McNeilly makes it three Portland wins out of three in USF Juniors

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography

Jay Howard Driver Development’s Liam McNeilly just held off Velocity Racing Development’s Sebastian Wheldon to make it three USF Juniors wins out of three at Portland.

The newly crowned champion Max Taylor chose not to take part in the season-ending race, and it was Zanella Racing’s Leonardo Escorpioni who started on pole a a result of setting the fastest lap in race two.

G3 Argyros (JHDD) lined up second, ahead of Diego Guiot (Zanella), McNeilly, Wheldon and Evan Cooley (Exclusive Autosport).

The poleman was one of several drivers to cut turn one on the opening lap, but they all made turn two bar Cooley who got spun. JHDD’s Timothy Carel also picked up damage in an incident, then later in the lap Escorpioni went off just as a caution period began due to DEForce Racing duo Brady Golan and Rodrigo Gonzalez retiring.

It was Argyros who led the field into lap two, with Escorpioni in fifth, while Exclusive Autosport’s Joao Vergara and JHDD’s JT Hoskins peeled into the pits and rejoined at the back.

Racing did not resume until lap seven, and there was a scrap for second place behind Argyros. Guiot dropped to fifth, behind International Motorsport’s Augusto Soto-Schirripa, McNeilly and Wheldon.

On the next lap Soto-Schirripa was slow out of turn two and dropped down the order, with Exclusive Autosport’s Jack Jeffers moving up into fourth and Cooley already recovering to eighth place.

Escorpioni and Jeffers began to trade fourth place with each other, as Argyros was reeled in by McNeilly and Wheldon. He lost the lead on lap 10, and second to Wheldon on lap 11, then was gapped by the pair.

The top two stayed close, but not close enough to actually instigate a lead battle until a suprerior exit by Wheldon out of the final corner of the race set up a drag race to the line. McNeilly prevailed by 0.3196 seconds, with Argyros a further 3.3s behind.

Fourth place was also decided in a photo finish, with Jeffers just holding off VRD’s Christian Cameron and International Motorsport’s Ariel Elkin. Cooley finish eighth behind Escorpioni.

Race results (15 laps)