Photo: Gavin Baker Photography
USF2000 newcomers Caleb Gafrarar and Liam McNeilly scored a pole position each for the season-opening round on the streets of St. Petersburg.
On his debut in the series, Pabst Racing’s Gafrarar set the early pace during practice as rookies led the way. Jack Jeffers ended up fastest by 0.2239 seconds ahead of his Exclusive Autosport team-mate Evan Cooley, with Sebastian Garzon third for DeForce Racing. Thomas Schrage was the best returning driver in fourth in front of Gafrarar.
Any hopes Schrage had of a strong start to the season took a hit early in qualifying when he crashed in Turn 10 without a competitive time to his name.
Garzon, last year’s Lucas Oil Formula Car Race Series champion, appeared on for a double pole position until Gafrarar went quickest with four minutes to go.
McNeilly would briefly go faster before Gafrarar – a graduate of the Skip Barber Formula Race Series and Britain’s United Formula Ford championship – went quicker still, posting a 1m12.1698s with around a minute to go.
Jay Howard Driver Development’s McNeilly, who stepped up from USF Juniors to USF2000 at the end of last year, fell just shy of improving his time at the chequered flag but did do enough to set the quickest second-best time to claim pole for race two ahead of Gafrarar.
Jeshua Alianell, who finished no higher than eighth in USF Juniors last year, grabbed third with his last lap of the session for DEForce Racing, ahead of Jeffers. Garzon ended up sixth behind Brad Majman, while G3 Argyros was the fastest repeating driver in ninth.
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Caleb Gafrarar Pabst Racing 1m12.1698s
2 Liam McNeilly Jay Howard Driver Development +0.0566s
3 Jeshua Alianell DEForce Racing +0.0588s
4 Jack Jeffers Exclusive Autosport +0.0657s
5 Brad Majman Jay Howard Driver Development +0.1107s
6 Sebastian Garzon DEForce Racing +0.1191s
7 Teddy Musella VRD Racing +0.1981s
8 Evan Cooley Exclusive Autosport +0.2331s
9 G3 Argyros Pabst Racing +0.2615s
10 Brady Golan DEForce Racing +0.3713s
1 McNeilly`1m12.2319s
2 Garfrarar +0.0311s
3 Garzon +0.0911s
4 Jeffers +0.1200s
5 Alianell +0.1219s
6 Majman +0.2157s
7 Musella +0.2207s
8 Cooley +0.2592s
9 Argyros +0.3192s
10 Lucas Fecury Exclusive Autosport +0.4139s