Taylor moves ahead on second day of USF Pro 2000 testing

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography

Velocity Racing Development’s Max Taylor was quickest on the second day of USF Pro 2000’s in-season test at Road America, setting the fastest lap of the week.

The day one benchmark of 2m02.2382s from Pabst Racing’s Jacob Douglas was beaten in the 35-minute session four early on Thursday morning, although it was not until late in the top drivers’ second runs that they did so.

Taylor set a 2m02.0746s on his sixth lap of eight to go fastest by 0.1367 seconds over Douglas, who improved on his Wednesday pace, and there was a gap of 0.215s to Turn 3 Motorsport’s Alessandro de Tullio in third. He and Pabst’s Max Garcia in fourth were unable to improve after their fifth laps.

The four-mile circuit led to big pace disparities in the field, and only six drivers were within a second of Taylor’s pace.

He made a huge improvement by racking up more miles in the 40-minute session five, and his biggest gain came on his 14th and final lap.

Garcia and team-mate Michael Costello had lowered the pace early on by breaking into the 2m01s, and Garcia led the way with a 2m01.2971s.

While both failed to improve in their later spells on track, the top three from the morning could. De Tullio set a 2m01.2509s, beating Garcia by 0.0462s, and Douglas lapped sub-2m01s to move 0.3178s ahead. But Taylor had even more pace in hand, and pipped Douglas by 0.0571s with a 2m00.876s lap.

Exclusive Autosport’s Mac Clark was 0.7s back in fifth, and just 0.0467s ahead of VRD’s Frankie Mossman in seventh. Costello was between them.

The only drivers then able to improve in the 40-minute session six that ended testing were Ariel Elkin (TJ Speed), Logan Adams (Comet/NCMP Racing), Joey Brienza (Exclusive) and Cooper Becklin (Turn 3).

But all were over a second off the session’s fastest lap, a 2m01.1439s from Douglas, and outside of the top seven for the day’s combined classification. De Tullio was 0.1498s off Douglas courtesy of a late improvement, and 0.0077s ahead of Garcia.

Clark, 0.5904s slower than Douglas in fourth, was the last driver within a second of him and Taylor was among several names to skip the session.

Day two results