Schrage wins to increase USF2000 lead after rivals’ last lap incident

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography

Thomas Schrage took his second USF2000 victory of the season to increase his points lead after a last lap dash to the flag at Road America.

Two safety car periods disrupted running for the first race of the weekend, with the last leaving just one lap before the chequered flag. It was Caleb Gafrarar leading on the restart, but a coming together with Lucas Fecury knocked him out of the race and allowed Schrage to come through to take the victory.

Gafrarar wasn’t the only one-time race leader to run into problems. Polesitter Jack Jeffers held the lead off the line ahead of Teddy Musella and Evan Cooley. As Cooley battled to hold onto his position, Jeffers had Musella to contend with in the battle for the lead. Musella managed to find a way through, but Jeffers fought back. He was side-by-side with his fellow rookie when he went over a bump heading into turn one. The car went airborne and he made contact with the wall after landing. 

The incident brought out the safety car. By this point, Schrage had managed to get up to third, behind Musella and Gafrarar. However, the order wouldn’t stay that way for long, with both drivers passing Musella on the restart. Schrage briefly took the race lead before Gafrarar came back ahead. 

The Pabst Racing driver was still ahead when the safety car was brought out for a second time. Further down the order, Brenden Cooley and Sebastian Garzon had a coming together at Turn 14. Garzon was able to get his car going again and returned to the pits but Cooley’s Exclusive Autosport run machine was left stranded in the gravel. 

By the time the race resumed, there was just one lap remaining. It was shortly after the restart that Gafrarar and Fecury came together and Schrage was able to sweep through to the lead. He pulled away from VRD Racing team-mate Musella to finish 1.7416s ahead. 

Musella came under pressure on the final lap but managed of told of G3 Argyros and Christian Cameron. Fecury continued to finish fifth.

A number of drivers fell off the track on the final lap, including one who ran wide at turn 13 and almost made contact as he returned to the track in front of a battling pack. Another driver ran into the gravel at the final corner, but there were no collisions.

Timothy Carel came through from 13th on the grid to finish eighth ahead of Eddie Beswick and Wian Boshoff.

Race results (12 laps)