Mac Clark takes pole for his USF Pro 2000 debut at COTA

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography

Mac Clark has been the star of the weekend so far in USF Pro 2000’s trip to Circuit of the Americas, and the debutant now already has a series pole.

The Canadian was second fastest in pre-event testing behind DEForce Racing team-mate Kiko Porto, then beat him to top spot in free practice. The same thing happened in qualifying, with 0.164 seconds splitting the pair.

Turn 3 Motorsport’s Michael d’Orlando was quickest at first, until Clark crossed the line for the first time and set a 2m03.357s. D’Orlando was quickly shuffled down to fifth, with Porto setting a 2m03.510s, Pabst Racing’s Myles Rowe putting himself in third with a 2m04.225s and Velocity Racing Development’s debuting Nikita Johnson going fourth fastest.

Clark improved on his next lap to 2m03.196s, with Rowe also getting faster but staying in third place.

Drivers then struggled to improve until with just under six minutes remaining of qualifying d’Orlando rose to third with a 2m03.845s. That was shortlived, as TJ Speed’s then set a 2m03.621s.

D’Orlando was shuffled back down to fifth when Exclusive Autosport’s Salvador de Alba went fourth fastest with a 2m03.713s set with just over three-and-a-half minutes to go, then down to sixth when Johnson got within 0.015s of Clark with an improvement in the final two minutes.

Porto also improved, twice, to return to second place as Clark lowered the pace to 2m02.827s. Another improvement from Porto kept him within touching distance, while Johnson held his third place with a 2m03.211s.

Rowe and d’Orlando were down to seventh and eighth before the final laps, and after the chequered flag Rowe did improve to qualify fourth while d’Orlando could not find more pace and remained in eighth.

Qualifying results