Liam McNeilly continues unbeaten USF2000 run with third win in a row

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography

Jay Howard Driver Development’s Liam McNeilly continued his unbeaten run in USF2000 this year with victory in race one at NOLA Motorsports Park.

McNeilly led from pole into turn one, and Exclusive Autosport’s Jack Jeffers took the inside line at turn one to pass JHDD’s Brad Majman for second.

Several drivers locked up at the turn three hairpin but there was no contact, but further around the lap Velocity Racing Development’s Ryan Giannetta broke his front wing and had to pit. Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Development’s Wian Boshoff was also pit-bound.

In contract, having a great opening lap was VRD’s Thomas Schrage as he started 10th but got up to seventh and then passed DEForce Racing’s Sebastian Garzon at turn one on lap two.

McNeilly had a one-second gap after two laps, and then set consecutive fastest laps to grow that to 1.6 seconds by lap five. He was set to grow it further before a full course caution began at the end of the lap due to JHDD’s Anthony Martella crashing out of 10th place.

Racing resumed at the end of lap eight, and Schrage was in fifth after he and Garzon passed Exclusive’s Evan Cooley on lap four. Cooley lost further places to Pabst Racing’s G3 Argyros and VRD’s Teddy Musella before racing was neutralised.

McNeilly dropped the pack on the restart, immediately sprinting 1.67s clear as Jeffers, Majman, Pabst’s Caleb Gafrarar and Schrage disputed second.

The distance between first and second grew and grew in the race’s second half, and McNeilly’s third successive win was claimed with a four-second gap up front to his closest title rival.

Majman thought about the outside line at turn one on the restart, and on the lap after Gafrara got side-by-side with him at the same corner. They kept on battling, including a slidey side-by-side moment at the final corner, which allowed Jeffers to escape by four seconds over the course of the lap.

Argyros was now involved in what was a fight for third, but appeared to make contact with Garzon which sent the latter down the order with damage.

Schrage overtook Majman at turn three and then Gafrarar at turn five on lap 12, but Majman then got ahead of both later in the lap. Gafrarar had damaged his front wing, and he was soon losing more places as his car became more difficult to handle.

Majman went into the final lap in third, leading Schrage, Argyros and Musella. Schrage got himself onto the podium with a late overtake, and Musella passed Argyros before the finish.

Race results (15 laps)