Photo: Gavin Baker Photography
Max Taylor was crowned USF Juniors champion with a race to spare at Portland, despite rival Liam McNeilly winning the weekend’s first two races.
Velocity Racing Development driver Taylor topped a wet qualifying, setting a 1m28.5576s that put him way ahead of anyone else. Jay Howard Driver Development’s McNeilly was 0.733 seconds slower than him in second, and VRD team-mate Sebastian Wheldon was 1.0592s off pole in third.
DEForce Racing duo Brady Golan and Jeshua Alianell qualified fourth and fifth, both over 1.6s off the pace, and Zanella Racing’s Leonardo Escorpioni and JHDD’s G3 Argyros were the only others within two seconds of Taylor.
The track remained wet when race one began, and Rodrigo Gonzalez got into trouble on the formation lap. The pace car therefore led the field around for two more laps, and rain began to fall.
When racing actually began on lap three, drivers attempted to go six-wide into turn one and Jack Jeffers went off. He and Jeshua Alianell pitted at the end one of the lap, which had Taylor leading Wheldon, Golan and Ariel Elkin.
On the next lap Elkin lost his front wing, and he was followed into the pits by Timothy Carel as Taylor continued to lead.
McNeilly got into third, and Wheldon applied the pressure to Taylor up front as Golan dropped seven seconds behind in fourth. A caution period was called on lap six, and most drivers used it as an opportunity to switch to slick tyres.
Argyros inherited the lead ahead of Augusto Soto-Schirripa, but he then pitted too. Racing resumed on lap 10 with Soto-Schirripa almost two seconds clear of Taylor, Hudson Potter and Liam McNeilly.
By lap 11 another caution was called, and the next restart was on lap 14. McNeilly took second from Taylor into turn one, and cleared Soto-Schirripa a few corners later as he paid the pace price for staying on wet weather tyres.
McNeilly quickly built a 1.6s lead, and managed his pace through the final lap as Soto-Schirripa dopped to fifth and Wheldon passed Taylor for second.
The race one fastest laps set race two’s grid, putting McNeilly on pole by 0.0606s over Wheldon. Elkin, Carel, Taylor and Jeffers filled the next two rows.
There was still water on the track, but the race started under green flag conditions and McNeilly led Taylor by 1.8s by the end of lap one. Wheldon fell behind Elkin and Carel, then to sixth behind Evan Cooley on lap two.
Cooley passed Carel on lap three, as the two pulled away. Taylor gradually closed in on McNeilly and passed him on lap six, by which point Wheldon had also made his way back up to third.
Taylor treaked 2.6s clear, but then McNeilly began closing back in. Just over a second split the top three as they began lap 12, and 0.21s a lap later. McNeilly snatched back the lead and won by 0.4665s, and Cooley passed Elkin for fourth on lap 12 of 15.
Results round-up
Race 1 (15 laps)
1 Liam McNeilly JHDD 26m59.6069s
2 Sebastian Wheldon Velocity Racing Development +1.7121s
3 Max Taylor Velocity Racing Development +2.3006s
4 Brady Golan DEForce Racing +4.2221s
5 Augusto Soto-Schirripa International Motorsport +6.1889s
6 Patricio Gonzalez DEForce Racing +6.2649s
7 Christian Cameron Velocity Racing Development +6.3263s
8 Diego Guiot Zanella Racing +9.0898s
9 Michael Suco Velocity Racing Development +11.4629s
10 Hudson Potter International Motorsport +12.2952s
Pole: Taylor, 1m28.5576s
Fastest lap: McNeilly, 1m18.4001s
Race 2 (15 laps)
1 McNeilly 20m48.1428s
2 Taylor +0.4665s
3 Wheldon +1.1827s
4 Evan Cooley Exclusive Autosport +9.0651s
5 Ariel Elkin International Motorsport +12.1754s
6 Jack Jeffers Exclusive Autosport +21.9046s
7 Timothy Carel JHDD +22.9127s
8 Cameron +27.6393s
9 Joao Vergara Exclusive Autosport +31.9526s
10 Soto-Schirripa +32.1846s
FL: Leonardo Escorpioni, 1m20.6029s
Championship standings
1 Taylor 329 2 McNeilly 294 3 Wheldon 283 4 Elkin 262 5 Jeffers 231 6 Soto-Schirripa 227 7 Vergara 151 8 G3 Argyros 141 9 Escorpioni 131 10 Carel 130