Gavin Baker Photography
Garcia romps to USF Pro 2000 double at Road America
This weekend’s Elite Engines Grand Prix of Road America kicked off Saturday with a pair of 15-lap races, both of which were dominated by USF Pro 2000 Presented by Continental Tire championship leader Max Garcia.
Garcia, 16, from Coconut Grove, Fla., the winner of last year’s USF2000 crown, claimed maximum points in both 15-lap races to open up a commanding 74-point lead heading into Sunday's 12th out of 18 races this season.
Exclusive Autosport’s Mac Clark, from Milton, Ont., Canada, and Garcia’s teammate Jacob Douglas, from Christchurch, New Zealand, shared the other two podium positions in both races.
Garcia cemented his status as the championship leader during the pair of qualifying sessions on Friday, posting the fastest time in both and securing another pair of Continental Tire Pole Awards.
Last year’s USF Juniors champion, Max Taylor, from Hoboken, N.J., qualified a strong second for this morning’s race for VRD Racing, only for his hopes to be blunted by a gearbox issue which immediately dropped him back into the pack.
Garcia established a handy advantage on the opening lap as teammate Douglas led the charge behind him. Clark also was tucked in underneath the New Zealander’s rear wing.
While Garcia was able to escape the draft and pull clear at the front, Douglas wasn’t so fortunate. On lap three, Clark used the additional straight line speed to his advantage by pulling alongside Douglas on the uphill front straightaway and then slotting into second place at Turn One.
Clark, however, had nothing for Garcia, who extended his lead with each lap before turning the fastest lap of the race at two-thirds distance to ensure a maximum score of 33 championship points.
A fine start saw English rookie Joseph Loake vault from seventh place to fourth on the opening lap before ceding the position to Turn 3 Motorsport teammate – and title contender – Alessandro de Tullio, from Miami, Fla.
Joey Brienza, from Golden, Colo., earned his best finish of the season thus far, sixth for Exclusive Autosport, while TJ Speed Motorsports’ Ariel Elkin, from Haifa, Israel, overcame some stubborn electrical gremlins in qualifying to rise from 17th on the grid to seventh. The performance earned Elkin the Tilton Hard Charger Award.
Road America's ambient temperature had increased substantially prior to the afternoon’s race, which began with Garcia once again taking the Continental Tire Pole Award and Clark lining up alongside on the front row of the grid.
The fast circuit generally produces plenty of overtaking excitement as the long straightaways provide a terrific slipstream effect, but there was no catching Garcia today.
Even a brief full-course caution when teammate Michael Costello, from Naples, Fla., ground to a halt in Turn 8, failed to disrupt Garcia, who calmly held his ground at the restart and then cruised away to his second victory of the day and his fourth of the year.
Taylor led the pursuit of Garcia until the caution, but it was Douglas who profited at the restart, drafting from fourth to second at the first corner and then holding off Clark for the remainder of the race.
Elkin once again provided much of the excitement. Up from 16th on the grid to 10th on the opening lap, Elkin continued his rapid progress by jumping to fifth at the restart and then passing Taylor for fourth. Elkin stayed close to Douglas and Clark for much of the race before slipping back a little in the closing stages. Still, fourth was his reward, along with a second Tilton Hard Charger Award.
Augie Pabst, whose eponymous team is based in nearby Oconomowoc, Wis., pocketed the day’s pair of PFC Awards as the winning car owner.
The USF Pro 2000 contenders will be back in action bright and early Sunday morning, June 22, for a third 15-lap race which is slated to see a green flag at 7:55 a.m. CDT.
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