Rowe holds off Porto for fourth USF Pro victory

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography

Myles Rowe maintains his lead at the front of the USF Pro 2000 championship standings with his fourth victory of the 2023 season at Mid-Ohio. 

Rowe came under pressure from Kiko Porto in the tail end of the race but he managed to hold onto a small lead over Porto to take the victory. 

It was Michael d’Orlando keeping Rowe under pressure in the opening laps before an off for Jackson Lee brought out the safety car. That gave Porto the opportunity to attack d’Orlando, managing to get past the race one winner on the restart. D’Orlando tried to fight back, only to come under attack from Salvador de Alba and Jace Denmark. 

At the front of the field, Rowe had pulled a gap and was now putting in consistent lap times as Porto struggled to close the gap. Porto was the quicker driver for much of the race, but couldn’t get closer than a couple of car lengths from d’Orlando. 

In the closing stages of the race, Porto managed to bring d’Orlando and de Alba with him into the battle for the lead. The trio behind Rowe took it in turns attacking and defending from one another, occasionally breaking out into battling pairs. All the while, Rowe remained consistent with a gap of roughly half a second to Porto. 

Porto ended the race under attack from d’Orlando, managing to hold him off as Rowe took the chequered flag 0.6594s ahead. 

De Alba picked up third ahead of Denmark, who spent the second half of the race battling to keep Reece Ushijima behind him. 

Meanwhile, it was another race to forget for Francesco Pizzi, who came into the round second in the champinship standings. He struggled to make up positions from his low position, before a spin late in the race undid what progress he had made and dropped him back to P17. 

Joel Granfors faired slightly better, finishing ninth behind Louka St-Jean and Bijoy Garg. Lirim Zendelli took 10th, ahead of Ricardo Escotto and Jack William Miller. 

Race result (30 laps)