Max Garcia pips Alessandro de Tullio by just 0.0015s in USF Pro 2000

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography

USF Pro 2000 points leader Max Garcia led the way in the championship’s in-season test at Mid-Ohio.

Wet weather on Tuesday caused delays to the schedule and also limited the amount of laps that were completed.

In session one, only nine drivers headed out and Turn 3 Motorsport’s Brady Golan was fastest with a 1m36.8452s lap. Max Taylor (Velocity Racing Development) and Alessandro de Tullio (Turn 3) were 0.145 and 0.1915 seconds behind respectively, and also within a second of the pace were Jorge Garciarce (DEForce Racing) and GB3 race-winner Nick Gilkes (Jay Howard Driver Development) who made a winning appearace at Mid-Ohio last month in the lower level F2000 Championship Series.

Comet/NCMP Racing’s Logan Adams was slowest, completing only two laps and going 11.159s slower than Golan.

A representative pace was reached in session two, with de Tullio moving to the top by setting a 1m18.7146s. Garcia (Pabst Racing) was second fastest, 0.3048s off the new benchmark, and Taylor was 0.4578s behind in third as a second split the top seven. There were five more drivers on track, and 3.1391s covered the whole field.

Session three was a shorter and slower affair, with only five cars on track. Gilkes set a 1m36.254s on his second lap that went unbeaten, although Ariel Elkin (TJ Speed) got within 0.0347s of him. There was a 2.2176s gap to Golan in third, and his chance of getting closer ended when red flags ended the session five minutes early.

Wednesday began with another slow session but the track was busy, and Michael Costello (Pabst) set a 1m22.3984s to beat de Tullio to top spot by 0.1724s. Garcia trailed by 0.5504s in third and Elkin was absent.

Dry conditions enabled more representative laptimes to be set in session five, and de Tullio lowered the pace to 1m17.7275s with his final lap. Mac Clark (Exclusive Autosport) had been in first place prior to that by a slim 0.0725s over Elkin, and was denied top spot by 0.0127s. Taylor completed a top four covered by 0.3571s, and one second encompassed the top nine.

Session six was even faster but repeatedly disrupted by red flag periods. De Tullio was sitting in the pits as the quickest driver with 21 minutes to go, having set a 1m17.9068s, and had a 0.1032s gap to Garcia. Clark slashed it to 0.0032s, as Garcia improved to be 0.0081s behind. Two laps later he posted a 1m17.726s that became the test’s new benchmark by 0.0015s.

Red flags waved moments later, and after the restart nobody improved before more red flags ended testing five minutes early.

Test results