MONTEREY, Calif. – Nico Jamin reset the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda record for poles in a season in qualifying for Race 1 of the Cooper Tires USF2000 Grand Prix Powered by Mazda.
Jamin recorded a best lap of 1 minute, 25.735 seconds on the 2.238-mile, 11-turn Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca road course in the 30-minute session to claim his 11th pole in a row and 12th overall in his maiden USF2000 season.
Sage Karam, now driving for Chip Ganassi Racing Teams in the Verizon IndyCar Series, had earned 11 poles in his 2010 championship season.
Click it: Qualifying results
Jamin, who has eight victories and 13 podium finishes in 14 races, has a comfortable lead in the championship entering the doubleheader season finale. Race 1 is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. (local/Pacific) Sept. 12. Watch all three Mazda Road to Indy races live on racecontrol.indycar.com, augmented by real-time Timing & Scoring and track audio.
Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing teammate Aaron Telitz (1:15.898) also will start on the front row. Jake Eidson of Pabst Racing Services, who is second in the standings, and Anthony Martin of John Cummiskey Racing will be on Row 2.
Indy Lights practice
Carlin teammates Max Chilton and Ed Jones were 1-2 on the lap time chart in the second practice for the Indy Lights Grand Prix Presented by Cooper Tires and Powered by Mazda championship-deciding doubleheader.
Chilton posted a lap of 1:15.8720, while Jones’ best lap was .1728 of a second slower. Kyle Kaiser (1:16.0457) of Santa Clara, Calif., was quickest in the first practice and third overall.
Click it: Combined practice results
Tony Kanaan holds the track qualifying record of 1:15.090 set in his 1997 Indy Lights championship season.
Points leader Jack Harvey was fifth in the afternoon (1:16.9779) in the No. 7 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports with Curb-Agajanian entry and ninth overall for the two sessions. Spencer Pigot of Juncos Racing, who is six points behind Harvey, was eighth (1:17.4014) in the second practice. He was fourth (1:16.4632) in the first practice and fifth overall.
Qualifying is scheduled for 8:45 a.m. (local/Pacific), with Race 1 at 3:45 p.m.
Pro Mazda practice
Will Owen of Juncos Racing topped the lap time sheet in the second practice session for the Allied Building Products Pro Mazda Grand Prix of Monterey with a best of 1:23.4241.
Qualifying for Race 1 of the doubleheader is scheduled for 8 a.m. (local/Pacific), and the race is at 2:45 p.m.
Click it: Combined practice results
Team Pelfrey’s Pato O’Ward was quickest in the first session (1:23.6716) and second overall, while teammate and championship points leader Santiago Urrutia also recorded his quickest lap of the day (1:23.7515) in the morning practice.
Urrutia, 19, of Uruguay, takes a 29-point lead over Neil Alberico of Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing into the race weekend.