By Tony DiZinno
Pinch-hitting for Steve once again for Saturday’s Mazda Road to Indy FreedomFest at Lucas Oil Raceway, which is now a morning and afternoon race rather than an afternoon and evening – or occasionally late night – race as it has been in years past.
A couple quick notes before we head into today’s races. For the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda, it’s a 75-lapper (the Mazda Freedom 75) and for the Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires, it’s 90 (the Cooper Tires Freedom 90).
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Prior to this weekend’s race, the Pro Mazda and USF2000 drivers were at an oval summit on Wednesday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The 90-minute session featured four-time Indianapolis 500 champion Rick Mears along with current Andretti Autosport drivers Simona de Silvestro and Carlos Munoz. Gerardo Bonilla organized the event.
Meanwhile on Friday, the drivers were treated to quick words from three more Indianapolis 500 champions and legends: Al Unser, Al Unser Jr. and Mario Andretti, at the end of the driver’s meeting.
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Great gesture from the Pro Mazda and USF2000 teams, all of whom are sporting a “Hurry Back Hinch!” decal for James Hinchliffe on their cars with the underneath message hashtag, #ThatllBuffRightOut. See the decal on Parker Thompson’s JDC Motorsports car above. Hinchcliffe raced in Pro Mazda, then called Star Mazda, a full 10 years ago in 2005.
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Points standings heading into the race are, in Pro Mazda: Santiago Urrutia 195, Neil Alberico 171 and Timothe Buret 153 and in USF2000: Nico Jamin 206, Jake Eidson 187 and Aaron Telitz 181.
Alberico (2013) and Telitz (2014) have won the last two USF2000 races here and it will be interesting to see how the points shake up after the first oval race of the season.
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Will Owen, Florian Latorre, Daniel Burkett and Victor Franzoni are the four drivers making their first Pro Mazda oval start this week after previously driving in USF2000. Owen told TSO the biggest difference for him is the steering, and how much heavier the Pro Mazda car is to handle on the 0.686-mile oval.
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Speaking of Burkett, the affable Canadian is sporting a mustache this weekend. He’s not the first member of the Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing team to have one though. Cape’s Aaron Telitz, one of the team’s USF2000 drivers, had one on Thursday before common sense and a shaver prevailed.
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Cooper Tires USF2000 Powered by Mazda practice
To practice. USF2000 was out first for a 20-minute session from 8 to 8:20 a.m. Team Pelfrey’s Luke Gabin had an incident after two laps, but the team got his car out back out ahead of qualifying.
As could be expected the three title contenders – Pabst Racing’s Jake Eidson and the Cape pair of Nico Jamin and Aaron Telitz – were 1-2-3 in the session.
Speeds are below.
| P | No | Name | FSpeed | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 22 | Jake Eidson | 104.138 | 24 |
| 2 | 2 | Nico Jamin | 103.575 | 30 |
| 3 | 3 | Aaron Telitz | 103.284 | 28 |
| 4 | 23 | Yufeng Luo | 102.907 | 30 |
| 5 | 33 | Anthony Martin | 102.559 | 29 |
| 6 | 80 | Parker Thompson | 101.219 | 33 |
| 7 | 5 | Keyvan Andres Soori | 101.180 | 36 |
| 8 | 83 | Garth Rickards | 99.980 | 29 |
| 9 | 6 | Max Hanratty | 99.700 | 36 |
| 10 | 81 | Ayla Agren | 99.502 | 30 |
| 11 | 12 | Augie Lerch | 97.671 | 35 |
| 12 | 51 | Bill Abel | 97.567 | 26 |
| 13 | 84 | Nikita Lastochkin | 96.066 | 30 |
| 14 | 16 | James Dayson | 95.185 | 30 |
| 15 | 82 | Luke Gabin | 48.353 | 2 |
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Pro Mazda presented by Cooper Tires practice
For the 20-minute Pro Mazda practice from 8:35 to 8:55 a.m., Andretti Autosport had by far its best session of the year with Weiron Tan leading the speed charts and Dalton Kellett in third. Neil Alberico was squeezed in-between the two of them.
Juncos Racing teammates Owen and Garett Grist, the latter of whom finished second in USF2000 at Lucas Oil Raceway in 2013, were fourth and fifth. Points leader Urrutia struggled and was only 13th of 15 cars.
Speeds are below.
| P | No | Name | FSpeed | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 22 | Weiron Tan | 111.386 | 33 |
| 2 | 3 | Neil Alberico | 110.854 | 37 |
| 3 | 28 | Dalton Kellett | 110.497 | 37 |
| 4 | 23 | Will Owen | 110.201 | 37 |
| 5 | 5 | Garett Grist | 109.630 | 35 |
| 6 | 10 | Florian Latorre | 109.351 | 28 |
| 7 | 2 | Daniel Burkett | 109.193 | 28 |
| 8 | 7 | Jose Gutierrez | 109.192 | 38 |
| 9 | 80 | Raoul Owens | 108.937 | 37 |
| 10 | 21 | Victor Franzoni | 108.862 | 33 |
| 11 | 82 | Pato O’Ward | 108.342 | 24 |
| 12 | 6 | Timothe Buret | 108.062 | 36 |
| 13 | 81 | Santiago Urrutia | 107.815 | 30 |
| 14 | 14 | Alessandro Latif | 107.712 | 47 |
| 15 | 13 | Bobby Eberle(E) | 103.054 | 36 |
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Cooper Tires USF2000 Powered by Mazda qualifying
Qualifying began just before 10 a.m. ET with mostly sunny skies and ambient temperatures in the low 60s, with the track temperatures not much higher. The USAC Silver Crown cars were out for a half hour practice from 9:10 to 9:40 a.m. ET, which put down a different type of rubber compared to the Cooper Tires all Mazda Road to Indy series use.
Jake Eidson held the pole for much of the USF2000 qualifying session before the Cape teammates went out to qualify. And from there, Eidson lost the top spot. Nico Jamin snatched the pole away at the end of the session with a speed of 104.350 mph in the No. 2 car. Eidson ended second with Aaron Telitz third.
The pole is Jamin’s fifth in a row and sixth this season.
The qualifying speeds are below:
| P | No | Name | ASpeed | TTime |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | Nico Jamin | 104.350 | 43.1239 |
| 2 | 22 | Jake Eidson | 103.635 | 43.4217 |
| 3 | 3 | Aaron Telitz | 103.514 | 43.4722 |
| 4 | 23 | Yufeng Luo | 103.061 | 43.6634 |
| 5 | 33 | Anthony Martin | 101.294 | 44.4253 |
| 6 | 5 | Keyvan Andres Soori | 100.571 | 44.7443 |
| 7 | 80 | Parker Thompson | 100.463 | 44.7924 |
| 8 | 83 | Garth Rickards | 99.842 | 45.0712 |
| 9 | 6 | Max Hanratty | 99.400 | 45.2715 |
| 10 | 81 | Ayla Agren | 98.662 | 45.6101 |
| 11 | 82 | Luke Gabin | 97.794 | 46.0153 |
| 12 | 16 | James Dayson | 97.647 | 46.0843 |
| 13 | 84 | Nikita Lastochkin | 96.359 | 46.7005 |
| 14 | 51 | Bill Abel | 94.832 | 47.4522 |
| 15 | 12 | Augie Lerch | 93.812 | 47.9681 |
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Pro Mazda presented by Cooper Tires qualifying
In Pro Mazda qualifying, Andretti Autosport carried over its practice dominance. Weiron Tan has the pole, his fifth of the season, while Dalton Kellett has easily his season best start of second. Kellett’s best prior to today had been 10th, on three occasions.
The championship contenders will start a little further back. Neil Alberico will start fifth, Santiago Urrutia 10th and Timothe Buret 13th.
The qualifying speeds are below:
| P | No | Name | ASpeed | TTime |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 22 | Weiron Tan | 110.938 | 40.5633 |
| 2 | 28 | Dalton Kellett | 110.325 | 40.7884 |
| 3 | 10 | Florian Latorre | 110.066 | 40.8847 |
| 4 | 23 | Will Owen | 109.607 | 41.0556 |
| 5 | 3 | Neil Alberico | 109.390 | 41.1372 |
| 6 | 2 | Daniel Burkett | 109.031 | 41.2726 |
| 7 | 5 | Garett Grist | 108.852 | 41.3406 |
| 8 | 80 | Raoul Owens | 108.572 | 41.4471 |
| 9 | 21 | Victor Franzoni | 108.491 | 41.4781 |
| 10 | 81 | Santiago Urrutia | 108.451 | 41.4934 |
| 11 | 7 | Jose Gutierrez | 108.403 | 41.5116 |
| 12 | 82 | Pato O’Ward | 107.969 | 41.6787 |
| 13 | 6 | Timothe Buret | 107.942 | 41.6890 |
| 14 | 14 | Alessandro Latif | 105.286 | 42.7408 |
| 15 | 13 | Bobby Eberle(E) | 100.594 | 44.7343 |
More to come later today after the pair of races are complete.