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Photo: Gavin Baker Photography
Simon Sikes continued Pabst Racing’s brilliant Sebring weekend by going fastest in USF2000 qualifying.
The team claimed pole and victory in race one for USF Pro 2000, prior to USF200’s track action beginning at the airfield track, and Sikes prevailed in a slightly chaotic qualifying session.
Louka St.-Jean was the first casualty of the session, with the Jay Howard Driver Development driver having a bumpy trip through the run-off and then heading to the pits before even posting a laptime.
Mac Clark was first to put a time on the board, with Pabst duo Sikes and Max Garcia going faster to shuffled him down to third. Chase Gardner went fourth fastest with a 2m07.682s lap.
Sikes improved on his second lap, setting a 2m05.594s, while Jacob Douglas jumped up to third with a 2m07.038s and Clark improved in fourth. Gardner did not register an improvement as he crashed out, burying his car into the turn seven barriers and bringing out red flags.
The session was stopped for over eight minutes and got going again with four minutes left on the clock. Despite his crash, Gardner was able to rejoin the action and he moved up to fourth place with 96 seconds to go.
Evagoras Papasavvas knocked him back to fifth with 17s remaining of the session by going fourth fastest, then after the chequered flag Garcia improved his pace in second place but came 0.025 seconds short of the pole-setting benchmark by team-mate Sikes and Elliot Cox set a 2m06.025s to take fourth.
With his fastest lap being deleted due to bringing out the red flags, Gardner ended up qualifying 13th with his pre-crash effort.
Qualifying results
Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Simon Sikes | Pabst Racing | 2m05.594s | 4 | |
2 | Max Garcia | Pabst Racing | 2m05.619s | +0.025s | 4 |
3 | Lochie Hughes | JHDD | 2m05.753s | +0.159s | 3 |
4 | Elliot Cox | SFHR | 2m06.024s | +0.430s | 2 |
5 | Evagoras Papasavvas | JHDD | 2m06.196s | +0.602s | 3 |
6 | Sam Corry | Velocity Racing Development | 2m06.916s | +1.322s | 3 |
7 | Jacob Douglas | Exclusive Autosport | 2m07.038s | +1.444 | 4 |
8 | Jorge Garciarce | DEForce Racing | 2m07.068s | +1.474s | 4 |
9 | Mac Clark | DEForce Racing | 2m07.098s | +1.504s | 4 |
10 | Danny Dyszelski | Velocity Racing Development | 2m07.521s | +1.927s | 3 |
11 | Gordon Scully | Velocity Racing Development | 2m07.596s | +2.002s | 3 |
12 | Al Morey | JHDD | 2m07.632s | +2.038s | 3 |
13 | Chase Gardner | Exclusive Autosport | 2m07.682s | +2.088s | 2 |
14 | Ethan Ho | DC Autosport | 2m07.690s | +2.096s | 4 |
15 | Zack Ping | Velocity Racing Development | 2m08.521s | +2.927s | 3 |
16 | Avery Towns | Exclusive Autosport | 2m08.756s | +3.162s | 4 |
17 | Maxwell Jamieson | DEForce Racing | 2m08.816s | +3.222s | 4 |
18 | Nikita Johnson | Velocity Racing Development | 2m12.481s | +6.887s | 2 |
19 | Louka St. Jean | JHDD | no time | 0 |