Schrage denies title rival Jeffers by 0.0123s in final USF2000 qualifying

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography

The final USF2000 qualifying session of 2025 at Portland was decided in Thomas Schrage’s favour by 0.0123 seconds over title rival Jack Jeffers.

The first storyline of the event was the arrival of Enve Motorsports, a team based at The Thermal Club circuit and owned by the bicycle manufacturer Enve which is best known for its racing wheels. Driving its car was Spencer Hancock.

His first miles came in Thursday’s two pre-event test sessions, and it was Exclusive Autosport’s Jeffers who set the pace. A 1m10.9731s lap put him 0.2375s ahead of second place in session two, while 0.0906s split second and seventh and less than a second covered the top 15.

DEForce Racing’s Jeshua Alianell was Jeffers’ closest rival, with Exclusive’s Evan Cooley 0.0127s behind him in third and team-mate Lucas Fecury a further 0.0089s back in fourth. Velocity Racing Development driver Schrage was just one ten thousandth of a second slower than Fecury in fifth.

A half-hour practice session followed on Friday morning, and Jeffers set a 1m11.0061s to go quickest by a tiny 0.0227s over VRD’s Teddy Musella.

Ryan Giannetta (VRD) was 0.2119s behind Jeffers in third, and had a 0.02s gap to Sebastian Garzon (DEForce Racing) in fourth. Caleb Gafrarar (Pabst Racing) and Cooley were also within 0.3s of the pace, and Schrage trailed by 0.4s in 10th.

Qualifying was also half an hour and took place in the afternoon. Forced to stay in the pits for the first five minutes were DEForce’s Jeshua Alianell and returning Vaughn Mishko due to passing the chequered flag twice in practice.

Pabst’s title outsider G3 Argyros peaked early on by setting a 1m11.4446s, but that would leave him down in ninth place by the end.

Schrage made his way to the top with a 1m10.949s, set on his sixth lap of 14, and that ended up not only being a lap that he could not beat but also a time that nobody else could.

Jeffers got closest on his penultimate lap, with Musella also within a tenth of a second of pole on his penultimate lap as he came 0.0922s shy of Schrage’s benchmark.

Fecury qualified fourth for race one of three, posting a 1m11.1741s to pip Cooley by 0.0061s and Garzon by 0.0524s. Cooley’s personal best came earlier in his second run, while Garzon improved on his final lap.

Less than 0.8s seperated first and 15th place, with Mishiko and Hancock the only drivers who were not in contention to qualify in the top 10.

Qualifying results