SEBRING, Fla. — Myles Rowe grasped an early lead in Friday’s Grand Prix of Sebring and then proceeded to romp away to claim his second USF Pro 2000 Presented by Cooper Tires victory of the season for Pabst Racing with Force Indy.
With three of the season’s 18 races now in the books, Rowe, from Brooklyn, N.Y., already holds a handy 16-point lead in his quest to win a Discount Tires Driver Advancement Scholarship — valued at $664,500 — to graduate to INDY NXT in 2024.
Meanwhile, Joel Granfors drove a fine race for Exclusive Autosport, rising from sixth on the grid to take second ahead of TJ Speed Motorsports’ Francesco Pizzi. It was the first podium finish for both Europeans since switching their sights on a career in North America.
Rowe and Pabst Racing teammate Jace Denmark continued their form from Spring Training by pacing the 19-car field during the lone official practice session this morning. A couple of hours later, it was Denmark who shone brightest in qualifying, turning a best lap of 1:58.609 (113.711 mph) to snag his first Cooper Tires Pole Award.
Rowe completed the front row of the grid, less than a tenth of a second off the pole time, while Pizzi shared row two with a third Pabst Racing Tatuus IP-22 in the hands of Jordan Missig.
The majority of the first five laps were run behind the Pace Car due, firstly, to a mechanical problem which unfortunately sidelined St. Petersburg double podium finisher Kiko Porto, then an incident between Mexico’s Ricard Escotto and Brazilian Nicholas Monteiro.
At the initial wave of the green flag, Rowe had followed Denmark through turn one, then pounced decisively at turn three to take the lead. The caution flags waved shortly thereafter. Then, soon after the restart, Denmark began to experience gearshift problems, costing him precious fractions of a second.
For the majority of the 15-lap race, Denmark maintained a gap of around a second to Granfors, who had leapt from sixth to third at the initial attempt at a start. But the pressure continued to build on the young Arizonan, who eventually lost out to Granfors on the run toward turn one with just a couple of laps remaining.
Moments later, Pizzi also took advantage of Denmark’s loss of momentum to slip into third place and assume the final podium position.
Missig also finished right with the lead group in fifth, securing his best career finish, as Germany-based Albanian Lirim Zendeli and Mexico’s Salvador de Alba both found a way past Japanese-American Reece Ushijima for sixth in the closing stages.
The Tilton Hard Charger Award went to Jack Miller William from Carmel, Ind., who made up five places from his starting position of 16th.
Augie Pabst picked up his third PFC Award of the young season as the winning car owner.