Photo: Gavin Baker Photography
Joey Brienza and Max Garcia each took a pole position in USF2000’s two qualifying sessions at NOLA Motorsports Park.
Hudson Schwartz was fastest early on Q1 with a 1m36.0305s, leading Sam Corry by just 0.0059 seconds.
Garcia then went to the top with a 1m35.8435s, and a minute-and-a-half later Schwartz returned to first place by posting a 1m35.5898s. That put him 0.086s ahead of Garcia, who had also improved, with Corry in third place with a 1m35.8102s.
Brienza made it into the top three with nine-and-a-half minutes to go, and a lap later laid down a new 1m35.3141s benchmark while Corry improved to 1m35.7915 in fourth.
He rose to second place with six minutes remaining, getting within 0.1532s of the provisional pole pace but then improving no further.
That did not matter, as the session was ended early by Nico Christodoulou landing his car in the gravel at turn seven. Christodoulou had dropped from fifth to seventh just before that as Evagoras Papasavvas and Nicolas Giaffone jumped up to third and fourth, and it secured Brienza pole.
Garcia had found more pace in third place but ended Q1 in fifth, just ahead of Schwartz.
Q2 started with Garcia and Corry in the top two positions, and the former held first place all the way to the end. He improved his pace by less than a second during that time, and Christodoulou ended up as his closest rival after setting a 1m35.6265s with a minute to go. He was still 0.2561s slower than Garcia, whose unbeatable 1m35.3704s benchmark was set with six minutes left of qualifying.
Schwartz and Papasavvas were demoted to third and fourth by Christodoulou, having both briefly occupied second before that, and Max Taylor – who is doubling up in USF Juniors this weekend – was fifth after also spending time in second place.
Corry qualified sixth, and Brienza’s strategy of leaving it late to leave the pits backfired as he could do no better than seventh place despite not taking long to get into the fight for pole once he did get on track.
Qualifying round-up
Q1 results
1 Joey Brienza Exclusive Autosport 1m35.3141s
2 Sam Corry Pabst Racing +0.1532s
3 Evagoras Papasavvas JHDD +0.1672s
4 Nicolas Giaffone DEForce Racing +0.2348s
5 Max Garcia Pabst Racing +0.2609s
6 Hudson Schwartz Pabst Racing +0.2757s
7 Nico Christodoulou VRD +0.5077s
8 Thomas Schrage Exclusive Autosport +0.5530s
9 Elliot Cox SFHRD +0.6167s
10 Max Taylor VRD +0.7213s
Q2 results
1 Garcia 1m35.3704s
2 Christodoulou +0.2561s
3 Schwartz +0.2674s
4 Papasavvas +0.3856s
5 Taylor +0.3936s
6 Corry +0.4347s
7 Brienza +0.4690s
8 Cox +0.5351s
9 Giaffone +0.5880s
10 Schrage +0.6349s