Vodanovich quickest in USF2000 practice as most drivers stay in pits

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography / Road to Indy

Jay Howard Driver Development’s Peter Vodanovich topped the opening practice session of the USF2000 season opener at Barber Motorsports Park, as just 11 drivers set laptimes.

Each car is assigned three sets of tyres for the weekend, which after practice comprises of two qualifying sessions and two races.

Normally, teams would be able to carry over a set of tyres from the previous round. However, this is not the case for the opening event.

Most of the drivers sat in the pits throughout the 30-minute session, which came not long after a pre-event test also held on Thursday. DEForce Racing’s Kiko Porto, fastest in that test, was one of those who didn’t head out on track.

Cape Motorsports returnee Michael d’Orlando set a quick time towards the middle of the session, a 1m22.7948s, as he traded quick laps with team-mate Spike Kohlbecker whose car is co-run by Ignite Autosport.

The laptimes improved slightly late on, and Vodanovich took the top spot with a 1m22.6571s – just over a tenth quicker than d’Orlando’s earlier effort.

Legacy Autosport’s Simon Sike’s took third, ahead of JHDD’s Bijoy Garg and Kohlbecker.

Joe Dooling Autosports started its first ever USF2000 event with the eighth fastest lap, courtesy of its sole driver Trey Burke. He was 0.7743s off Vodanovich’s pace, and the slowest of the 11 runners was 1.1695s off.

Nobody completed more than 12 laps – the benchmark set by Vodanovich and four others.

DEForce Racing, Pabst Racing, Velocity Racing Development, Turn 3 Motorsport, Exclusive Autosport and Force Indy were the teams that weren’t seen on track.

Free practice results