Escorpioni cleans up in USF Pro 2000 Portland finale

Leonardo Escorpioni extended his lead in the USF Pro 2000 Presented by Continental Tire championship following a dominant victory to close out the Continental Tire Grand Prix of Portland. The Florida-based Brazilian had to work hard for his fifth victory of the season for Turn 3 Motorsport, working his way from seventh in the early stages, but once into the lead he cruised away after another stylish performance.

Escorpioni’s closest challenger in the championship, Jack Jeffers, finished second on the road for Exclusive Autosport before a penalty dropped him to fourth in the final results behind Pabst Racing teammates G3 Argyros and Colin Aitken.

The grid for today’s race was set by each driver’s second-fastest lap for the solitary qualifying session on Saturday. Escorpioni duly scooped his fourth Continental Tire Pole Award of the campaign, although the application of a three-grid-place penalty for avoidable contact yesterday relegated him to fourth on the grid behind Jeffers, Argyros and JHDD powered by ECR’s Andres Cardenas.

Portland International Raceway’s tight first chicane provided the usual drama on the opening lap. Nose-to-tail contact between Cardenas and Jeffers resulted in the polesitter having to take to the escape road... which he performed masterfully so that he only fell to fifth place in the order behind Cardenas, Aitken, who started fifth, Teddy Musella (VRD Racing) and Argyros. However, the race stewards determined that Jeffers had impeded several pursuers at Turn 4, and therefore handed him a five-second penalty which would be served post-race.

Cardenas also received a substantial penalty for hitting Jeffers at the first corner, although that became moot when the Peruvian’s car slowed abruptly with a mechanical problem after leading the first 12 laps. He was done for the day.

Escorpioni, meanwhile, had been flying up the order after being elbowed down to seventh place during the early exchanges. The Brazilian easily disposed of Aitken in Turn 4 for second place on lap 11, and was hot on the heels of Cardenas when the race leader faltered on the exit of the first chicane.

Escorpioni never looked back. He had pulled out a margin of over eight seconds by the time the caution flags fluttered for the first and only time after 18 laps when Musella’s car also gave up the ghost and stranded him on the front straightaway while running in third place. No bother. Escorpioni took off again at the restart and was comfortably clear before easing his pace in the closing stages. Escorpioni also claimed the GhostLap Fastest Race of the Weekend Award.

“I had an amazing race," said Escorpioni. "The start didn't go how we planned. I fell down to like seventh, I think. After that it was about staying clean. I knew I had a lot more pace than everyone. We showed it in qualifying and in all the practices. It was about staying clean, making clean overtakes and then Cardenas had an issue and he had a penalty as well. So, I mean I'm super happy to come up with the win and I'm super happy to go into Canada with the points lead. Let's see how it goes from there.”

After losing a place to Escorpioni early on, Jeffers found a way past Argyros after 14 laps, then shadowed the impressive Aitken before making the move for second with four laps remaining.

Jeffers romped away before the addition of his time penalty, and then Aitken offered no serious challenge to his championship-chasing teammate, Argyros, heading into the Turn 10/11 chicane for the final time, which elevated yesterday’s race winner to second position.

VRD Racing’s Frankie Mossman struggled for pace in the late stages but narrowly managed to fend off the advances of TJ Speed Motorsports’ Thomas Schrage. Mossman still did enough to claim the Tilton Hard Charger Award after having started 10th.

Turn 3 Motorsport’s Peter Dempsey pocketed the PFC Award as the winning team owner.

There will be only a brief respite before the USF Pro 2000 field reconvenes for a brand-new event next weekend on the streets of Markham, Ont., Canada, for another doubleheader event. Escorpioni currently holds a 25-point edge over Jeffers in the quest for a scholarship valued at $593,056 to advance next year to Indy NXT with six races remaining on the docket.

Provisional championship points after 12 of 18 rounds:

1. Leonardo Escorpioni, 278

2. Jack Jeffers, 251

3. G3 Argyros, 233

4. Frankie Mossman, 193

5. Andres Cardenas, 192

6. Thomas Schrage, 177

7. Michael Costello, 166

8. Teddy Musella, 149

9. Brady Golan, 147

10. Christian Cameron, 144.