ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Christian Brooks and the Exclusive Autosport team enjoyed a near perfect weekend on the streets of St. Petersburg.
The Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship sophomore claimed a pair of victories Saturday on the unforgiving 1.8-mile street circuit, jumping from fifth in the points table following the first two races of the season to an already sizable points lead.
Brooks, from Santa Clarita, Calif., was followed home in a scrappy race Saturday morning by Exclusive Autosport teammate Matt Round-Garrido. Barber Motorsports Park race winner Yuven Sundaramoorthy took third for Pabst Racing.
Brooks had to work much harder Saturday evening, overtaking Brazilian polesitter Kiko Porto soon after a late restart and holding on to take a narrow victory.
The podium was completed by Michael d’Orlando, who mounted an incredible comeback for Cape Motorsports following a frightening accident in the earlier race.
In the opening USF2000 Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by Andersen RacePark race, Brooks made full use of his Cooper Tires Pole Award, earned Friday in qualifying, to hold off Round-Garrido and score an impressive one-two finish for the Canadian team.
Unfortunately, the race also was notable for a series of incidents which necessitated several full-course cautions, and even one red-flag stoppage.
The 26-car field managed to negotiate the tricky turn one relatively cleanly, with just one spinner who was able to rejoin, but there was carnage later in the lap, when six cars became entangled at turn seven.
The restart was no better, as New Yorkers and long-time karting buddies d’Orlando and Josh Green got together in Turn One , sending d’Orlando into a wild ride which ended with his car on its side.
The race eventually ended under yellow, with the two Exclusive cars chased home by Sundaramoorthy, who had run third early on, then fell as far as sixth before working his way back to finish on the podium.
New Zealand Formula Ford 1600 champion Billy Frazier kept his nose clean to finish fourth ahead of Porto in the first race of the day.
Rookie Grant Palmer capped a memorable race for Exclusive Autosport by rising from 25th on the grid to 13th to snag the Tilton Hard Charger Award.
Porto capitalized perfectly on having won the Cooper Tires Pole Award during a second qualifying session on Friday by leading confidently at the start of Saturday evening’s USF2000 Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by Andersen Interior Contracting.
Coincidentally, he and Brooks had shared the laurels during USF2000’s most recent visit to the Florida streets at the end of last season, each capturing their maiden series victory.
Porto was intent upon securing his second win and seemed set to do so, despite the best efforts of Brooks, who remained apparently tied to his rear wing for most of a thrilling 20-lap race.
Round-Garrido and d’Orlando led the chase until Myles Rowe appeared on the scene following a couple of incisive passes.
Sadly, Rowe lost a couple of places when an attempt to pass Round-Garrido at turn one went awry, and three corners later he left his braking a tad too late and inadvertently tipped an innocent Sundaramoorthy into the wall.
Rowe also was eliminated in the incident which brought out the full-course caution.
Brooks took full advantage of the restart by pressuring Porto into a mistake at turn one.
Brooks slipped through as the Brazilian ran wide, then held off a late charge to win by just .3581 of a second in the back half of the doubleheader.
“This is the best weekend of my life. It’s unbelievable, after such a tough weekend at Barber, to be the points leader and a back-to-back winner,” said Brooks. “I can’t thank everyone at Exclusive Autosport enough, the car was on rails the entire weekend. It was a great first race with my teammate Matt – when you have a guy like that behind you, you can’t make any mistakes, and to bring home a one-two finish was great.
“In the second race, it was such a relief to get by Kiko. He’s such a fast driver and not an easy guy to pass, so I wasn’t sure I would be able to,” Brooks continued. “But coming back from that yellow, that was the best restart I’ve ever done and I was able to take advantage of a little mistake he made. I was in the right place at the right time, and the car was amazing. It’s my third win at St. Pete and I think having experience here really helps my confidence. I know where to punch off on the restarts, the gap I need going into Turn One, how cold the tires are and how much I can push.
“The car was so good, I don’t think anyone had anything for us today.”
Round-Garrido looked set for another podium until d’Orlando pulled off a textbook pass at turn one on the final lap to secure his first top-three finish of the season.
Californian Prescott Campbell arrived in Florida as the points leader and ended what was a disappointing weekend on an up-tick by working his way from 16th to ninth in race two Saturday, garnering the Tilton Hard Charger Award.