Askew edges Frederick for USF2000 Barber win

Cape Motorsports' Oliver Askew sped to his second victory in just three starts in the first race at this weekend's Mazda USF2000 Grand Prix of Alabama Presented by Cooper Tires at Barber Motorsports Park. But the Mazda Road to Indy USF2000 scholarship winner was made to work hard for his laurels by equally impressive 14-year-old Kaylen Frederick, from Potomac, Md., who backed up his strong start to the season on the streets of St. Petersburg, Fla., with another fine performance for Team Pelfrey.

Dutch teenager Rinus VeeKay (Pabst Racing) and Frederick's teammate Robert Megennis, from New York, N.Y., also remained in close contention throughout this afternoon's 30-minute, 19-lap race run in warm, sunny conditions on the undulating 2.3-mile road course.

After posting the fastest lap in qualifying this morning to earn the pole, Askew made a good jump to maintain his advantage at the green flag but was never able to shake off the attentions of Frederick, who remained glued to the leader's gearbox. Frederick had a chance for a maiden victory until Askew's teammate, Ricky Donison, slid into the Turn 3 gravel trap to bring out the caution mid-race, after which Askew nailed the restart. Frederick remained close behind but had to settle for second place, just 0.2273 second in arrears at the checkered flag.

"I trick myself into thinking it's just a practice session, because if you think too much, that's when mistakes happen – and I couldn't have that with Kaylen right behind me," Askew said. "The Cape Motorsports guys are doing a great job and I'm learning every time I'm at the track. I really appreciate the opportunity from Mazda. This is everything I've ever hoped for. I've waited for this opportunity for several years so to be where I am right now is really special – hopefully we'll just keep doing what we're doing. The goal is to win the championship and this is a huge opportunity to keep working toward that."

"I took advantage of what I could today," Frederick said. "The Cooper tires wore well so I could just keep my head down and focus. It took a while to get comfortable with all the high-speed corners and the compressions. It was hard for me to get the confidence to go into those corners with that much speed but it's all clicked now."

After sweeping both race victories at Barber one year ago, Canadian Parker Thompson finished fifth this time for the new Exclusive Autosport team, unable to take advantage of the late restart which had allowed him to negate a deficit of almost two seconds prior to the caution. Thompson had managed to find a way past fifth-fastest qualifier Dakota Dickerson (Newman Wachs Racing), from San Diego, Calif., at the start and maintained a narrow advantage until the end, with Guyana's Calvin Ming (Pabst Racing) also in close attendance.

Norway's Ayla Agren (Team Pelfrey), New Yorker Andre Castro (Newman Wachs Racing) and Australian Luke Gabin (Exclusive Autosport) completed the top 10 ahead of Englishman Toby Sowery, who made a solid debut for the new Benik team, and Devin Wojcik (ArmsUp Motorsports), from Syracuse, N.Y., who earned the Tilton Hard Charger Award for a fine drive to 12th after starting 20th.

Cape Motorsports earned another PFC Award as the winning team, while Frederick took home the Staubli Award.

Askew currently leads the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda after three races by a margin of 90 points to 69 over VeeKay. Frederick currently lies third on 62, followed by Thompson on 57 and Megennis on 53.