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Friday morning at Barber - USF Juniors hold Race 2 of their weekend…
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…and the results confirm that Mac Clark is running away with the title, already, as the 18-year-old Canadian goes four for four from pole for DEForce Racing. Starting and ending in P2 was 23-year-old New Yorker Andre Castro for International Motorsport while P3 went to 17-year-old Floridian Jeremy Fairbairn for Crosslink Kiwi Motorsports from his P6 start.
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Not able to start for some reasons were Alan Isambard for International Motorsport and Alessandro de Tullio for Velocity Racing Development. The first lap was waved off, due to a ragged formation. The second lap was almost complete when Jake Bonilla for DEForce Racing went off at Turn 17, bringing out a full-course caution, but not before Titus Sherlock for Crosslink took P6 from Ethan Ho for DC Autosport w/ Cape Motorsports and David Burketh for Future Star Racing took P9 from Nicolas d’Orlando for DC Autosport. Lap 4 saw Jeremy Fairbairn go to P4 over Sam Corry for VRD while Ethan Ho reclaimed P6 from Titus and Nicolas reclaimed P9 from David.
Lap 5 saw Andre Castro take Fastest Lap while a lap later Ethan Ho improved to P5 over Sam Corry. On lap 7 Jeremy pounced on Nikita Johnson for VRD and took P3 from him in Turn 12 while Sam Corry retook P5 from Ethan Ho. Out front, Mac began to ever-so-slightly stretch away from Andre and set Fastest Lap in the doing. On lap 8 Earl Tucker for DC Autosport was by David Burketh to take P10. A lap later Bianca Bustamante for IGY6 Motorsports took over P13 from Maxwell Jamieson for DEForce Racing. On lap 10 Sam Corry set Fastest Lap. By now Mac was 0.7 seconds out front and Andre Castro reset Fastest Lap on lap 11 in an effort to recapture him.
Mac responded on lap 12 with his own Fastest Lap. On lap 13 Earl spun in Turn 9, dropping out of P10 while Nicolas d’Orlando took P8 from Noah Ping for VRD. By lap 14 Mac was now 1.6 seconds out front and inching away. On lap 15 the series-long Sam Corry / Nikita Johnson show resumed as Sam took P4 from VRD teammate Nikita. By lap 17 there were five cars nose-to-tail and side-by-side battling, P3 to P8, all covered by only 0.3 seconds. On lap 19 Nicolas took P6 from Titus while Noah took P8 from Ethan. On the final lap Noah and Ethan both got by Titus to take over P7 and P8 respectively.
Mac sailed in as WINNER with a 2.66 second gap back to Andre, who was 5 seconds ahead of Jeremy.
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Notable:
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Clark didn’t getting far away, as he did at Ozarks, but he is still WINNING and without a serious challenge. He is straight up fast and also managing his tires better than everyone else and that allows him to inch away. He is simply making fewer mistakes . But Andre was also able to stay close, this time.
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Clark is now almost perfect for the season, taking 98 out of a possible 99 points. He only missed one race Fastest Lap. At this point we are looking more to see who can collect the Vice-Championship. Only time will tell if this is remains the case.
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This was also the first race of the season that did NOT have two Velocity Racing Development pilots on the podium. Sam Corry for VRD finished P4 - his first non-podium finish of the young season.
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The great fun was behind the leaders, as the field was frantic and racy with lots of passes for position, the whole race. The Juniors are all having a lot of fun out there.
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Your happy podium - That’s Andre Castro in P2 on the left, Mac Clark in P1 in the middle and Jeremy Fairbairn in P3 on the right:
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With these results, here are the TOP TEN in points leaving Barber:
1 - Mac Clark, 98
2 - Sam Corry, 70
3 - Nikita Johnson, 62
4 - Alessandro de Tullio, 59
5 - Andre Castro, 55
6 - Jeremy Fairbairn, 40
7 - Ethan Ho, 37
8 - Elliot Cox, 35
9 - Titus Sherlock, 32
10 - Noah Ping, 32
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Next up on the schedule for USF Juniors will be beautiful VIRginia International Raceway for season rounds 5, 6, and 7, June 3 - 5.
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Next, Indy Pro 2000 sets the grid for Race 1 of the weekend…
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