Photo: Gavin Baker Photography
Jacob Douglas and Ariel Elkin won two more eventful USF Pro 2000 races on Saturday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Having already triumphed in a chaotic opening race on Friday, TJ Speed’s Elkin kept the lead from pole position at the start of race two while Douglas went deep in turn one and dropped from second to fourth behind Max Taylor and Mac Clark.
Clark got up to second before the end of the lap, with Taylor trying to fight back into turn one but getting edged wide onto the grass.
After a caution for an incident involving Michael Costello and Sebastian Manson, Elkin retained the lead despite being challenged by Clark and Douglas.
Another caution followed after Carson Etter spun off, and Clark again challenged for the lead at the restart but went deep. Douglas capitalised, first getting inside Taylor and then going around the outside of Clark to regain second.
Elkin spent the next two laps defending from Douglas, with Taylor taking advantage to repass Douglas around the outside at the end of the back straight.
With five laps to go, Taylor braked late down the inside of Elkin into turn one and both cars ended up on the grass. Elkin would fall to fifth while Taylor spun down the order, finishing up 10th.
Douglas picked up the lead and clinched his maiden series win ahead of Clark, while points leader Max Garcia won a late battle with Jace Denmark for third.
Elkin retained the lead once more at the start of race three with chaos ensuing in his wake. Fellow front-row starter Douglas found himself sandwiched in turn one between Taylor on his inside and Alessandro de Tullio on his outside, the Turn 3 Motorsport driver attempting to sweep into second place having started seventh.
Contact was made between Douglas and Taylor that then pitched Douglas into de Tullio, with Clark left with nowhere to go.
Seeing his four closest championship challengers tangle together in front of him, Garcia somehow avoided them to move into second, but lost that place to Frankie Mossman on the restart. On another restart that followed soon afterwards, Mossman locked up and went very deep, losing several places.
A couple of laps later, Garcia ran side-by-side with Elkin for the lead through the opening turns but to no avail. He hen nosed ahead down the pit straight only for Elkin to brake later on the inside to keep the lead.
Next time around, Garcia got fully ahead down the main straight to claim the apex, but Elkin managed to hang around the outside of turn one and get back up the inside of turn two. Garcia then took contact from the recovering Mossman into turn four, and rebounded into Manson on his outside.
Mossman continued in second place but received a drive-through penalty, while Garcia started to fight his way back from 10th.
Elkin was untroubled to the finish, winning by 4.376s over Cooper Becklin, who avoided the chaos from 11th on the grid. Michael Costello completed the podium.
Garcia got up into fourth past Nicholas Monteiro, only to be ordered to hand the place back as a penalty for blocking. He lost out in that process to the recovering Clark, but repassed him before the end and finished just 0.03s behind team-mate Costello.
Results round-up
Race 2 (25 laps)
1 Jacob Douglas Pabst Racing 38m02.9393s
2 Mac Clark Exclusive Autosport +0.7223s
3 Max Garcia Pabst Racing +5.7313s
4 Jace Denmark TJ Speed +7.2802s
5 Ariel Elkin TJ Speed +8.2932s
6 Frankie Mossman Velocity Racing Development +8.8649s
7 Nicholas Monteiro Turn 3 Motorsport +9.4137s
8 Joey Brienza Exclusive Autosport +10.5850s
9 Tanner DeFabis Jay Howard Driver Development +11.9062s
10 Max Taylor Velocity Racing Development +12.2101s
Fastest lap: Alessandro de Tullio, Turn 3 Motorsport, 1m21.3649s
Race 3 (25 laps)
1 Elkin 39m21.0162s
2 Cooper Becklin Turn 3 Motorsport +4.3760s
3 Michael Costello Pabst Racing +5.3377s
4 Garcia +5.3671s
5 Clark +7.5729s
6 Monteiro +9.4486s
7 Sebastian Manson TJ Speed +15.5438s
8 DeFabis +17.5084s
9 Owen Tangavelou DEForce Racing +18.7735s
10 Brienza +19.2391s
FL: Douglas, 1m22.1430s
Championship standings
1 Garcia 202 2 de Tullio 145 3 Elkin 143 4 Clark 140 5 Douglas 123 6 Taylor 121 7 Costello 108 8 Denmark 97 9 Monteiro 90 10 Becklin 88