LEXINGTON, Ohio – Kiko Porto scored an emphatic victory in Saturday’s second leg of the Cooper Tires Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio triple-header for DEForce Racing.
The 17-year-old from Recife, Brazil, once again started from pole, but unlike Friday was able to hold off Michael d’Orlando to claim his third win of the season. Porto thereby extended his championship lead to 32 points heading into tomorrow’s 13th round of an intensely hard-fought 18-race Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship. At stake is a scholarship valued at over $401,000 to graduate into the 2022 Indy Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires.
Simon Sikes maintained his recent fine form by finishing third for the second consecutive day in his Legacy Autosport Tatuus USF-17.
The grid for Saturday’s race was determined by either the second fastest lap set by each driver during the lone qualifying session on Friday or the fastest race lap from Race One, whichever was the faster. Porto’s time on Friday was good enough to ensure his fifth Cooper Tires Pole Award of the year, upon which he immediately capitalized by making an exemplary start as the huge 28-car field accelerated toward Turn One.
d’Orlando slotted into second from the outside of the front row, while Sikes once again made a strong start to scythe past third-fastest qualifier Nolan Siegel.
The three leaders quickly distanced themselves from the pack, and even though Sikes eventually slipped back, the two front-runners remained tied closely together throughout a tense 20-lap race which was unencumbered by any caution periods. Porto remained cool under intense pressure to cement his victory as well as a fourth PFC Award of the season for winning car owners David and Ernesto Martinez.
“What a race, that was so difficult,” Porto said. “I’m so happy with this. My first win at Mid-Ohio. I love this track. It’s the most difficult track on the calendar. The track changed so much during the race so I needed to adapt on every lap. And Michael was so fast behind me for the entire race so I couldn’t make any mistakes – one mistake would cost me the race. Thank you so much to the team. We made some changes for today and it was a really good car. We have one more race tomorrow so we’ll keep pushing. These are good championship points, with a little bit of a gap, so I’m so happy with this result.”
The result enabled DEForce Racing to move into the lead of the coveted Team Championship on 284 points. Cape Motorsports has moved into second place on 264, closely followed by the previous leader Pabst Racing on 260.
Matt Round-Garrido was one of the biggest movers at the start for the Exclusive Autosport team, vaulting from eighth on the grid to fourth. The Englishman maintained his position throughout the race, despite being harried by a long string of challengers led by Canadian rookie Thomas Nepveu, who produced another strong finish in fifth for Cape Motorsports after winning for the first time last month at Road America.
Siegel, who slipped from third on the grid to seventh inside the first hectic couple of laps, fought his way back past New Zealand rookie Billy Frazer for sixth with two laps remaining, while teammate Christian Brooks succeeded in clawing his way from 13th on the grid to eighth ahead of Jace Denmark and Josh Green.