Photo: Gavin Baker Photography
Evagoras Papasavvas and Max Taylor won USF2000’s second and third races at Mid-Ohio.
The second-best laptimes from qualifying set race two’s grid, with Papasavvas on pole ahead of Michael Costello, Quinn Armstrong and Thomas Schrage who had returned to the grid for a cameo with Velocity Racing Development after missing the previous two rounds and contesting the first three of the season with Exclusive Autosport.
Schrage jumped up to third at the start, and held the position until lap six when his engine cover detached itself on one side and started to be blown around slightly. He pitted on lap seven, and Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Development’s Elliot Cox inherited third place.
The top three held their positions thereon, with Papasavvas winning the 20-lap encounter by 1.9659 seconds over Jay Howard Driver Development team-mate Costello.
There was a brief caution period, and after that VRD’s Max Taylor got into fourth by passing DEForce Racing’s Nicolas Giaffone. Before the race was interrupted he had overtaken Exclusive’s Joey Brienza.
Pabst Racing’s Max Garcia finished fifth, ahead of Brienza, Giaffone and Pabst’s Sam Corry. DEForce driver Armstrong finished 12th after penultimate lap contact, while Schrage retired due to his fire extinguisher going off.
By setting the fastest lap though, Schrage did earn pole for race three the next day.
However it was Taylor who went on to stand on the podium’s top step, coming from sixth on the grid for his fourth win of 2024.
Schrage led Papasavvas off the line before a caution period neutralised their battle. Costello had been running alongside Cox when the two made contact, sending Costello spinning out of the race. Cox pitted, then got a drive-through penalty.
The top two were immediately side-by-side with each other when racing resumed, then Taylor made it a three-wide fight. Papasavvas was sent wide and returned to track with a puncture, and Schrage managed to stay ahead.
Taylor continued to push and eventually found a way past before another caution period brought about by an incident leaving JHDD’s Jace Bacon stationary at turn four.
Garcia, then running third, attacked Schrage on the next restart, allowing Taylor to pull away. He had a comfortable gap when a third caution period began, putting Schrage back on his tail. This time he was able to stay with Taylor, but could not find a way past. Taylor set his fastest lap on the final lap to finish 0.4468s ahead.
The third caution period occurred due to Carson Etter, battling towards the back of the pack, being sent into a spin and stalling.
Between the interruptions, Corry managed to climb up to third. After the second caution period, Garcia had kept Schrage under pressure and got alongside him at one point. But the battle allowed Corry and Brienza to close in.
Schrage managed to shake Garcia, who then fell into a three-car battle for third. Corry managed to find a way through before the final caution period, and Garcia held off Brienza, Giaffone and Pabst’s Hudson Schwartz.
Results round-up
Race 2 (20 laps)
1 Evagoras Papasavvas JHDD 29m59.2965s
2 Michael Costello JHDD +1.9659s
3 Elliot Cox SFHRD +2.4212s
4 Max Taylor Velocity Racing Development +3.3108s
5 Max Garcia Pabst Racing +3.8825s
6 Joey Brienza Exclusive Autosport +5.9860s
7 Nicolas Giaffone DEForce Racing +6.5659s
8 Sam Corry Pabst Racing +7.2577s
9 Ayrton Houk DC Autosport +8.8265s
10 Hudson Schwartz Pabst Racing +9.0568s
Pole: Papasavvas, 1m23.8281s
Fastest lap: Schrage, 1m22.8183s
Race 3 (20 laps)
1 Taylor 36m54.7407s
2 Thomas Schrage VRD +0.4468s
3 Corry +1.4749s
4 Garcia +1.9525s
5 Brienza +2.1956s
6 Giaffone +2.5413s
7 Schwartz +2.6523s
8 Houk +3.4362s
9 Quinn Armstrong DEForce Racing +3.8481s
10 Lucas Fecury DEForce Racing
FL: Carson Etter, 1m23.7828s
Championship standings
1 Garcia 304 2 Taylor 262 3 Corry 259 4 Papasavvas 248 5 Brienza 204 6 Cox 189 7 Giaffone 164 8 Schwartz 164 9 Costello 146 10 Houk 144