Jeffers tightens USF2000 title race with Mid-Ohio win

Jack Jeffers, from San Antonio, Texas, drove a textbook race Saturday at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for Exclusive Autosport. Jeffers’ second win of the USF2000 Presented by Continental Tire season moved him to within five points of Ohioan Thomas Schrage, who suffered a disappointing day after starting on pole position for VRD Racing.

Friday race winner Caleb Gafrarar, from Charlotte, N.C., finished hot on the tail of Jeffers for Pabst Racing, while VRD’s Teddy Musella, from Orlando, Fla., took third.

Schrage, from Bethel, Ohio, once again started at the front of the field after claiming his second Continental Tire Pole Award during qualifying on Friday, when he posted the best of each driver’s second-fastest laps.

A messy start to the race saw the pace car scrambled almost immediately due to a mid-pack coming-together between several cars just moments after the green flag flew. Unfortunately, both Ayrton Houk (Benchmark Autosport), from McCordsville, Ind., and Ryan Giannetta (VRD Racing), from Redondo Beach, Calif., were eliminated.

The restart proved disastrous for Schrage, who hesitated when the green flag flew and was immediately enveloped by the pack. Worse, contact a little later in the lap caused some front end damage which eventually forced him into the pits for repairs.

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Jeffers needed no second bidding. He immediately swept into the lead, which he maintained after another brief full-course caution when VRD Racing’s Christian Cameron, from Sonoma, Calif., found himself shuffled into the gravel at the exit of Turn 2.

Gafrarar and Musella, who rebounded quickly from an early miscue, kept the pressure on Jeffers throughout the 20-lap race. Musella was the primary aggressor in the early stages, but a fired-up Gafrarar found a way past with four laps remaining and continued to challenge hard in the closing stages before finally being forced to settle for second.

Musella couldn’t quite match that pace in the waning laps but still held onto third ahead of the second Pabst Racing entry of G3 Argyros, from Newport Beach, Calif.

Brazilian Lucas Fecury and Exclusive Autosport teammate Evan Cooley, from Mokena, Ill., also were close behind at the checkered flag.         

For the second day running, Australia’s Eddie Beswick secured the Tilton Hard Charger Award for Synergy Motorsport after keeping his nose clean and climbing from 15th on the grid to seventh.

Exclusive Autosport’s Michael Duncalfe and Joshua Cooley took the PFC Award as the winning car owners.

The PFC Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio tripleheader race weekend will conclude bright and early Sunday, July 6, at 8:20 a.m. EDT, immediately prior to the NTT IndyCar Series’ final warmup.

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