USF2000 Presented by Continental Tire today reached the halfway point in its 18-race season with the first of two races which will comprise this weekend’s Elite Engines Grand Prix of Road America. The schedule was affected by severe weather Saturday morning, which led to the second race being postponed until Sunday morning, although that will be of little consequence to the locally based Pabst Racing team, which will surely celebrate a fine second win of the season for Sam Corry, from Cornelius, N.C.
A dramatic affair saw Joey Brienza, from Golden, Colo., emerge in second for Exclusive Autosport, while VRD Racing’s Max Taylor, from Hoboken, N.J., rounded out the podium in third.
The race began earlier this afternoon with championship leader Max Garcia, from Coconut Grove, Fla., lining up at the front of the 21-car grid for Pabst Racing after earning his fifth Continental Tire Pole Award of the season during the lone qualifying session held on Friday morning. Unfortunately a heavy rain shower forced officials to red-flag the race after merely one lap behind the Honda Civic Pace Car, which led to a lengthy delay before the race finally was restarted much later in the afternoon.
A sequence of incidents interrupted the flow of the restarted race, such that there was time for merely a two-lap dash to the checkered flag. Corry had usurped teammate Garcia from the race lead during one of the earlier cautions, and assisted by some dramatic weaving in an attempt to break the slipstream, he was able to achieve his goal and take the checkered flag just under one second clear of Brienza.
A poor start saw Taylor, who started on the outside of the front row, slip as low as seventh in the order. But the teenager put his head down as the race reached toward its conclusion, diving to the inside under braking for Turn 12, Canada Corner, on the final lap to emerge in third ahead of Garcia, who had been shuffled back at the final restart, and Elliott Cox, from Indianapolis, Ind.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1483]
Cox, who started seventh for the Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Development team, was involved in an early skirmish which relegated him all the way to 15th. Incredibly, despite a broken front wing, Cox fought back through the field to run as high as third on the final lap before finally being shuffled back to a still impressive fifth.
Ayrton Houk, from McCordsville, Ind., also drove another strong race for the DC Autosport team, rising from 11th on the grid to sixth at the finish, although the Tilton Hard Charger Award was claimed by debutant Jace Bacon (Jay Howard Driver Development), from Gilbert, Ariz., who kept out of trouble and rose from 21st on the grid to 14th.
Also impressive was the recovery drive posted by teammate Michael Costello, from Naples, Fla. His hopes of a good finish seemed to be over after his attempt to overtake to pass Garcia for the lead soon after a restart in Turn One saw him spinning off into the gravel. Remarkably, and with huge credit to the AMR Safety Team, Costello not only was able to rejoin the race, he even contrived to fight his way back to an eighth-place finish.
The PFC Award went to Augie Pabst as the winning car owner.
Saturday’s schedule revisions has led to the second race of the weekend being postponed until 10:30 a.m. Sunday, when VRD Racing’s Max Taylor is due to start from the pole position by virtue of having posted the best of every drivers’ second-fastest lap during qualifying on Friday.