Home News Weir earns USF Pro 2000 race two pole at Road America

Weir earns USF Pro 2000 race two pole at Road America

by Ida Wood

Photo: Team Cooper Tires

TJ Speed’s Christian Weir was fastest in USF Pro 2000’s Saturday qualifying session at Road America to take pole for race two of the weekend.

Myles Rowe set the pace at first, with Lirim Zendeli next to top the times before moments later Reece Ushijima set a 2m05.0670s to go fastest.

Race one poleman Michael d’Orlando was first to lap in the 2m04s, but he was also only briefly ahead as Rowe et a 2m04.2109s and Salvador de Alba and Jace Denmark both beat d’Orlando’s laptime.

A minute later the pace had droppe into the 2m03s, with Francesco Pizzi briefly fastest before Zendeli set a 2m03.0835s.

Shortly after d’Orlando returned to first place by setting a 2m02.5154s, and he stayed ahead for three minutes while third place was traded between several drivers.

When someone finally did reduce d’Orlando’s advantage, in the form of debutant Louka St.-Jean setting a 2m02.7351s, the provisional polesitter responded by improving to 2m01.9440s.

Red flags came out 14 minutes into the half-hour session due to Jack William Miller going off, by which point St.-Jean had improved and Turn 3 Motorsport’s Jonathan Browne had got up to third place.

Qualifying restarted with just over 10 minutes to go, then red flagged again two minutes later due to Browne going off. That meant he would lose his fastest lap, but when the econd restart took place two minutes after that he was one of the drivers with pace in the bag.

Rowe moved into fourth place after the chequered flag, but ended up being shuffled down to seventh as other drivers crossed the line for their final laps.

Weir went fastest by 0.2370 seconds, and Browne set a lap good enough for third but knew he was going to have it deleted so dropped straight back down the order. Zendeli then improved to qualify third, 0.4s off pole.

Qualifying results
Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps
1 Christian Weir TJ Speed 2m01.7070s 8
2 Michael d’Orlando Turn 3 Motorsport 2m01.9440s +0.2370s 9
3 Lirim Zendeli TJ Speed 2m02.1081s +0.4011s 8
4 Louka St.-Jean Turn 3 Motorsport 2m02.4060s +0.6990s 9
5 Jonathan Browne Turn 3 Motorsport 2m02.5459s +0.8389s 9
6 Francesco Pizzi TJ Speed 2m02.6346s +0.9276s 8
7 Myles Rowe Pabst Racing 2m02.7768s +1.0698s 8
8 Ricardo Escotto JHDD 2m02.9067s +1.1997s 8
9 Salvador de Alba Exclusive Autosport 2m02.9952s +1.2882s 8
10 Jackson Lee Turn 3 Motorsport 2m03.0530s +1.3460s 8
11 Reece Ushijima JHDD 2m03.0733s +1.3663s 8
12 Bijoy Garg DEForce Racing 2m03.2322s +1.5252s 8
13 Kiko Porto DEForce Racing 2m03.3276s +1.6206s 8
14 Jace Denmark Pabst Racing 2m03.4096s +1.7026s 8
15 Nicholas Monteiro NeoTech Motorsport 2m03.4119s +1.7049s 8
16 Joel Granfors Exclusive Autosport 2m03.9133s +2.2063s 8
17 Jordan Missig Pabst Racing 2m04.1747s +2.4677s 8
18 Yuven Sundaramoorthy Exclusive Autosport 2m04.3763s +2.6693s 6
19 Jack William Miller Miller Vinatieri Motorsports 2m04.4453s +2.7383s 5
20 Lindsay Brewer Exclusive Autosport 2m04.8128s +3.1058s 8
21 Charles Finelli FatBoy Racing! 2m09.8068s +8.0998d 8