Victory, and the title, go to Garcia in USF Pro 2000’s first Toronto race

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography

Max Garcia was crowned USF Pro 2000 champion with three races to spare by winning the opening race in Toronto.

Garcia led lights-to-flag and finished with a lead of over three seconds despite two safety car interruptions. 

His Pabst Racing team-mate eam-mate Jacob Douglas was second, having spent the race battling Velocity Racing Development’s Max Taylor.

From pole, Garcia immediately began pulling away while fellow front row starter Alessandro de Tulio slipped backwards and Douglas battled Jay Howard Driver Development’s debutant Liam McNeilly.

Douglas kept McNeilly behind and soon began challenging Taylor for second, giving Garcia further opportunity to pull away.

The gap was undone when TJ Speed’s Sebastian Manson hit the wall at turn 11 on lap 11 and the pace car was brought out.

Douglas was straight on the attack when racing resumed, pulling alongside Taylor while McNeilly stayed close behind. Taylor again managed to hold off Douglas, but by the latter staying on his tail his focus was on behind rather than ahead and Garcia pulled away.

Garcia had built a lead of over six seconds by the time the pace car returned on lap 16 of 25. Michael Costello and Logan Adams had been battling for sixth when they came together. Adams was squeezed between Costello and the wall, and made contact with Costello’s rear-left tyre. Costello was deemed to be at fault for the incident, which ended both of their races.

Douglas was on the attack again on the restart, this time managing to get ahead of Taylor. He tried to fight back and Douglas defended well, allowing his team-mate to race away from the rest of the field.

By the time he took the chequered flag, Garcia had a three-second advantage. Taylor was 0.64s further back in third.

McNeilly struggled with front-right tyre lock-ups throughout the race, putting him at a disadvantage as he battled Exclusive Autosport’s Mac Clark for fourth.

Clark managed to find a way past midway through the race but was unable to pull away until McNeilly’s inexperience showed late on and he began to drop back.

Garcia’s closest title rival Ariel Elkin climbed up from 10th to fifth, ahead of Frankie Mossman and McNeilly.

Jorge Garciarce finished eighth ahead of Joey Brienza and Tyke Durst, who climbed up from the back of the grid to 10th after an accident in qualifying. 

After slipping backwards on the opening lap, de Tullio made contact and crawled back to the pits with damage. He would not rejoin the race.

Post-race, Elkin was handed a 30-second penalty that dropped him to 10th and Taylor was disqualified, putting Clark on the podium.

Race results (30 laps)