered by 0.1886s. In the 19-car field, only two drivers were more than 0.76s slower than Dyszelski.

Johnson lowered the pace to 19.752s in session two, with Turn 3’s Ethan Ho, Pizzi and Hughes also breaking the 20s barrier. There was a 0.034s gap between the top two, Pizzi was also within 0.1s of Johnson and again the only two drivers not at a competitive pace were FatBoy Racing!’s Charles Finelli and Jay Howard Driver Devlopment’s Frankie Mossman.

Pabst Racing’s Christian Brooks was the sole non-improver, and team-mate Jace Denmark skipped the session.

Ho set a 19.8066s to top session three by 0.0135s over Eves. Johnson and Hughes were just 0.0164s and 0.0458s behind. Eight drivers failed to set personal bests, including Ho and Johnson.

The fastest laps came in session four (except for BN Racing’s Ricardo Escotto, Pizzi, Ho and absent team-mate Tyke Durst), with Eves posting a 19.6207s laptime. Dyszelski and Johnson were 0.0553s and 0.0572s off the top in second and third, Clark was 0.1583s behind in fourth and 0.976s covered the whole field.

USF2000 was also testing at IRP to prepare for its sole oval race, the Freedom 75, with a similar session schedule.

Less than 0.1s split the top five in session one, and VRD’s Xavier Kokai led three Pabst drivers. He set a 21.7448s to be fastest by 0.0058s over Max Garcia, with a 0.0187s gap to Sam Corry and 0.0272s to Hudson Schwartz.

Kokai improved to 21.3623s in session two, and DC Autosport’s Ayrton Houk – 13th in session one – was 0.0838s behind in second. VRD’s Max Taylor was third, and along with Corry and Garcia was within 0.19s of Kokai. Everyone on track set personal bests, while Schwartz and DEForce’s Maxwell Jamieson were absent.

Corry came to the fore in session three, setting a 21.2817s. He had a 0.0541s gap to Houk, 0.0586s to Taylor and 0.0611s to Garcia. JHDD’s Michael Costello was fifth, with Kokai down in ninth. He and the DEForce quartet of Quinn Armstrong, Lucas Fecury, Brady Golan and Jamieson all failed to improve.

Laptimes were even faster in session four, and DEForce’s Nicolas Giaffone jumped up from ninth place to end testing on top with a 21.1567s. Houk improved slightly in second, Armstrong was third and JHDD’s Evagoras Papasavvas was fourth in the session.

Kokai was absent due to a crash, while Corry, Taylor, Garcia, Costello, Schwartz, Exclusive’s Joey Brienza and Golan all failed to find more pace. The gap between first and last in the test’s overall classification was 0.6850s.

Test results