ELKHART LAKE, Wis. — USF2000 Presented by Cooper Tires title rivals Lochie Hughes and Simon Sikes shared the victory spoils in Saturday’s Discount Tire Grand Prix of Road America. Coincidentally, both had some form of trouble in one of the races.
Hughes encountered a problem with his car in the opening race and later was assessed a five-second penalty for blocking, which dropped him from 10th to 12th, while Sikes placed 10th in Race Two following some on-track skirmishes. Consequently, Hughes’ slender points lead has diminished by one, from four points to three, heading into the second half of the season.
Jacob Douglas scored a career-best second-place finish this morning ahead of VRD Racing’s Nikita Johnson. After starting from pole position in Race Two, Mac Clark finished second ahead of 14-year-old Max Garcia.Â
Race One
Hughes began the weekend in emphatic style during qualifying on Friday by securing his second Cooper Tires Pole Award of the season, and his first since the opening round on the streets of St. Petersburg, Fla., in early March. The Australian teenager took full advantage of the pristine new track surface on the challenging 4.014-mile circuit by posting a new lap record of 2:07.8964, an average speed of 112.985 mph. His time comfortably eclipsed the old standard of 2:09.2583 set by Rasmus Lindh in 2018.
A clean start saw Hughes maintain his advantage for the first half-lap ahead of Sikes and the rest of the closely matched pack. Unfortunately, Hughes then made a mistake under pressure at turn six and ran wide, which immediately cost him a couple of positions to Sikes and Clark.
An incident at turn one on the second lap ensured a full-course caution with Sikes at the head of the field, where he was to remain for the remainder of the 12-lap race. Sikes had to withstand challenges at no fewer than three restarts following a series of minor incidents before racing clear to score his third win of the season and briefly retake the championship points lead.
Hughes regained one of his lost places by slicing past Clark at turn five at the first restart, only to slide wide again at turn six and lose several positions after his rear wing collapsed. Hughes stopped to have the wing reattached and did well to climb back to 10th at the finish prior to the penalty.
Clark fell out of contention after being one among three drivers who attempted to run side-by-side through turn five following one of the restarts. He, too, resumed at the back but did gain the consolation of a new lap record, 2:09.1655, on the final lap.
All of the drama allowed New Zealander Jacob Douglas, who celebrated his 18th birthday earlier in the week, to emerge in a clear second place in his first outing for the locally based Pabst Racing team.
Chase Gardner and Elliot Cox also took advantage of the incident-packed race to round out the top five after starting deep in the pack.
Race Two
The action continued later in the afternoon with Clark, last year’s USF Juniors Presented by Cooper Tires champion, on pole position after claiming the Cooper Tires Pole Award, his second of the year, during a second dedicated qualifying session on Friday.
Clark held onto his advantage through a couple of early full-course cautions, but there was no holding back Hughes, who made up for his earlier disappointment by drafting past into the lead at the beginning of lap eight. Clark never gave up the chase but had to settle for second ahead of young Garcia, who atoned for an error in race one by snaring his first podium result.
This time it was Pabst teammate Sikes’ turn to have difficulties. After running third in the early stages, Sikes was involved in a couple of skirmishes before finally taking the checkered flag a disappointed 10th.
Jorge Garciarce took a career-best fourth ahead of Johnson.