STEAM CORNERS, Ohio — Myles Rowe opened up a commanding early championship lead in USF Pro 2000 Presented by Cooper Tires with three wins from the first four races of the season.
The young man from Brooklyn, N.Y., was frustrated in his bid to add to that victory tally over the course of the next few events, but he put that behind him in emphatic style yesterday evening in the second and final race of the Cooper Tires Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio, which he led from start to finish for the Pabst Racing with Force Indy team.
Brazilian Kiko Porto bounced back from an incident earlier in the day to finish a close second for DEForce Racing, while Michael d’Orlando, from Hartsdale, N.Y., capped a productive weekend for Turn 3 Motorsport by finishing third.
“It wasn’t a great start to the morning in Race One so it was important for us to come back and fix up the points for the title fight down in Portland,” Rowe said. “This was a huge boost for the team. We can go into Toronto with huge momentum. It is great because all my family and friends are watching and it is great that they can cheer me on and see me do well like this. Kiko made it tough for me.
“This was one of the toughest races that I have had in the USF Pro Championships, but this is what we want because we are trying to step up to IndyCar and this is the training ground to get there. I have learned all the skills I need to do what I need to do in IndyCar.”
Rowe set the tone for his success by snaring his second Cooper Tires Pole Award of the season during an intense qualifying session on Friday, which, remarkably, was concluded with the top seven drivers all recording a lap time within one tenth of a second.
The 30-lap race proved to be just as close. Rowe never put a foot wrong in the lead, but he was never able to gain any kind of breathing space over Porto, who remained seemingly glued to his gearbox after sneaking past d’Orlando on the fourth lap.
Porto, from Recife, Brazil, posted the fastest lap of the race, but even that wasn’t enough and he had to settle for second. The result represented an impressive comeback after being pushed off the track during the opening race, and allowed Porto to reclaim second place in the point standings.
The top four cars remained in extremely close formation from start to finish. D’Orlando once again displayed excellent pace while finishing third, which, allied to his second win of the season earlier in the day, enabled him to vault from 11th in the points table to sixth, only 18 points behind Porto, heading into the final seven races of the season.
Jace Denmark ran in company with the leaders until slipping back just a little in the final few laps. He still finished fifth ahead of fellow Scottsdale, Ariz., resident Reece Ushijima, Louka St-Jean, Bijoy Garg and Sweden’s Joel Granfors.