Photo: Gavin Baker Photography / Road to Indy
Cape Motorsports’ Michael d’Orlando pulled a brilliant move to win in this weekend’s first USF200 race at Mid-Ohio, and he moves up to second in the standings.
It was a smooth start for the frontrunners who were able to keep their starting position, with DEForce Racing’s Kiko Porto leading the field away from pole.
Meanwhile in the midfield, Prescott Campbell and Myles Rowe made contact at turn one, and were forced to retire. The incident created the first full course yellow situation of the race.
Porto was able to hold the lead after the restart and was leading comfortably when another full course yellow appeared in lap 12 to recover Erik Evans’ car who spun after being hit from behind.
It was d’Orlando’s time to shine once the race resumed as he pulled an outstanding move round the outside of Porto to take the lead.
Porto couldn’t challenge d’Orlando back in the remaining laps, and the title rivals finished 1.6 seconds apart. Despite d’Orlando winning, Porto extends his points lead.
Third place went to Simon Sikes, who held on to his starting position for all 20 laps of the race, while the first FCY restart played out well for Billy Frazer, who overtook Nolan Siegel for fourth place after a close battle.
The top 10 was completed by Bijoy Garg, Jace Denmark-Gessel, Josh Pierson, Josh Green and Yuven Sundaramoorthy.
For former points leader Sundaramoorthy it wasn’t a strong afternoon as, despite making up three places to finish in the top 10, he lost second in the standings to d’Orlando.
Thomas Nepveu, who claimed his maiden win last time out at Road America came home in 13th after starting 11th.
Turn 3 Motorsport’s 14 year-old Christian Weird gained four places during the race and finished 17th in his USF2000 debut.
The grid for race two has been settled on second-best qualifying laps for the front places, and it will be Porto who starts at the front again for tomorrow’s race.
Race results (20 laps)
| Pos | Name | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael d’Orlando | Cape Motorsports | 33m44.9482s |
| 2 | Kiko Porto | DEForce Racing | +1.6140s |
| 3 | Simon Sikes | Legacy Autosport | +3.2726s |
| 4 | Billy Frazer | Exclusive Autosport | +3.8757s |
| 5 | Nolan Siegel | DEForce Racing | +4.1066s |
| 6 | Bijoy Garg | JHDD | +4.8110s |
| 7 | Jace Denmark-Gessel | Pabst Racing | +5.3292s |
| 8 | Josh Pierson | Pabst Racing | +5.7526s |
| 9 | Josh Green | Turn 3 Motorsport | +6.6051s |
| 10 | Yuven Sundaramoorthy | Pabst Racing | +6.9299s |
| 11 | Christian Brooks | Exclusive Autosport | +7.7727s |
| 12 | Matt Round-Garrido | Exclusive Autosport | +8.1902s |
| 13 | Thomas Nepveu | Cape Motorsports | +8.8309s |
| 14 | Spike Kohlbecker | Cape w/ Ignite Autosport | +9.1594s |
| 15 | Peter Vodanovich | JHDD | +9.6646s |
| 16 | Evan Stamer | Cape w/ Ignite Autosport | +11.1627s |
| 17 | Christian Weir | Turn 3 Motorsport | +12.1115s |
| 18 | Jackson Lee | JHDD | +12.3613s |
| 19 | Ely Navarro | DEForce Racing | +12.6608s |
| 20 | Dylan Christie | Turn 3 Motorsport | +13.0486s |
| 21 | Kent Vaccaro | Miller Vinatieri Motorsports | +15.0751s |
| 22 | Trey Burke | Joe Dooling Autosports | +15.6905s |
| 23 | Nathan Byrd | Legacy Autosport | +24.7594s |
| Ret | Michael Myers | Michael Myers Racing | |
| Ret | Erik Evans | Velocity Racing Development | |
| Ret | Chase Hyland | JHDD | |
| Ret | Prescott Campbell | DEForce Racing | |
| Ret | Myles Rowe | Force Indy | |
| Fastest lap: d’Orlando, 1m22.2743s
Championship standings |
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