Hunter McElrea moved into the USF2000 points lead in the penultimate round of the season with a double win at Portland International Raceway.
McElrea dominated the weekend as he took pole position for both races before enjoying two lights-to-flag victories.
Cape Motorsport’s Braden Eves – who entered the weekend with a nine-point cushion in the standings to McElrea – finished second in both races but didn’t have an answer to McElrea’s pace after the first eight laps of race one.
Eves had a brief scare during race two when he made slight contact with Christian Rasmussen. While he was unscathed, Rasmussen had to make a pitstop to replace a flat tyre.
Rasmussen had challenged Eves for second place during the final moments of race one, with less than a second separating the pair at the chequered flag.
Legacy Autosport’s Zach Holden was catching up to Eves throughout race two after he got round Colin Kaminsky on lap four of 25, but didn’t have enough time to be able to get close to challenge.
Kaminsky finished fourth in both races, closing the gap slightly in the fight for third in the standings with Darren Keane – who ended up in fifth on both occasions – to four points entering the final weekend of the season. Neither driver can catch up to McElrea or Eves in the standings.
Jak Crawford, Manuel Sulaiman, Eduardo Barrichello and Bruna Tomaselli took the chequered flag in sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth respectively in both races in Portland. Holden completed the top 10 in race one, while championship debutant Josh Green finished 10th in the final race of the weekend.
Results round-up
Race 1 (25 laps)
1 Hunter McElrea Pabst Racing 30m10.5952s
2 Braden Eves Cape Motorsports +4.8713s
3 Christian Rasmussen JHDD +5.4358s
4 Colin Kaminsky Pabst Racing +16.1443s
5 Darren Keane Cape Motorsports +17.6402s
6 Jak Crawford Cape Motorsports +19.5516s
7 Manuel Sulaiman DEForce Racing +19.8186s
8 Eduardo Barrichello DEForce Racing +20.5335s
9 Bruna Tomaselli Pabst Racing +22.1288s
10 Zach Holden Legacy Autosport +22.6569s
Pole: McElrea, 1m11.5643s
Fastest lap: McElrea, 1m11.8296s
Race 2 (25 laps)
1 McElrea 30m21.4203s
2 Eves +5.5127s
3 Holden +7.0539s
4 Kaminsky +7.2444s
5 Keane +9.3538s
6 Crawford +13.7975s
7 Sulaiman +17.1918s
8 Barrichello +19.0390s
9 Tomaselli +19.3233s
10 Josh Green JHDD +21.1953s
P: McElrea, 1m10.9164s
FL: Rasmussen, 1m12.2232s
Championship standings
1 McElrea 316? ?2 Eves 310? ?3 Keane 241? ?4 Kaminsky 237? ?5 Rasmussen 225? ?6 Sulaiman 189? ?7 Crawford 160? ?8 Tomaselli 155? ?9 Reece Gold 144? ?10 Holden 140