IndyCars - St. Petersburg: The season begins!

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Sunday afternoon at St. Pete - USF Pro 2000 closes out the race weekend…

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…with their Season Round 2. WINNING the event was rookie Myles Rowe for Pabst Racing from his P5 start. P2 went to Kiko Porto for DEForce Racing from a P2 start while rookie Jace Denmark for Pabst took P3 from his P3 start.

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MylesRowePabstRacing300-

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The grid for this race was not released until just before the start. The grid was set using the 2nd fastest qually lap of each driver OR their fastest Race 1 lap - which ever was better.

Here were the TOP TEN starters:

Pole - Francesco Pizzi [R], TJ Speed
P2 - Kiko Porto, DEForce Racing
P3 - Jace Denmark [R], Pabst Racing
P4 - Lirim Zendeli [R], TJ Speed
P5 - Myles Rowe [R], Pabst Racing
P6 - Christian Brooks, Turn 3 Motorsports
P7 - Joel Granfors [R], Exclusive Autosport
P8 - Reece Ushijima [R], Jay Howard Driver Development
P9 - Michael d’Orlando [R], Turn 3 Motorsport
P10 - Jack William Miller, Miller Vinatieri Motorsports

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On the opening lap Kiko jumped past pole-sitter Francesco Pizzi for TJ Speed in Turn 1 to take the lead. On lap 2 Myles jumped past P4 starter Lirim Zendeli for TJ Speed and then Jace Denmark to wind up in P3. On lap 3 Salvador de Alba for Exclusive Autosport passed Jack William Miller for Miller Vinatieri and Michael d’Orlando for Turn 3 Motorsport to take over P8, but then Yuven Sundaramoorthy for Exclusive Autosport looped in Turn 3, bringing out a full-course caution.

The restart on lap 6 didn’t last long, as Reece Ushijima for Jay Howard Driver Development looped into the wall, maybe with a tap from d’Orlando, and brought out another caution. He was out. On the lap 10 restart Myles jumped into the lead past Kiko and Francesco. Quickly, Jace passed Francesco for P3 with Lirim Zendeli following through to put Pizzi into P5. Myles set Fastest Lap.

On lap 11 Sal passed Joel Granfors for Exclusive Autosport for the P8 spot. On lap 16 Myles reset Fastest Lap but three laps late Lirim took Fastest Lap himself. On lap 21 Sal brushed the wall in Turn 9 while battling with Jordan Missig for Pabst and bent his suspension. He motored to the pits but was out of the action. On lap 23 Joel Granfors set the final Fastest Lap. Two laps later Myles took the WIN with Kiko 3 seconds behind. Jace was only 0.7 seconds off Kiko’s hindquarters at the checkers.

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Notable:

  • Myles has now WON at least 1 race in every year he has competed in the Road to Indy. While he is a title contender, he has a great deal of competition, as USF Pro 2000 is loaded with talent.

  • One of those major talents is Christian Brooks, but Christian only had the funds to do this weekend. Unless he can come up with more we may not see him again this season, and that would be a great shame. This weekend he secured a race WIN and a P6 out of today’s race.

Christian Brooks
ChristianBrooks150-3

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Your happy podium - That’s Kiko Porto in P2 on the left, Myles Rowe in P1 in the middle and Jace Denmark in P3 on the right:

UP2KRace2

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With these results, here are the TOP FIVE in points, leaving St. Pete:

1 - Myles Rowe, 53
2 - Kiko Porto, 50
3 - Christian Brooks, 47
4 - Jace Denmark, 37
5 - Francesco Pizzi, 37
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The next outings for USF Pro 2000 will be at Sebring International Raceway, March 23-25, where they will be joined by USF2000 and USF Juniors, who will be kicking off their season.

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This was the last on-track activity of the weekend. Thanks, St. Petersburg for a GREAT weekend of racing!
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