Photo: Gavin Baker Photography
Jay Howard Driver Development’s Liam McNeilly picked up his third USF2000 pole in qualifying for race one of the weekend at NOLA Motorsports Park.
He went straight to the top with his first lap of the session, with team-mate Brad Majman going second fastest.
Pabst Racing’s Caleb Gafrarar then become McNeilly’s closest opponent, and four-and-a-half minutes into the 20-minute session the pacesetter improved to 1m34.988s. Majman was quickly shuffled down to fifth, behind Exclusive Autosport’s Jack Jeffers, JHDD’s Anthony Martella and Pabst’s G3 Argyros.
Velocity Racing Development’s Thomas Schrage was in sixth, but on his next lap moved to the top with a 1m34.982s. His team-mates Teddy Musella and Christian Cameron moved into third and fifth, the former setting a 1m35.007s.
Jeffers shaved 0.116 seconds off Schrage’s benchmark six minutes in, and McNeilly soon beat Schrage too as Majman moved back up the order to fifth. Red flags then waved due to Benchmark Autosport’s Ayrton Houk crashing out, preventing further improvements.
Following the restart, the next bunch of personal bests were set as qualifying reached its halfway point. DEForce Racing’s Sebastian Garzon shot up the order to first place by setting a 1m34.791s, and he led Gafrarar, McNeilly, Jeffers and Schrage. Jeffers was the only one of those not to lower their pace.
Following Garzon, another driver from outside of the top 10 then moved into provisional pole as Exclusive’s Evan Cooley laid down a 1m34.717s. He occupied top spot for less than a minute, as the two quickest laps of the session were then posted by McNeilly and Majman.
A 1m34.178s earned McNeilly pole position by 0.173s, and Gafrarar was a further 0.234s behind.
Jeffers took third from him with seven minutes to, as Martella went seventh fastest, and with 90s left on the clock Musella demoted Martella to eighth before another crash at turn five brought out yellow flags and locked the order into place.
Qualifying results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liam McNeilly | JHDD | 1m34.1783s | 12 | |
| 2 | Brad Majman | JHDD | 1m34.3517s | +0.1734s | 13 |
| 3 | Jack Jeffers | Exclusive Autosport | 1m35.5382s | +0.3599s | 12 |
| 4 | Caleb Gafrarar | Pabst Racing | 1m34.5854s | +0.4071s | 13 |
| 5 | Evan Cooley | Exclusive Autosport | 1m34.7171s | +0.5388s | 11 |
| 6 | Sebastian Garzon | DEForce Racing | 1m34.7255s | +0.5472s | 7 |
| 7 | Teddy Musella | Velocity Racing Development | 1m34.7731s | +0.5948s | 9 |
| 8 | Anthony Martella | JHDD | 1m34.8792s | +0.7009s | 13 |
| 9 | G3 Argyros | Pabst Racing | 1m34.9391s | +0.7608s | 13 |
| 10 | Thomas Schrage | Velocity Racing Development | 1m34.9829s | +0.8046s | 8 |
| 11 | Lucas Fecury | Exclusive Autosport | 1m35.0013s | +0.8230s | 12 |
| 12 | Jeshua Alianell | DEForce Racing | 1m35.0659s | +0.8876s | 8 |
| 13 | Christian Cameron | Velocity Racing Development | 1m35.1343s | +0.9560s | 9 |
| 14 | Timothy Carel | JHDD | 1m35.1683s | +0.9900s | 13 |
| 15 | Ryan Giannetta | Velocity Racing Development | 1m35.5672s | +1.3889s | 11 |
| 16 | Brady Golan | DEForce Racing | 1m35.8287s | +1.6504s | 9 |
| 17 | Wian Boshoff | SFHRD | 1m36.1505s | +1.9722s | 11 |
| 18 | Ayrton Houk | Benchmark Autosport | 1m36.2465s | +2.5862s | 2 |
| 19 | Eddie Beswick | Synergy Motorsport | 1m37.6286s | +3.4503s | 4 |