Photo: Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Kyle Kirkwood equalled J.R. Hildebrand’s record for most wins in a USF2000 season at Portland, taking his 11th and 12th triumphs.
The last time USF2000 visites Portland was in 2006, when future Indianapolis 500 runner-up J.R. Hildebrand won 12 times on the way to the title.
Cape Motorsporrs driver Kirkwood took pole for race one but lost the lead at Turn 2 when Rasmus Lindh drove round the outside of him.
The 2018 champion reclaimed the lead on the next lap, with Pabst Racing’s Lindh and Kaylen Frederick staying in his slipstream.
Their chance to get past seemed to come after a caution period, but both outbraked themselves at Turn 1 while attacking Kirkwood and dropped down the order.
Exclusive Autosport’s Igor Fraga inherited second, but was then penalised for his role in several incidents in the race. Another Pabst driver, Calvin Ming, took second, with DEForce Racing’s Kory Enders completing the adjusted podium.
Lindh limited the damage of his mistake to take fourth ahead of team-mate Lucas Kohl.
After briefly taking the lead in race one, Lindh started from it in race two, and held off Frederick, Kirkwood and Kohl in the first part of the race.
A collision between Jose Sierra and Braden Eves resulted in a caution period and almost the end of Lindh’s race after team-mate Frederick rearended him on the restart.
Somehow Lindh hung on to the lead, but it wasn’t long before Kirkwood found a way through and took his record-equalling victory. Second place for Lindh was still his best result of the season after four third place finishes, and confirmed him as runner-up in the standings.
Fraga jumped from ninth on the grid to run in third, was overtaken by Julian Van der Watt and Kohl, then took fourth from Kohl on the final lap of the race. It wasn’t enough to usurp his fellow Brazilian from third in the standings, falling short by two points.
Results round-up
Race 1 (25 laps)
1 Kyle Kirkwood Cape Motorsports 31m59.6805s
2 Calvin Ming Pabst Racing +2.0184s
3 Kory Enders DEForce Racing +2.4571s
4 Ramus Lindh Pabst Racing +2.6887s
5 Lucas Kohl Pabst Racing +3.6896s
6 Braden Eves Newman Wachs Racing +4.8861s
7 Kaylen Frederick Pabst Racing +6.5189s
8 Dakota Dickerson ArmsUp Motorsports +8.5992s
9 Julian Van der Watt Team Pelfrey +9.0778s
10 Kyle Dupell Team Pelfrey +9.1960s
Pole: Kirkwood, 1m10.9581s
Fastest lap: Kirkwood, 1m11.2101s
Race 2 (25 laps)
1 Kirkwood 32m15.201s
2 Lindh +1.9824s
3 Van der Watt +15.5287s
4 Igor Fraga Exclusive Autosport +18.1541s
5 Kohl +18.7583s
6 Ming +19.8343s
7 Dickerson +23.5956s
8 Colin Kaminsky DEForce Racing +24.8352s
9 Enders +26.0110s
10 Dupell +34.4731s
P: Lindh, 1m10.9038s
FL: Kirkwood, 1m12.008s
Championship Standings
1?Kirkwood 440 ??2 Lindh 238 ??3 Kohl 215 ??4 Fraga 213 ??5 Ming 206 ??6 Frederick 173 ??7 Van der Watt 162 ??8?Enders 143 ??9?Keith Donegan 139 ??10?Kaminsky 134