Rowe gets another USF Pro 2000 pole then crashes at end of qualifying

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography

Pabst Racing’s Myles Rowe made it two USF Pro 2000 poles out of two on the streets of Toronto, despite crashing out at the end of qualifying two.

His team-mate Jace Denmark set the pace at first, then on the second laps it was Turn 3 Motorsport’s Michael d’Orlando and then DEForce Racing’s Kiko Porto who went fastest.

Denmark brought the pace down into the 1m10s on his third lap, and improved again on his next lap to put himself 0.1804 seconds up on Rowe with a 1m10.3970s.

Rowe moved to the top with his sixth lap, a 1m10.2923s, edging Denmak by 0.0062s while Porto and d’Orlando improved in third and fourth.

Porto’s hopes of taking pole ended at the halfway mark of the 20-minute session as he hit the wall at turn eight and then hobbled into the pitlane where he had to stop his car just after the entry and only just avoided blocking it for everyone else who was coming in to change tyres for their second run.

Denmark was the first driver to improve on their second set of tyres, going fastest with a 1m10.1818s. But he then spun exiting turn one, and moved his car forward just in time to avoid being hit by Rowe.

Both drivers were lucky, and red flags were waved moments later. That meant Denmark lost his fastest lap, dropping him back to second.

Qualifying restarted with three-and-a-half minutes left on the clock, and Rowe improved to 1m10.0829s with a minute to go while Exclusive Autosport’s Joel Granfors jumped up to fourth place.

The pace continued to drop and most drivers set their personal bests on their final lap.

Rowe took pole with a 1m09.7214s, team-mate Jordan Missig went 0.1842s slower to snatch second place, d’Orlando also broke into the 1m09s in third and Denmark qualified fourth.

After the chequered flag waved there was drama as Rowe’s car got unbalanced over a bump at turn 10 and then the rear-end swung unto the barriers at the final corner. Missig was just behind but did not get obstructed, but d’Orlando was unable to improve his pace as yellow flags were waving at turn 11 by the time he reached it.

Qualifying results