Photo: Gavin Baker Photography
Alessandro de Tullio survived three restart attacks from Max Garcia to win the first race of the USF Pro 2000 season in St. Petersburg.
Starting from pole position, Turn 3 Motorsport driver de Tullio got the jump on Pabst Racing’s Garcia at the start. His team-mate Elliot Cox held onto third, while Mac Clark climbed from sixth to fourth on the first lap, swapping places with Jacob Douglas.
The first caution period came at the end of lap two after Titus Sherlock vaulted over the rear of Frankie Mossman in the final corner and rolled into the barriers.
When the race restarted at the end of lap six, Garcia challenged his fellow Miami native de Tullio to the outside into Turn 1. Behind them, Clark attempted to attack Cox, and Douglas collided with Sebastian Manson, causing another full-course yellow.
At the next restart, Garcia again looked to the outside of de Tullio to no avail, but Clark did this time succeed in getting past Cox for third.
The third caution period came four laps later when Ariel Elkin dropped out of sixth place after touching the wall on the inside of Turn 9.
This prompted what would be the final restart with 10 laps to go. Once more, Garcia went to the outside of de Tullio, who had to be more forceful in his defence this time, sending both cars deeper and wider through the turn – with perhaps even a bit of contact between them.
De Tullio held on though to take a maiden victory on just his seventh start in the series – having joined the grid late in 2024 following a year-and-a-half out of car racing.
Clark didn’t have the pace to stay with the top two and finished almost eight seconds back from the winner in third as Cox, Michael Costello and a charging Max Taylor queued up behind him. On the last lap, Clark had to go defensive against Cox, who ended up crashing out in Turn 9.
Costello therefore took fourth after starting ninth, while Taylor came from 13th to finish fifth.
Race results (25 laps)
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alessandro de Tullio | Turn 3 Motorsport | 38m36.8900s |
| 2 | Max Garcia | Pabst Racing | +0.8070s |
| 3 | Mac Clark | Exclusive Autosport | +7.9678s |
| 4 | Michael Costello | Pabst Racing | +9.1633s |
| 5 | Max Taylor | VRD Racing | +9.4887s |
| 6 | Cooper Becklin | Turn 3 Motorsport | +10.8754s |
| 7 | Nicholas Monteiro | DEForce Racing | +14.8754s |
| 8 | Jace Denmark | TJ Speed Motorsports | +15.2301s |
| 9 | Logan Adams | Comet/NCMP Racing | +18.0617s |
| 10 | Tanner DeFabis | Jay Howard Driver Development | +18.5658s |
| 11 | Owen Tangavelou | VRD Racing | +19.0167s |
| 12 | George Garciarce | DEForce Racing | +19.6635s |
| 13 | Joey Brienza | Exclusive Autosport | +21.2755s |
| 14 | Tyke Durst | Turn 3 Motorsport | +21.8066s |
| 15 | Carson Etter | Exclusive Autosport | +22.1912s |
| 16 | Charles Finelli | FatBoy Racing | +1m04.1386s |
| Ret | Elliot Cox | Turn 3 Motorsport | |
| Ret | Ariel Elkin | TJ Speed Motorsports | |
| Ret | Sebastian Manson | TJ Speed Motorsports | |
| Ret | Jacob Douglas | Pabst Racing | |
| Ret | Frankie Mossman | Jay Howard Driver Development | |
| Ret | Titus Sherlock | Turn 3 Motorsport | |
| Fastest lap: de Tullio, 1m08.5866s | |||