Escorpioni gets closer to USF Juniors title by winning Portland race one

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography

Zanella Racing’s Leonardo Escorpioni got closer to the USF Juniors title by winning race one of the final round at Portland.

Pre-event testing preceded the finale action on Thursday, and Jay Howard Driver Development’s Liam Loiacono set a 1m14.7522s to take top spot by 0.1133 seconds over title rival Escorpioni. Velocity Racing Development’s Matan Achituv was third, 0.201s behind, and Zanella’s Ty Fisher was just 0.0083s slower than him in fourth.

Joao Vergara was 0.2668s off the pace in fifth, but became the driver to beat the next morning as he set a 1m14.7327s to top practice. Escorpioni trailed by 0.1135s in second, DEForce Racing’s Patricio Gonzalez was 0.206s back in third, and 0.0328s faster than Achituv. Just over 0.1s split third and eighth place, with VRD’s title outsider Oliver Wheldon in seventh.

Qualifying was a few hours later, and Escorpioni took race one pole with a late improvement. Fisher had set a 1m14.7048s mid-session that put him 0.0302s ahead of Loiacono, but Escorpioni was able to find more pace towards the end and went quickest by 0.1097s.

Vergara was fourth fastest, 0.2458s off pole and 0.0166s ahead of DEForce’s Rodrigo Gonzalez. Wheldon again was the weakest title contender, but only 0.2642s off pole in sixth.

Drivers’ second-best laptimes set race two’s grid, and Escorpioni got another pole with a 1m14.6008s lap. Fisher was 0.1511s behind in second, and Rodrigo Gonzalez edged Wheldon, Vergara and Loiacono to third. The quartet were separated by 0.0391s on pace.

Race one ended Friday’s running, and it was chaotic. Fisher dived down Escorpioni’s inside into the opening corner but went too deep and was back into second at turn two, with Loiacono then passing him too through turn three. Wheldon fell down the order in an incident, and Zanella’s Rahim Alibhai was spun around and retired on the spot.

A caution period was required, and Wheldon pitted. He exited back onto track as racing resumed on lap four.

The top three all locked up entering turn one, with Escorpioni being pushed through the runoff by the two drivers immediately behind. Wheldon slowed to almost a stop to get out of the way, Patricio Gonzalez spun into brother Rodrigo, and Pole Position Motorsports’ Connor Aspley ploughed into a driver ahead. Aspley was penalised 30s, but as a retiree it made no impact.

Another caution period was needed, Loiacono pitted and now Vergara and DEForce’s Vilho Aatola were second and third.

The next restart was on lap nine, and Vergara was instantly alongside Escorpioni. He cut turn one entirely to stay ahead, while Vergara went deep and lost out to Aatola.

There were some more spins and contact in the field, but racing continued and Escorpioni built a two-second lead in the remaining laps. Fisher rejoined the battle for second, but it was Vergara who made progress with a lap 13 pass on Aatola.

Loiacono recovered to 11th and is now Escorpioni’s sole title rival, as Vergara, Fisher and Wheldon down in 18th all exited contention.

Race results (15 laps)