The Mazda Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires kicked off its Friday action from Watkins Glen International early in the morning, with qualifying for the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda at 8:00 a.m. ET and second practice for Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires at 8:45 a.m. ET.
Below are quick reports for both sessions.
USF2000
Qualifying for this weekend’s USF2000 season finale saw an all-out duel between title combatants Oliver Askew and Rinus VeeKay.
VeeKay, who notably did not turn a flying lap in second practice on Friday to save a set of tires, was the first to drop the hammer, leading early on with a lap at 1:47.853. However, Askew overtook him in the second half of the session with a 1:47.531, and the two dueled each other from there.
In the end, after they swapped the lead a couple times between them, it was Askew securing the pole, and a critical bonus point in the process, with a quick lap of 1:46.163, which broke the track record by over six seconds. Askew’s time bettered VeeKay’s best lap of 1:46.272 by just over one tenth of a second.
.@Oliver_Askew breaks the track qualifying record by 6.5 seconds. His time was 1:46.163. #MRTI #TeamCooperTire pic.twitter.com/Sw7hcEux1M
— Team Cooper Tire (@TeamCooperTire) September 2, 2017
The pole for Askew increases his points lead over VeeKay to 14 ahead of this afternoon’s season finale.
Kory Enders, Andres Gutierrez, and Kaylen Frederick filled out the top five. The session saw a brief red flag after Robert Megennis spun and made contact with the wall exiting Turn 1. Megennis, who is pulling double duty this weekend and running in both USF2000 and the Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires, will start the USF2000 race from 20th.
Qualifying results are below. The final race of the USF2000 season rolls off at 1:15 p.m. ET.
Championship leader @Oliver_Askew grabs pole for today's @USF2000 season finale. His rival @FollowRVK will start second. #MRTI pic.twitter.com/aUZoIeKIdu
— Mazda Motorsports (@MazdaRacing) September 2, 2017
Indy Lights
Aaron Telitz topped Indy Lights Practice on Saturday morning, turning a quick lap of 1:33.237. Colton Herta, Nico Jamin, Shelby Blackstock, and Neil Alberico completed the top five. Champion-elect Kyle Kaiser was ninth at the end of practice.
The session was stopped on two occasions. First, Santiago Urrutia, Zachary Claman DeMelo, and Nicolas Dapero all spun in separate incidents due to cold temperatures, forcing a brief stoppage as they returned to the pits. However, all three were able to return to the track.
The second incident was for Juan Piedrahita, who locked up the brakes entering Turn 8 and hit the outside wall with the nose of the car before sliding into the gravel. Piedrahita’s No. 2 Team Pelfrey entry suffered significant damage to the front wing assembly and left-front suspension, and he was unable to return to the track.
Of note: Carlin’s Garth Rickards did not go out for practice in the morning and will not be participating in Indy Lights competition for the rest of the weekend. Rickards’ No. 11 entry incurred damage during Friday practice after going over the curbing, and the team was unable to repair the car.
We're missing @Grickards230 today. Damage yesterday means he won't take any further part this weekend. Fab working with you this season 👊
— Rodin Carlin (@RodinCarlin) September 2, 2017
Lap times are below. Qualifying for tomorrow’s season-ending Indy Lights race begins Saturday afternoon. at 2:15 p.m. ET.
.@AaronTelitz and @ColtonHerta on top of FP2. Quali at 2:15pm #MRTI #TeamCooperTire #SoulRedFinale pic.twitter.com/45mEZWkj3t
— INDY NXT (@INDYNXT) September 2, 2017