Photo: Gavin Baker Photography / Road to Indy
Yuven Sundaramoorthy beat championship leader Kiko Porto to pole position for the first of three USF2000 races at New Jersey Motorsports Park.
An early effort from Christian Brooks headed the times before Sundaramoorthy managed his lap of 1m17.3411s with seven-and-a-half minutes remaining.
Porto climbed up from sixth place to second not long afterwards, falling 0.06 seconds short of Sundaramoorthy’s time.
The time from Brooks remained good enough for third, but Josh Green did leap up to fourth place with one minute left on the clock.
Josh Pierson slipped from second to fifth in the closing stages, with Michael d’Orlando – the closest driver to Porto in the championship – claiming sixth.
Back in USF2000 after making his Indy Pro 2000 debut at Gateway one week ago, Nolan Siegel was seventh.
Qualifying results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yuven Sundaramoorthy | Pabst Racing | 1m17.3411s | 9 | |
| 2 | Kiko Porto | DEForce Racing | 1m17.4016s | +0.0605s | 9 |
| 3 | Christian Brooks | Exclusive Autosport | 1m17.5804s | +0.2393s | 11 |
| 4 | Josh Green | Turn 3 Motorsport | 1m17.6499s | +0.3088s | 9 |
| 5 | Josh Pierson | Pabst Racing | 1m17.6673s | +0.3262s | 11 |
| 6 | Michael d’Orlando | Cape Motorsports | 1m17.7050s | +0.3639s | 9 |
| 7 | Nolan Siegel | DEForce Racing | 1m17.7759s | +0.4348s | 9 |
| 8 | Jace Denmark | Pabst Racing | 1m17.7866s | +0.4455s | 11 |
| 9 | Prescott Campbell | DEForce Racing | 1m17.8544s | +0.5133s | 10 |
| 10 | Christian Weir | Turn 3 Motorsport | 1m17.9231s | +0.5820s | 10 |
| 11 | Myles Rowe | Force Indy | 1m17.9389s | +0.5978s | 8 |
| 12 | Billy Frazer | Exclusive Autosport | 1m18.1855s | +0.8444s | 13 |
| 13 | Spike Kohlbecker | Ignite Autosports w/Cape | 1m18.2374s | +0.8963s | 10 |
| 14 | Dylan Christie | Turn 3 Motorsport | 1m18.2431s | +0.9020s | 9 |
| 15 | Ely Navarro | DEForce Racing | 1m18.3898s | +1.0487s | 11 |
| 16 | Thomas Nepveu | Cape Motorsports | 1m18.4689s | +1.1278s | 8 |
| 17 | Michael Myers | Michael Myers Racing | 1m18.6627s | +1.3216s | 13 |
| 18 | Evan Stamer | Ignite Autosports w/Cape | 1m18.6928s | +1.3517s | 9 |
| 19 | Bijoy Garg | Jay Howard Driver Development | 1m18.7660s | +1.4249s | 6 |
| 20 | Peter Vodanovich | Jay Howard Driver Development | 1m18.9068s | +1.5657s | 6 |
| 21 | Kent Vaccaro | Miller Vinatieri Motorsports | 1m19.1328s | +1.7917s | 12 |
| 22 | Trey Burke | Joe Dooling Autosports | 1m19.1952s | +1.8541s | 14 |
| 23 | Nathan Byrd | Legacy Autosport | 1m20.1708s | +2.8297s | 12 |