Photo: Gavin Baker Photography
Turn 3 Motorsport’s Lochie Hughes swept to pole for the opening race of the USF Pro 2000 season on the streets of St. Petersburg.
Hughes sat on top of the times for most of qualifying, with his fifth lap of the session – a 1m10.5228s – putting him on top. Initially he had a big gap at the top, and going into the final 10 minutes he was 0.3209 seconds clear of team-mate Danny Dyszelski in second place and 0.3428s ahead of TJ Speed’s Liam Sceats in third.
Most drivers had gone several laps without improving, the exception being Jay Howard Driver Development’s Frankie Mossman who went eighth fastest with seven minutes to go.
He lost that position to Turn 3’s Adam Fitzgerald two minutes later, then with 200s left on the clock there was another change in the top 10 as Turn 3’s Tyke Durst jumped from 16th to seventh.
Drivers were racking up the laps but not improving, then with three minutes to go Velocity Racing Development’s Nikita Johnson climbed from 15th to second with a 1m10.7816s lap. He was shuffled down to third 10s later as Pabst Racing’s Jace Denmark went 0.0076s faster than him but still 0.2512s slower than Hughes’ long-standing benchmark.
Durst made another improvement to sixth with two minutes remaining, as Dyszelski returned to second place. Hughes still held provisional pole by 0.2228s as he too improved, setting a 1m10.4292s.
A lap later he went faster still with a 1m10.1675s laptimes, and Pabst’s Christian Brooks became his closest rival as he set a 1m10.6227s.
The fight for pole heated up even more in the last minute, as TJ Speed’s Liam Sceats went second fastest with a 1m10.5260s, Johnson set a 1m10.5687s in third and Denmark improved to 1m10.6229s in fifth. But Hughes had even more pace in hand, setting a 1m10.1613s that could not be beaten.
Two successive improvements at the very end brought Dyszelski back onto the front row alongside his team-mate, and Brooks also improved after the chequered flag to take fourth from Johnson.
Qualifying results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lochie Hughes | Turn 3 Motorsport | 1m10.1613s | 15 | |
| 2 | Danny Dyszelski | Turn 3 Motorsport | 1m10.4792s | +0.3179s | 15 |
| 3 | Liam Sceats | TJ Speed | 1m10.5260s | +0.3647s | 13 |
| 4 | Christian Brooks | Pabst Racing | 1m10.5518s | +0.3905s | 15 |
| 5 | Nikita Johnson | VRD | 1m10.5687s | +0.4074s | 14 |
| 6 | Jace Denmark | Pabst Racing | 1m10.6229s | +0.4616s | 15 |
| 7 | Simon Sikes | Pabst Racing | 1m10.6468s | +0.4855s | 15 |
| 8 | Ricardo Escotto | BN Racing | 1m10.6472s | +0.4859s | 14 |
| 9 | Frankie Mossman | JHDD | 1m10.6944s | +0.5331s | 15 |
| 10 | Braden Eves | Exclusive Autosport | 1m10.7003s | +0.5390s | 14 |
| 11 | Mac Clark | DEForce Racing | 1m10.7700s | +0.6087s | 14 |
| 12 | Ethan Ho | Turn 3 Motorsport | 1m10.8084s | +0.6471s | 14 |
| 13 | David Morales | TJ Speed | 1m10.8340s | +0.6727s | 13 |
| 14 | Tyke Durst | Turn 3 Motorsport | 1m10.8823s | +0.7210s | 14 |
| 15 | Hunter Yeany | TJ Speed | 1m10.8910s | +0.7297s | 14 |
| 16 | Nicolas Baptiste | BN Racing | 1m10.9319s | +0.7706s | 14 |
| 17 | Adam Fitzgerald | Turn 3 Motorsport | 1m11.1365s | +0.9752s | 14 |
| 18 | Shawn Rashid | VRD | 1m11.3880s | +1.2267s | 14 |
| 19 | Nicholas Monteiro | DEForce Racing | 1m11.5523s | +1.3910s | 14 |
| 20 | Jorge Garciarce | DEForce Racing | 1m11.6644s | +1.5031s | 14 |
| 21 | Logan Adams | Comet/NCMP Racing | 1m11.6743s | +1.5130s | 13 |
| 22 | Avery Towns | Exclusive Autosport | 1m11.8499s | +1.6886s | 14 |