Monterey, CA – John Cummiskey Racing had one of its best qualifying sessions of the season Saturday as Michael Scott and Lucas Kohl will start Race 1 (4:15 p.m. PDT) at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in the seventh and eighth positions, respectively.
After finishing Friday’s practice sessions, the team made some setup adjustments prior to qualifying, and the changes were to the drivers’ liking as they were on the pace quickly. Midway through the session, Scott turned his fasted lap of the weekend, covering the 11-turn, 2.238-mile course in one minute, 27.1874 seconds, which at that point in the session was fifth overall.
Scott couldn’t improve on that time the rest of the session, but will start on the inside of Row 4. That makes him the fastest rookie driver, and what makes it even more impressive is that the 21-year-old Kiwi had only 33 laps at Laguna prior to Saturday and still only qualified less than one second off of pole position. The only drivers ahead of him were the three contenders for the Team Cooper Tire USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda championship, and three others in their second season of USF2000 competition.
“The No. 34 EastPack car was perfect early in the session,” Scott said. “We lost a little grip as the session went on because of tire wear, but overall I’m excited to have a good starting position for the race.”
Kohl was able to rise to the challenge of his teammate, and his 1:27.5451 puts him right next to his teammate in the fourth row. That marks his best qualifying position of the season, one spot ahead of his ninth-place start in Race 2 back in May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“I was really happy with the No. 34 Bellko car,” Kohl said. “The changes we made after Friday’s practice were pretty extensive, but we definitely found a good combination.”
After Race 1 is complete, the cars will return to the track at 11:20 a.m. (PDT) Sunday for Race 2, the season finale for the USF2000 series.
