Hughes crowned USF Pro 2000 champion, Johnson wins in the wet

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography

Nikita Johnson claimed his seventh win of the USF Pro 2000 season in the penultimate race at Portland, while sixth place was enough for Lochie Hughes to be crowned champion.

The title rivals shared the front row of the grid, with Pabst Racing duo Simon Sikes and Jace Denmark immediately behind them. Although it was sunny, a wet track meant nobody was using slick tyres and it was so slippy that drivers were colliding before even reaching turn one.

TJ Speed’s Liam Sceats and Velocity Racing Development’s Noah Ping retired on the spot, Pabst’s Glenn van Berlo copped a drive-through penalty for cutting turn two then slid way off at turn four and fell to the back of the field.

A caution period was required, and on the lap three restart Turn 3 Hughes had a gap and there was a three-wide fight for second. Hughes cut turn one on the inside, Sikes was in the middle and Jay Howard Driver Development’s Frankie Mossman swept past both on the outside.

Turn 3 Motorsport’s Danny Dyszelski had an off and Denmark went spinning later in the lap. Denmark then had to pit due to a puncture, and on lap five BN Racing’s Ricardo Escotto demoted Hughes to fifth. His team-mate Alessandro de Tullio passed Hughes too on lap seven.

Johnson initially could not escape Mossman, but they both sprinted away from Sikes, who also had a big gap behind him.

As the track dried out, Johnson was able to grow his lead to over a second and then the action started to settle down.

In the race’s second half, Sikes began to reduce the 9.5s gap that had built up and Johnson finally grew his lead to over two seconds on lap 19. A lap later and Sikes was 4.7s behind him, and 3.6s covered the podium trio after 21 laps.

Sikes cleared Mossman at the first attempt, and had four laps to pursue Johnson. He still had 2.2s to make up with two laps to go, and went into the final lap 1.2s behind. By the middle of the final lap he was in Johnson’s tow, and the VRD driver held on to win by 0.669s.

Mossman crossed the line six seconds later, with Escotto 22.25s behind the winner in fourth.

On lap 15, Hughes had started coming under pressure for sixth from team-mate Dyszelski and van Berlo. He initially held them at bay, with van Berlo gaining a place on lap 17 and then overtaking Hughes on lap 18.

He took fifth from de Tullio on lap 24, and sixth place was decided in a photo finish. New champion Hughes took it by 0.2187s over Dyszelski, with de Tullio just 0.0028s behind him.

Race results (27 laps)