Photo: Gavin Baker Photography/Road to Indy
Yuven Sundaramoorthy prevailed in a three-driver fight for victory in the first USF2000 race of the weekend on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course.
Exclusive Autosport’s points leader Christian Brooks started on pole and led the first two thirds of the 15-lap under pressure from Pabst Racing duo Josh Pierson and Sundaramoorthy.
Twice they briefly got by, and on one of those occassions it required a visit down the turn 1 escape road after going too deep into the corner, and eventually Sundaramoorthy passed Brooks for the lead just as Pierson was cleared for third by Cape Motorsports’ Michael d’Orlando.
Sundaramoorthy immediately created a gap once ahaead, and he finished 1.8985 seconds clear as d’Orlando also cleared Brooks late on. Turn 3 Motorsport’s Josh Green finished not far behind in fifth after also being among the lead group for much of the action.
Title contenders Prescott Campbell (DEForce Racing) and Matt Round-Garrido (Exclusive) has disastrous races, with Campbell being involved in an early clash with Force Indy’s Myles Rowe and Round-Garrido having to stop with a car issue.
Brooks still leads the points, ahead of Sundaramoorthy, DEForce’s Kiko Porto and Pierson.
Race results (15 laps)
| Pos | Name | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yuven Sundaramoorthy | Pabst Racing | 21m36.1381s |
| 2 | Michael d’Orlando | Cape Motorsports | +1.8985s |
| 3 | Christian Brooks | Exclusive Autosport | +2.4640s |
| 4 | Josh Pierson | Pabst Racing | +2.7688s |
| 5 | Josh Green | Turn 3 Motorsport | +3.3854s |
| 6 | Spike Kohlbecker | Cape w/ Ignite Autosport | +4.4271s |
| 7 | Kiko Porto | DEForce Racing | +4.8691s |
| 8 | Dylan Christie | Turn 3 Motorsport | +7.0796s |
| 9 | Thomas Nepveu | Cape Motorsports | +7.5438s |
| 10 | Jace Denmark-Gessel | Exclusive Autosport | +7.8954s |
| 11 | Simon Sikes | Legacy Autosport | +8.9431s |
| 12 | Billy Frazer | Exclusive Autosport | +10.7175s |
| 13 | Michael Myers | Michael Myers Racing | +15.2100s |
| 14 | Grant Palmer | Exclusive Autosport | +16.1403s |
| 15 | Ely Navarro | DEForce Racing | +16.3184s |
| 16 | Erik Evans | Velocity Racing Development | +17.7624s |
| 17 | Evan Stamer | Cape w/ Ignite Autosport | +17.8182s |
| 18 | Trey Burke | Joe Dooling Autosports | +19.1644s |
| 19 | Peter Vodanovich | JHDD | +19.9406s |
| 20 | Kent Vaccaro | Miller Vinatieri Motorsports | +20.1853s |
| 21 | Myles Rowe | Force Indy | +1 lap |
| 22 | Prescott Campbell | DEForce Racing | +1 lap |
| 23 | Nolan Siegel | DEForce Racing | +1 lap |
| 24 | Bijoy Garg | JHDD | +5 laps |
| Ret | Matt Round-Garrido | Exclusive Autosport | |
| Ret | Jackson Lee | JHDD | |
| Fastest lap: Siegel, 1m25.1882s
Championship standings |
|||