Reigning USF2000 champion Braden Eves set the pace on his step up to Indy Pro 2000 in pre-season testing at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
The Exclusive Autosport driver was fastest in the third and fifth sessions of the two-day test, with his benchmark from the earlier morning session standing as the quickest of the test.
His closest rival was series veteran Parker Thompson, who was 0.2942 seconds behind driving for DEForce Racing. He only just pipped Eves’ USF2000 rival Hunter McElrea, who is moving up to IP2000 with Pabst Racing.
Thompson was however the fastest man in the first two sessions of the test, when the track was at its least rubbered in, and arguably more representative of the track conditions drivers will be racing on.
Fastest in the fourth session and fourth fastest overall was Turn 3 Motorsport test stand-in Toby Sowery, ahead of evenly matched Juncos Racing team-mates Sting Ray Robb and Artem Petrov.
Exclusive Autosport also topped the USF2000 test running with Lucas Oil Formula Car Race Series champion Prescott Campbell.
He outpaced Pabst’s Eduardo Barrichello – son of former Ferrari Formula 1 driver Rubens – by 0.0355s, with the second Exclusive car of Christian Brooks 0.1493s behind in third. A further tenth of a second covered Jay Howard Driver Development’s Christian Rasmussen, Legacy Autosport’s Cameron Shields, Cape Motorsports’ Michael d’Orlando and Nolan Siegel (JHDD).
Sheilds was a controlling first place in the final session of the test, while Barrichello was on top in the first, second and fourth.
There is less than a week until the season opener for both series in St. Petersburg.