In today’s first two rounds of the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship at Barber Motorsports Park, honors were shared as Yuven Sundaramoorthy (Pabst Racing) and Prescott Campbell (DEForce Racing) both took well-deserved first victories. Second place in the opening game of the Cooper Tires Grand Prix of Alabama enabled 20-year-old Campbell, a mechanical engineering student at Oxford Brookes University in Great Britain, to take the lead in the championship early on.
After starting on pole position for race 2, Campbell’s teammate Nolan Siegel of Palo Alto, California had to settle for second place, while Josh Pierson of Wilsonville, Oregon also had a great day and won a pair of thirds. Place ends for Pabst Racing.
Sundaramoorthy had a dream start into his third full season with USF2000 in qualifying yesterday when he won his first Cooper Tires Pole Award. The lap of 1: 21.1201, an average speed of 102,071 miles per hour, clearly exceeded the old course record set by Englishman Michael Epps in 2014.
The 18-year-old college freshman used his pace and experience to build his lead to hold at the beginning. He stayed under heavy pressure from Campbell for a few laps after being careful early on but refused to be distracted. Instead, he did a series of 10 ultra-consistent laps, all within a few tenths of a second, to catch a breath and secure a finely judged first win of 2.3321 seconds.
« That feels so good « It took so long, so long to work, » said Sundaramoorthy. “It feels great to finally do this and do it from pole position. I didn’t get a quick lap so I didn’t get the Grand Slam of points but I’ll take it! I knew Prescott would burn his tires in the aero wash so I just waited for him to fall back and focused on putting my laps together flawlessly. There was a lot of pressure, so mistakes were my main concern, but everything worked out. And when my teammate is on the podium with lots of points for the team, that’s much better. The Pabst team put it all together and the Cooper tires held up perfectly. “
P1 Yuven Sundaramoorthy @PabstRacing P2 Prescott Campbell @DEForceRacing P3 Josh Pierson @PabstRacing #RoadToIndy | #TeamCooperTire pic.twitter.com/pinY7Qn6xf
Campbell of Newport, Beach, Calif. Also clinched his best USF2000 result to date after joining DEForce Racing for his second campaign despite his challenge to win couldn’t maintain, but had to focus on the challenge from behind when Pierson seemed to be stuck to his gearbox.
Michael d’Orlando (Cape Motorsports) of Hartsdale, NY, finished fourth three seconds after taking a race-long challenge from Christian Brooks (Exclusive Autosport) from Santa Clarita, California, and impressive teammate Billy Frazer had fended off. from Pukekohe, New Zealand who was the top rookie finisher and also received the Tilton Hard Charger Award after working his way up from 12th on the grid. Rookie colleagues Spike Kohlbecker (Cape Motorsports) from St. Louis, Missouri, and Jace Denmark (Pabst Racing) from Scottsdale, Arizona, were also just behind, although Denmark had run to fifth before it made a few small ones Mistake.
Siegel, who finished a disappointing 10th in the opening race but demonstrated his speed by winning the fastest lap of the race worth an extra championship point, had another opportunity to win in Race 2 shine, for which he had received the Cooper Tires Pole Award a second qualifying on Friday.
« I’m disappointed, but overall it was a good day, » said Siegel. « It’s great for the team and also for the championship. At this point, the first races are already about preparing the last part of the season for the title. We get away from the weekend with good points, a pole and a podium know that the DEForce cars in St. Pete have been fast in the past, so we’re looking ahead. I’m looking forward to it. «
The start was delayed until after qualifying for the NTT IndyCar Series due to a power outage and began with the DEForce trio of Siegel, Campbell and the Brazilian Kiko Porto taking the first three places. Significantly cooler conditions and a couple of quick precautionary measures created a bit of a mess when Pierson jumped from sixth to fourth and, more importantly, Campbell took the lead when Siegel slipped a little far after the second restart on Turn 1 on lap 7 .
From there, Campbell never looked back as he had a narrow lead over four pursuers for the remainder of the race. He finally took the checkered flag a little over half a second ahead of Siegel with Pierson, Porto and Brooks practically in his bike lanes.
« It’s hard to put this into words. I’m just thrilled to finally get this done », said Campbell. “I qualified P2 for race one, finished P2 for race two, P2 for race 1, so I was really hungry for a better race and finally made it. I drove a clean race, no mistakes, and that was the difference. With the aero wash it’s hard to get around here so it’s a mistake to change position when you’re this close, but I’m disappointed for Nolan. A big thank you to the team, they gave us the best car this weekend, as shown by the performance of my team-mates – and thanks to my parents, they are the ones who brought me here and also my sponsors. «
What a fight @ PCampbell_60 to fend off his @ DEForceRacing teammate @nolan_siegel and get the Checkers out of USF2000 in Race 2 here at Barber! 🏁🍾 # RoadToIndy | #TeamCooperTire | #HIGPA pic.twitter.com / TSVIl9D7N8
Pierson added, « I fought it well in Race 1 but it’s so hard to do here in the aero wash and it’s easy to go wrong. There are lots of places where where you run off when you touch a wheel. It was tough not putting a wheel under the wrong pressure in a race, but in the end neither Yuven nor Prescott made mistakes. I wish I could have gone for victory, but there is always that next time. Michael (d’Orlando) pushed me pretty hard at the beginning and I enjoyed it. In Race 2 I feel like I’m the only car that really moves and I enjoyed that too. In the end I couldn’t do anything, but I had a good pace and a good run – and a double elpodest on the day so it’s a great way to start the season. «
Myles Rowe of New York, New York also made an impressive debut for both himself and the Force Indy team that is part of INDCAR’s Race for Equality & Change. Rowe, who started fourth, slipped down in ninth place before making some good passes in the closing stages to get on Brooks’ heels.
Rookie Jackson Lee (Jay Howard Driver Development) of Avon, Indiana won the Tilton Hard Charger Award after he had climbed from 23rd place on the grid to 14th place after a problem in qualifying.
Augie Pabst and cousins David and Ernesto Martinez from DE Force Racing each received a PFC Award for winning team owners.
The USF2000 protagonists will face an entirely different challenge in less than a week as they face the unforgiving streets of St. Petersburg, Florida for another pair of races to be held again in support of the NTT IndyCar series / p> preliminary ige championship points after 2 of 18 races:
1. Prescott Campbell, 56
2. Josh Pierson, 44
3. Yuven Sundaramoorthy, 43
4. Nolan Siegel, 37
5. Christian Brooks, 34
6. Michael d’Orlando, 31
7. Kiko Porto, 30
8. Josh Green, Jan.
9. Spike Kohlbecker, 24
10. Billy Frazer, 23
[…] Pierson added: “I fought it well in the first race but it’s so hard to get around here in the aero wash and it’s easy to make a mistake – there are many places where you touch a wheel I’m gone. It was tough not putting a bike under the wrong pressure in the race, but in the end neither Yuven nor Prescott made any mistakes. I wish I could have gone for victory, but there’s always next time. Michael (d’Orlando) pushed me pretty hard at the beginning and I enjoyed that. In race two I feel like I’m the only car that really moves, and I enjoyed that too. I couldn’t do anything in the end, but I had a good pace and run – and a double podium a day, so it’s a great way to start the season. « Myles Rowe of New York, New York also made an impressive debut for both himself and the Force Indy team, which is part of INDCAR’s Race for Equality & Change. Rowe, who started fourth, slipped to ninth place before making some good passes in the closing stages to get on Brooks’ heels. Avon, Indiana rookie Jackson Lee (Jay Howard Driver Development) won the Tilton Hard Charger Award after beating after a problem in qualifying on Jan. . Starting position had climbed to 14th place. Augie Pabst and cousins David and Ernesto Martinez from DE Force Racing each received a PFC Award as winning team owner. The USF2000 protagonists will experience a completely different challenge in less than a week, when they face the unforgiving streets of St. Petersburg, Florida for another pair of races to be re-run in support of the NTT IndyCar Series NIS 2 races 2 preliminary championship points after 2 of 18 races: 1st Prescott Campbell, 562. Josh Pierson, 443. Yuven Sundaramoorthy, 434. Nolan Siegel, 375. Christian Brooks, 346. Michael d’Orlando, 317. Kiko Porto, 308 Josh Green, 269. Spike Kohlbecker, 2410. Billy Frazer, 23 Quellelink […]
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