Photo: Gavin Baker Photography
Exclusive Autosport’s Jack Jeffers has provisionally claimed pole for both USF2000 race at Road America.
Pre-event testing was on Thursday, and Exclusive’s Lucas Fecury was the early pacesetter in session one with a 2m09.1589s. Jeffers was his closest rival, getting within 0.1005 seconds of him before Jay Howard Driver Development’s Anthony Martella demoted him with a 2m09.2037s set 38 minutes into the 55-minute session.
Exclusive’s Evan Cooley dropped to fourth despite improving to 2m09.336s, then with 12 minutes to go Fecury lowered the pace to 2m08.5759s to sit 0.3468s ahead of JHDD’s Harley Keeble.
Two laps later, Jeffers responded with a 2m08.3616s to end up on top. Cooley improved to be within 0.2291s of him in third, ahead of Keeble and DEForce Racing’s Jeshua Alianell. A second covered the top seven.
Benchmark Autosport’s Ayrton Houk and Synergy Motorsport’s Eddie Beswick were the only drivers on track early in session two, with a third driver joining half an hour in.
A few minutes later there were 11 with laptimes next to their name, and Houk had a gap of a second at the top.
The picture had changed with 15 minutes to go, as Alianell set a 2m11.2198s to go 0.1403s ahead of Velocity Racing Development’s Teddy Musella and 0.3923s clear of DEForce’s Sebastian Garzon. Houk was 1.8591s off the pace in eighth, and Exclusive’s drivers were still in the pits.
Musella lowered the pace to 2m09.4271s, leading Beswick by 1.3559s as Houk jumped back up to third, then he improved again to 2m08.9119s on his fifth lap. VRD’s Thomas Schrage went second fastest, 0.1173s behind, and Jeffers and Cooley went third and fourth with their first flying laps.
Two laps later, Schrage posted a 2m08.3149s to go fastest overall and Musella set a personal best to sit 0.2306s behind. Pabst Racing’s G3 Argyros snuck into third before red flags waved with five minutes remaining and the order was locked in. Houk ended up 18th.
In practice on Friday, a lengthy red flag stoppage caused by JHDD’s debutant JT Hoskins crashing meant no driver was able to set more than four laps and the order was primarily set when drivers crossed the line for the last time.
Fecury’s 2m08.3395s put him 0.0397s ahead of Jeffers, with Schrage and Musella split by 0.0112s and within 0.13s of Fecury. Cooley was fifth, 0.2072s back, and the debuting Keeble was sixth.
Qualifying was also disrupted by a red flag. Musella set the early pace ahead of Cooley and Caleb Gafrarar, while Jeffers sat fourth. Before Jeffers could improve the session was stopped as DEForce’s debuting Thomas Nordquist. Nordquist spun and made contact with the barriers, damaging the right side of his car.
After the red flag, Jeffers jumped up to first place. He had a 0.327s gap to Cooley, who also beat Musella’s benchmark.
Musella remained third, and his second-best lap was enough for second on the grid for race two (unless somebody sets a faster lap in race one).
A late improvement from Fecury put him fourth ahead of Schrage and Gafrarar. Gafrarar was also caught up in the practice incident, picking up damage from debris that meant he could not complete a laptime. Martella was seventh quickest, and Hoskins was absent.
Reporting by Ida Wood and Bethonie Waring
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Jack Jeffers Exclusive Autosport 2m08.0533s
2 Evan Cooley Exclusive Autosport +0.0347s
3 Teddy Musella Velocity Racing Development +0.1226s
4 Lucas Fecury Exclusive Autosport +0.2150s
5 Thomas Schrage Velocity Racing Development +0.2225s
6 Caleb Gafrarar Pabst Racing +0.5534s
7 Anthony Martella JHDD +0.6163s
8 Ayrton Houk Benchmark Autosport +0.6514s
9 G3 Argyros Pabst Racing +0.7040s
10 Brenden Cooley Exclusive Autosport +0.7512s
Race 2 grid (provisional)
1 Jeffers 2m08.1129s
2 Musella +0.1994s
3 E Cooley +0.4707s
4 Gafrarar +0.5021s
5 Harley Keeble JHDD +0.7588s
6 Fecury +0.7598s
7 Christian Cameron Velocity Racing Development +0.8838s
8 Jeshua Alianell DEForce Racing +0.8859s
9 Martella +0.8869s
10 Argyros +0.9146s