Ariel Elkin and Sebastian Wheldon each earned a hard-fought victory Sunday in the PFC Grand Prix of Road America to ensure the battle for this year’s USF Juniors Presented by Continental Tire championship crown will not be settled until the final weekend of the season. Elkin, from Haifa, Israel, claimed the honor Sunday morning for InterMS and looked likely to sweep the day until VRD Racing’s Wheldon, from Coral Gables, Fla., drafted past just yards before the finish line to take the victory by 0.0450s.
Elkin had to settle for second place in the third and final race of the weekend, narrowly ahead of points leader Max Taylor (VRD Racing), from Hoboken, N.J.
Sunday morning’s race began with Wheldon leading the field toward the green flag after snagging his second Continental Tire Pole Award of the season by virtue of having posted the best of each driver’s second-fastest laps during the lone qualifying session on Saturday. Fellow title contenders Liam McNeilly (Jay Howard Driver Development), from Brentwood, England, Taylor and Elkin lined up directly behind him on the starting grid.
The action was intense from the get-go, especially with the notoriously strong draft that develops on the super-fast 4.014-mile Road America layout providing myriad opportunities for overtaking.
Unfortunately, incidental contact on lap three between Taylor and Wheldon in Turn 3 while they were disputing the lead resulted in Taylor spinning to the back of the field. Still, a train of nine cars continued to battle for the top spot until the yellow flags waved after InterMS’ Hudson Potter, from Lexington, Ky., spun off at Turn 14.
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The restart with two laps remaining was just as frantic, with surviving InterMS teammates Augusto Soto-Schirripa, from Miami, Fla., and Elkin using the massive slipstream to excellent effect as they demoted Wheldon from first to third in Turn 1. Almost immediately afterward, at Turn 3, Wheldon was involved in another incident, this time with McNeilly, who spun off the track and ultimately finished a disgruntled 17th.
Soto-Schirripa held the point entering the final lap before Elkin took advantage of the draft by slipping through into the lead at Turn 1 and holding on to secure his third win of the season.
Wheldon and Soto-Schirripa took the checkered flag in second and third, but both were later assessed penalties, which promoted Jay Howard Driver Development’s G3 Argyros, from Newport Beach, Calif., and Jack Jeffers (Exclusive Autosport), from San Antonio, Texas, to the final podium positions. Soto-Schirripa’s 5s penalty for blocking saw him slip to 13th in the final results, while Wheldon was placed behind McNeilly in 18th after being adjudged to have jumped the start and held accountable for the late-race incident with the Englishman.
Zanella Racing’s Leonardo Escorpioni, from Sao Paulo, Brazil, earned the Tilton Hard Charger Award after rising from 17th on the grid to fifth at the finish, while InterMS team principal Juan Garavaglia pocketed his fourth PFC Award as the winning car owner.
Taylor battled back to finish sixth following his early incident in the morning’s race, and his fastest lap proved good enough to secure his second Continental Tire Pole Award of the year and the coveted inside front row starting position for the final race of the weekend.
The action once again was fast and furious, but following a few early skirmishes and even a brief red flag stoppage, the final four laps were run caution-free and reached a thrilling climax as Wheldon timed his run out of the final corner and onto the long front straightaway to perfection, drafting past a defenseless Elkin as the leaders crested the rise shortly before the checkered flag.
Taylor minimized the damage to his title aspirations by finishing hot on the heels of Elkin, with McNeilly also close behind.
Christian Cameron, 14, from Sonoma, Calif., scored the best finish of his rookie campaign to round out the top five for VRD Racing.
“I just positioned myself in the correct spot for the last lap and got the win,” Wheldon said. “I was really focused mainly on track position. I think that is the biggest thing here especially to win because the draft is definitely a big part. I was really happy with the race car and the whole VRD crew.”
Zanella Racing’s Diego Guiot, from The Woodlands, Texas, claimed the Tilton Hard Charger Award, making up 11 positions from the start to cross the line in seventh.
The PFC Award went to VRD Racing’s Dan Mitchell as the winning car owner.
The outcome of the USF Juniors Presented by Continental Tire championship will be decided in the triple-header finale at Portland International Raceway, in Portland, Ore., in support of the NTT IndyCar Series on August 23-24.