Weir earns USF Pro 2000 race two pole at Road America
written by Ida Wood 17 June 2023 | formulascout.com
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 |
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