In 2015, the story of the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg weekend was Pabst Racing’s dominant victories over championship-winning squad Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing. In 2016, the same storyline is emerging early on in the weekend. Pabst Racing’s newly expanded three-car team in Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda competition is besting the defending champions yet again, as Cape have had a tough weekend thus far. Australian F4 champion Jordan Lloyd took advantage, making a statement by grabbing the first pole position of the season.

Lloyd battled with New Zealand’s James Munro of Team Pelfrey in the early stages of the session, swapping fast lap back and forth in the first few laps. Lloyd led at the halfway point in the session when a brief red flag was brought out by Cape Motorsport’s Nikita Lastochkin, who hit the tires in Turn 6 after earlier spinning in the same corner and continuing. Cape, after repairing damage to Parker Thompson’s car yesterday, again has more work to do to repair a damaged machine ahead of tomorrow’s two races.

Pabst Racing kept three cars in the top five for most of the session, while Thompson desperately tried to give Cape the advantage after the red flag. Thompson and Lloyd swapped quickest laps, before Yufeng Luo set an identical lap time to Thompson to go second based on second fastest lap. As the laps ticked down, though, it was Lloyd who jumped back to P1, setting a lap of 1:14.394. Thompson held on for second, ahead of Luo, Pabst’s Garth Rickards in fourth, and Munro in fifth.

Cape’s third driver, Anthony Martin, was sixth, while Luke Gabin, Victor Franzoni, Robert Megennis, and Jordan Cane completed the top ten.

The first USF2000 race takes the green flag Saturday morning at 8:40 a.m. ET.

USF2000 Qualifying Results

1. Jordan Lloyd
2. Parker Thompson
3. Yufeng Luo
4. Garth Rickards
5. James Munro
6. Anthony Martin
7. Luke Gabin
8. Victor Franzoni
9. Robert Megennis
10. Jordan Cane
11. TJ Fischer
12. Ayla Agren
13. Nikita Lastochkin
14. Austin McCusker
15. Felipe Ortiz
16. Max Hanratty
17. Dakota Dickerson
18. Lucas Kohl
19. Michai Stephens
20. Tazio Ottis
21. Sam Chastain
22. Clint McMahan
23. Robert Allaer
24. Eric Filgueiras
25. Brenden Puderbach
26. Charles Finelli