Caleb Gafrarar becomes a USF2000 race-winner at Mid-Ohio

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography

Pabst Racing’s Caleb Gafrarar claimed his maiden USF2000 victory in the opening race at Mid-Ohio.

Gafrarar was only 10th fastest in pre-event testing on Thursday, led by Jay Howard Driver Development’s Anthony Martella. He set a 1m21.5720s to pip Velocity Racing Development’s Thomas Schrage by 0.0776 seconds, with Exclusive Autosport’s Jack Jeffers 0.2818s behind in third.

Free practice followed on Friday morning, and Martella was quickest again. Late in the half-hour session he improved to a new personal best of 1m21.2013s, putting him 0.2058s ahead of Gafrarar. He denied Schrage second place by 0.00165s and his VRD team-mate Teddy Musella by 0.0271s.

Qualifying ran green throughout so the session lasted 20 minutes, and it came down to the final laps in the battle for pole. Less than a second covered the top 15, but this time there was a larger gap at the top as a 1m21.2201s earned Schrage race one pole by 0.1985s.

Jeffers was second after failing to improve on his final lap, and Gafrarar was 0.2665s off pole in third. VRD’s Christian Cameron was fourth, edging Musella and Exclusive’s Lucas Fecury.

Propping up the timesheet was DEForce Racing’s debutant Vaughn Mishko. The 16-year-old came 10th in the F2000 Championship Series points table last year, then switched to sportscars to race in the USA’s Mazda MX-5 Cup.

Race one began with a lap under yellow flag conditions, and at the end of lap two Benchmark Autosport’s Ayrton Houk and VRD’s Ryan Giannetta had big offs after contact but were able to continue.

Fecury climbed two spots, with Cameron dropping behind him and Musella and then also Martella and Pabst’s G3 Argyros on lap three.

A fight at the front began on lap four as Jeffers made a diving move at turn four. He left minimal room exiting the corner and Schrage went off, which cost him two spots. At the same time, Fecury was demoted back to fifth by Musella.

Giannetta went off and caused a caution period that ran from lap six to lap eight, and during that Jeffers let Gafrarar and Schrage past.

On the restart lap, Jeffers reclaimed second with another dive at turn four. He again compromised Schrage, who just about held off Musella through the next corners.

Although the gap to Gafrarar then reduced, the leader only let Jeffers get within 0.6s of him before pulling away to win by 2.0586s.

Points leader Schrage was a further 1.2582s behind, and Musella stayed in his tow for the rest of the race but never challenged for position.

Fecury faced a last-lap attack from Martella, who covered the inside line on the run to turn three in defence. That set Martella up for the outside line into turn four, where their side-by-side action went wrong and Martella. He only lost one spot, to Cameron, but came under pressure from Argyros at the end.

Race results (20 laps)