Max Taylor of VRD Racing captured his third win of the season Saturday afternoon within the PFC Grand Prix of Highway America – an important tripleheader spherical main as much as the season finale in two weeks’ time. Taylor, from Hoboken, N.J., entered the weekend with a slim nine-point lead over 5 different drivers who nonetheless have a mathematical likelihood for a shot on the USF Juniors Introduced by Continental Tire championship title and scholarship to advance to USF2000.
5 title contenders sprung to the fore in the course of the lone qualifying session Saturday morning as Taylor finally secured his first Continental Tire Pole Award of the season. Taylor’s finest time of 2m14.7230s (107.260mph) established a brand new qualifying lap report, with early season factors chief and teammate Sebastian Wheldon additionally circulating quicker than the outdated customary.
Wheldon, from Coral Gables, Fla., thus clinched a beginning place for race one on the skin of the entrance row forward of Liam McNeilly (Jay Howard Driver Improvement), from Brentwood, England, and Ariel Elkin (InterMS), from Haifa, Israel. Elkin’s teammate Augusto Soto-Schirripa, from Miami, Fla., and Evan Cooley (Unique Autosport), from Frankfort, Sick., rounded out row three.
What began with a variety of positives didn’t finish properly for 3 of the highest championship rivals.
Taylor held the lead in the beginning as he, Wheldon and McNeilly quickly started to drag away. Misfortune struck Elkin first with an off in Flip 11 on lap two, dropping him to the tail of the sector the place he completed a disappointing twentieth.
By lap 4, Taylor and Wheldon had amassed over a 2s result in the sector as McNeilly fought to carry off a closing pack. That margin was eradicated on the subsequent tour when a yellow got here out for an incident involving G3 Argyros (Jay Howard Driver Improvement), of Newport Seaside, Calif., and Bruno Ribeiro (DEForce Racing), of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in Flip 8. A crimson flag shortly adopted in the course of the clear as much as protect racing laps.
The race resumed on lap six with an important battle within the lead group. Hassle for each Wheldon and McNeilly discovered its manner on lap 9 with Wheldon going off beam on the exit of Flip 5 as McNeilly spun dropping them to ninth and fifteenth respectively ultimately outcomes.
Taylor romped off to a 1.8s margin of victory with Soto-Schirripa, who was shuffled again in the beginning, rebounding to say his fifth podium end in second and Cooley in third.
“Superior day right here and superior first race at Highway America,” Taylor mentioned. “I had nearly most factors and was only a tenth away on the quickest lap though I used to be on their lonesome so the tempo is totally wonderful with the VRD automobile. The complete course yellow didn’t assist an excessive amount of, however I’m nonetheless comfortable to get the win. It was a variety of onerous work from all of the VRD boys and this automobile is simply speedy due to it and I can’t thank them sufficient.”
Cooley was subsequently assessed with a post-race penalty for avoidable contact dropping him to fifteenth. In consequence, Jack Jeffers (Unique Autosport), from San Antonio, Tex., was credited along with his fifth podium end of the season and teammate Joao Vergara his finest lead to fourth. Leonardo Escorpioni (Zanella Racing), from Windermere, Fla., rounded out the highest 5.
Patricio Gonzalez, from Mexico Metropolis, Mexico, took house the Tilton Arduous Charger Award with a achieve of 9 positions for DEForce DD. Dan Mitchell pocketed the PFC Award because the profitable automobile proprietor.
The weekend will conclude with one other pair of 10-lap races Sunday with the inexperienced flags set to fly at 9:30 a.m. and a couple of:50 p.m. CDT.
