Garcia dominates at Portland for eighth USF Pro 2000 win of 2025

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography

Max Garcia dominated the penultimate race of the USF Pro 2000 season at Portland for his eighth victory of 2025.

The Pabst Racing driver went from third to first on lap one and was untouchable thereon.

Velocity Racing Development’s Frankie Mossman had started from pole for the first time after setting the pace in qualifying.

Garcia spent most of the session on top, and was the first to lap sub-1m08s. Mossman jumped up to second late on, demoting Exclusive Autosport’s Mac Clark to third, then he and Garcia continued improving.

Each lap of Garcia’s kept him ahead of Mossman, and on provisional pole, until the later’s penultimate effort as a 1m07.509s moved him 0.0796 seconds ahead. Garcia could not improve, and Clark pipped him to second with a lap 0.0045s shy of Mossman’s best.

Turn 3 Motorsport’s Alessandro de Tullio was 0.1989s off pole in fourth, then 0.0844s split the next four drivers. VRD’s Max Taylor trailed Mossman by 0.3142s in fifth, and had a 0.05s advantage over Michael Costello. His Pabst team-mate Jacob Douglas was a further 0.0035s behind, and TJ Speed’s Ariel Elkin – Garcia’s closest rival in the standings – was eighth.

Mossman’s advantage was lost in the race after the field ran four-wide heading into the opening corner. He locked up and was on the backfoot already by turn two, as Garcia kept his car on track to take the lead ahead of Clark.

Before Garcia could break away, a caution period was called for on lap two as TJ Speed’s debutant Miles Bromley spun off at turn two.

Clark challenged Garcia when racing resumed, but Mossman was closer to him than he was to Garcia and while his attentions were split the 2025 champion started pulling away up front.

In a matter of laps he was several seconds clear, with the gap standing at 3.7564s at the end of the 30-lap race. Clark managed to shake off Mossman, then enjoyed a quiet race to move up to second in the points table.

Mossman came under pressure from Taylor late on. He had passed de Tullio off the line, and stuck with Mossman after the restart. He was never quite close enough to challenge for position though, and Mossman held on to take his second consecutive podium.

After losing fourth, de Tullio continued to slip backwards behind Costello and Douglas. However, Costello soon began to struggle in fifth, and was overtaken by Douglas and de Tullio in rapid succession. Elkin was a lonely eighth, which dropped him behind Clark in the standings.

The closest battle through most of the race was for ninth. Sebastian Manson held onto the position for TJ Speed, but had Exclusive Autosport’s Joey Brienza close on his tail throughout. The pair ran side-by-side at one point, but a small mistake by Brienza allowed Turn 3’s Cooper Becklin to attempt a move.

Brienza held him off, but his Turn 3 team-mates Brady Golan and Tyke Durst closed onto the back of the fight.

Race results (30 laps)