Lucas Oil – Mazda Road to Indy Update #1 – Practice, Qualifying and Pre-Race Notes

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.