Home News Porto holds d’Orlando at Mid-Ohio for USF2000 win

Porto holds d’Orlando at Mid-Ohio for USF2000 win

by Alejandro Alonso Lopez

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography / Road to Indy

DEForce Racing’s Kiko Porto led every lap from pole in USF2000’s second Mid-Ohio’s race, where he mostly went unchallenged.

Porto and Cape Motorsports’ Michael d’Orlando held their front row positions after the start, and soon started to pull away from the pack. The absence of any caution periods, unlike Friday’s race, made it impossible for the pack to catch up.

Porto had the race under control in every moment, which left d’Orlando without an actual opportunity to attack the leader despite remaining in his mirrors. In race one he had passed poleman Porto for the win the first time a chance arose to.

Legacy Autosport’s Simon Sikes stood on the podium for the third time in a row. Sikes was able to keep up with Porto and d’Orlando’s pace in the early stages, but he started to lose ground after lap seven of 20. However, that didn’t impede him from taking a comfortable third place.

A stunning opening lap, where he gained four places, gave Matt Round-Garrido fourth place. Just behind him, Road America’s race two winner Thomas Nepveu scored another top five finish to rebound from a difficult first race at Mid-Ohio.

The top 10 was completed by Nolan Siegel, Billy Frazer, Christian Brooks, Jace Denmark-Gessel and Josh Green. It wasn’t until the last laps that those places were decided, with some close battles among them delighting spectators with some two and even three-wide moments with two laps to go after Siegel decided to get racey.

Pabst Racing’s title contender Yuven Sundaramoorthy dropped back to 25th after lap one, but he was able to recover. By lap four of the race he had already made up eight places and went on to finish 15th, but he is now 56 points Porto in the standings.

Race results (20 laps)

Pos Name Team Time
1 Kiko Porto DEForce Racing 27m48.6696s
2 Michael d’Orlando Cape Motorsports +0.4085s
3 Simon Sikes Legacy Autosport +4.4027s
4 Matt Round-Garrido Exclusive Autosport +6.3545s
5 Thomas Nepveu Cape Motorsports +9.2243s
6 Nolan Siegel DEForce Racing +9.9042s
7 Billy Frazer Exclusive Autosport +10.6588s
8 Christian Brooks Exclusive Autosport +11.2737s
9 Jace Denmark-Gessel Pabst Racing +11.6158s
10 Josh Green Turn 3 Motorsport +11.9953s
11 Spike Kohlbecker Cape w/ Ignite Autosport +12.3075s
12 Josh Pierson Pabst Racing +12.5659s
13 Prescott Campbell DEForce Racing +12.9008s
14 Yuven Sundaramoorthy Pabst Racing +13.1773s
15 Evan Stamer Cape w/ Ignite Autosport +16.8365s
16 Myles Rowe Force Indy +22.8595s
17 Trey Burke Joe Dooling Autosports +24.9846s
18 Ely Navarro DEForce Racing +25.2194s
19 Christian Weir Turn 3 Motorsport +26.2917s
20 Michael Myers Michael Myers Racing +26.9212s
21 Erik Evans Velocity Racing Development +35.5305s
22 Kent Vaccaro Miller Vinatieri Motorsports +39.8844s
23 Nathan Byrd Legacy Autosport +1m15.3229s
24 Chase Hyland JHDD +1m18.4022s
25 Dylan Christie Turn 3 Motorsport +1 lap
26 Jackson Lee JHDD +1 lap
27 Bijoy Garg JHDD +1 lap
28 Peter Vodanovich JHDD +3 laps
Fastest lap: Lee, 1m22.0869s

Championship standings
1 Porto 279   2 d’Orlando 247   3 Sundaramoorthy 223   4 Brooks 214   5 Pierson 204   6 Green 165   7 Kohlbecker 164   8 Nepveu 162   9 Campbell 159   10 Denmark-Gessel 144