Photo: Gavin Baker Photography
USF2000 debutant Liam McNeilly picked up pole for the second race of the weekend on the streets of Toronto.
They Jay Howard Driver Development driver ended a drastically shortened session on top by 0.1772 seconds, with 0.8872s covering the top 14.
Exclusive Autosport’s Joey Brienza set the pace at first, a 1m17.7857s putting him ahead of JHDD’s Evagoras Papasavvas and Michael Costello.
DEForce Racing’s Nicolas Giaffone then lowered the pace to 1m15.4865s, with Exclusive’s Evan Cooley and Pabst Racing’s Max Garcia also setting sub-1m16s laps.
Drivers were still far from the ceiling of performance, and on Garcia’s third lap he went fastest with a 1m14.934s. Brienza set a 1m15.1056s to sit in second, with Pabst’s Sam Corry in third and Cooley improving to 1m15.137s in fourth.
Garcia went even quicker on his fourth lap, posting a 1m13.8951s. Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Development’s Elliot Cox jumped up to second, ahead of Papasavvas, Giaffone and Velocity Racing Development’s Thomas Schrage.
The improvements kept on coming, and Papasavvas set a new 1m13.3367s benchmark on his sixth lap to lead Garcia by a tiny 0.0074s. Corry was 0.16s behind in third, with McNeilly showing a first glimmer of pace by rising to fourth.
McNeilly then showed his true pace on his seventh lap, a 1m13.1595s propelling him to top spot. None of his closest rivals could improve, although DEForce’s Quinn Armstrong set a 1m13.5188s to go fifth fastest on his next tour.
With just over eight minutes to go of the 20-minute session there were red flags waving, and Jace Bacon appeared to be the cause as the JHDD driver did not return to the pits.
The clock continued to count down while the track was closed to the drivers, and green flags finally waved again in the final minute.
Everyone headed back out, but it was a waste of time for all but a handful of drivers. VRD’s Max Taylor, Cox and JHDD’s G3 Argyros were able to improve to seventh, eighth and ninth, and McNeilly secured pole since nobody was able to beat his fastest lap.
Qualifying results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liam McNeilly | JHDD | 1m13.1595s | 10 | |
| 2 | Evagoras Papasavvas | JHDD | 1m13.3367s | +0.1772s | 10 |
| 3 | Max Garcia | Pabst Racing | 1m13.3441s | +0.1846s | 9 |
| 4 | Sam Corry | Pabst Racing | 1m13.4907s | +0.3312s | 9 |
| 5 | Quinn Armstrong | DEForce Racing | 1m13.5188s | +0.3593s | 10 |
| 6 | Evan Cooley | Exclusive Autosport | 1m13.5926s | +0.4331s | 10 |
| 7 | Max Taylor | VRD | 1m13.5961s | +0.4366s | 9 |
| 8 | Elliot Cox | SFHRD | 1m13.7434s | +0.5839s | 8 |
| 9 | G3 Argyros | JHDD | 1m13.7696s | +0.6101s | 10 |
| 10 | Hudson Schwartz | Pabst Racing | 1m13.8676s | +0.7081s | 10 |
| 11 | Joey Brienza | Exclusive Autosport | 1m13.9045s | +0.7450s | 9 |
| 12 | Thomas Schrage | VRD | 1m13.9250s | +0.7655s | 9 |
| 13 | Nicolas Giaffone | DEForce Racing | 1m13.9779s | +0.8184s | 9 |
| 14 | Michael Costello | JHDD | 1m14.0467s | +0.8872s | 9 |
| 15 | Eddie Beswick | Exclusive Autosport | 1m14.3205s | +1.1610s | 9 |
| 16 | Jace Bacon | JHDD | 1m14.5344s | +1.3749 | 8 |
| 17 | Carson Etter | DC Autosport | 1m14.7624s | +1.6029s | 9 |
| 18 | Brady Golan | DEForce Racing | 1m14.7948s | +1.6353s | 9 |
| 19 | Maxwell Jamieson | DEForce Racing | 1m14.8084s | +1.6489s | 10 |
| 18 | Lucas Fecury | DEForce Racing | 1m15.2356s | +2.0761s | 8 |