Cooper Tires Winterfest Update #5 – USF2000 and Pro Mazda Practice

The Cooper Tires USF2000 powered by Mazda and Pro Mazda presented by Cooper Tire series only get one 30 minute practice session each before qualifying this afternoon.

The USF2000 session was led by four sophomore drivers.  Rookie Yufeng Luo joined veterans Nico Jamin, Jake Eidson, Aaron Telitz and Victor Franzoni in the top 5.  Most drivers were able to complete just north of a dozen laps.

The only red flag in the session came when rookie Michai Stephens hit the inside barrier at the exit of the final turn.  The left rear corner of the car was badly bent up and the Afterburner Autosport crew will need have their work cut out for them to have the car ready for qualifying.

Here are the complete times for the session:

Rank Car No. Name FTime
1 2 Nico Jamin 1:36.597
2 22 Jake Eidson 1:36.788
3 3 Aaron Telitz 1:36.897
4 17 Victor Franzoni 1:37.194
5 23 Yufeng Luo 1:37.625
6 82 Luke Gabin 1:37.983
7 94 Jordan Lloyd 1:38.119
8 5 Keyvan Andre Soori 1:38.207
9 80 Parker Thompson 1:38.217
10 84 Nikita Lastochkin 1:38.306
11 83 Garth Rickards 1:38.392
12 33 Anthony Martin 1:38.769
13 6 Max Hanratty 1:39.549
14 16 James Dayson 1:40.578
15 81 Ayla Agren 1:40.629
16 79 Santiago Lozano 1:40.711
17 12 Augie Lerch 1:42.536
18 14 Michai Stephens 2:01.883
19 18 Bruna Tomaselli No Time

Weiron Tan led the 14 Pro Mazda drivers with a top time of 93.3 seconds.  The Andretti Autosport rookie recently tested at NOLA Motorsports Park, so he is familiar with the circuit.  Jack Aitken, who is making a guest appearance for Cooper Tires Winterfest (he will contest a full season of Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup) was the second quickest driver.  Dalton Kellett, Will Owen and Raoul Owens rounded out the rest of the top 5. Four different teams were represented in the top 5.

The lone red flag of the Pro Mazda session was brought out by M1 Autosport rookie Alessandro Latif who came to a stop at the entry of the final corner after an off-track excursion damaged the left rear suspension on his No. 14 machine.

Here are the complete times for the session:

Rank Car No. Driver Top Lap Time
1 22 Weiron Tan 1:33.307
2 82 Jack Aitken 1:33.905
3 28 Dalton Kellett 1:34.264
4 23 Will Owen 1:34.873
5 19 Raoul Owens 1:35.195
6 5 Garett Grist 1:35.315
7 7 Jose Gutierrez 1:35.335
8 6 Timothe Buret 1:35.872
9 2 Daniel Burkett 1:36.346
10 18 Nicolas Latifi 1:36.553
11 10 Florian Latorre 1:36.716
12 54 Michael Johnson 1:37.051
13 13 Bobby Eberle 1:38.451
14 14 Alessandro Latif 1:48.493
15 33 Carlos Conde 2:15.501

Thanks for reading, and we’ll be back after qualifying.