INDIANAPOLIS – Kiko Porto became the fourth different winner of a Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship race this season, coming from behind to narrowly beat championship leader Christian Brooks on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course Saturday morning.
It was the second career victory for Porto and it came in the 400th race in USF2000 history dating back to the championship’s debut, under USAC sanction, at Willow Springs Int’l Raceway in California in 1990.
Michael d’Orlando posted another spectacular drive for Cape Motorsports, rising from 11th on the grid to overtake the battling Pabst Racing pair of Yuven Sundaramoorthy and Josh Pierson on the final lap to complete the podium.
After winning both races yesterday, university student Sundaramoorthy, from Delafield, Wis., earned another Cooper Tires Pole Award as a consequence of posting the quickest second-best lap of all 26 cars during qualifying on Friday.
The first few laps Saturday morning were run under caution due to incidents further down the field, after which Sundaramoorthy was unable to prevent Brooks, who started second, from drafting past to claim the lead at turn one. Porto, having jumped up from sixth on the grid, also made a fine early charge and was soon hot on Sundaramoorthy’s tail. The Brazilian made his move on lap seven, then quickly latched onto the tail of Brooks.
Two laps later, Porto relieved Brooks of the top position, while behind them Pierson also made a move on Sundaramoorthy which enabled the two leaders to make a slight break.
There was precious little to choose between the top two in terms of pace, although Porto was able to maintain his position and claim another championship point for leading most laps. His eventual margin of victory was a tick less than half a second – enough to earn his first win of the year.
“I have had poles here in the past but I have never won here, so to finally get the victory feels so good,” Porto said. “We made some mistakes in qualifying this weekend which cost us, but we made some changes to the setup and the car was so good today. I had the pace to catch the guys ahead and make the pass for the lead. It was so comfortable, no mistakes. Thank you to the DEForce team, my family and everyone who helped make this happen.”
Pierson and Sundaramoorthy remained locked in combat, with Sundaramoorthy claiming the extra championship point for fastest race lap and finally finding a way back past his 15-year-old teammate on the final lap with a bold outside-line pass at turn one. Pierson, though, wasn’t going to give up without a fight.
The pair battled side-by-side through turn seven, which gave a perfect opportunity for a close-following d’Orlando to overtake both of them under braking for turn 12. It was another hugely impressive performance from d’Orlando, who overcame some gremlins in qualifying that saw him start all three of this weekend’s races mid-pack to secure a trio of top-four finishes and keep his championship aspirations alive.
Thomas Nepveu once again was the top rookie finisher in sixth – the best result to date in his young career – just ahead of Californian Prescott Campbell, Spike Kohkbecker and Josh Green.
Jackson Lee also impressed for the Jay Howard Driver Development team, overcoming a disappointing day yesterday and rising from 19th on the grid to 10th to claim the Tilton Hard Charger Award.