Home News Simon Sikes takes pole for Pabst at Sebring in USF2000

Simon Sikes takes pole for Pabst at Sebring in USF2000

by Ida Wood

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