TORONTO — Simon Sikes this afternoon padded his lead in the USF2000 Presented by Cooper Tires points table by virtue of a spectacular victory on the streets around Exhibition Place.
But there is a lot more to the story than just that.
While strategic calls and pit stops don’t usually play a significant role on the USF Pro Championships Presented by Cooper Tires driver development ladder, they certainly did today as the 20-lap race began on a damp track which quickly dried out.
Sikes, from Augusta, Ga., was among the first to make a pit stop for dry-weather tires, called in at the completion of the second lap by his Pabst Racing team when the race was already under a full-course caution due to an incident on the opening lap.
Sikes, aided by another full-course caution, made his way expertly to the front with six laps remaining. Teammate Max Garcia, from Coconut Grove, Fla., emerged from the pack to finish second, with newcomer and former karter Logan Adams, from Greenfield, Ind., claiming an equally impressive third for Jay Howard Driver Development.
The race did not begin auspiciously for Sikes, who yesterday had qualified a disappointing sixth. Instead it was Evagoras Papasavvas who started at the front after claiming his second career Cooper Tires Pole Award.
Fellow 15-year-old Nikita Johnson charged to the front on the first lap, which ended under caution due to an incident in Turn 4. With the track already nearly dry following an earlier rain shower, a couple of drivers immediately ducked into the pit lane for slick Cooper tires.
Next time around, with the field still under yellow, six more cars pitted for dries, including Sikes and fellow title contender Mac Clark.
Sikes hadn’t yet closed up to the rear of the train of cars that had elected to stay on wet tires by the time the track went back to green, but it wasn’t long before he and Clark soon began to close that gap.
Johnson, meanwhile, continued to lead from Papasavvas, who lost second place just after the halfway point to debutant Nico Christodoulou. The Toronto native’s VRD Racing team had been the first to make the call to change tires.
Moments later, another incident involving teammate Gordon Scully, from Chicago, Ill., ensured another caution. This time Papasavvas and, one lap later, Johnson, elected to change tires. They resumed eighth and 11th.
Christodoulou led at the restart, but Sikes, who had earlier been passed by Clark, was on a mission. Sikes firstly outbraked the first of the Canadians with a bold move around the outside at Turn 3 on lap 14 to take over second place. Next time around, he repeated the maneuver on Christodoulou and never looked back as he went on to claim his fifth win of the season and second in succession.
The battle for second looked likely to be settled between the two Canadians, Christodoulou and Clark, but Garcia had other ideas. Clark had followed Sikes past his countryman, taking second position at Turn 5, but after one final restart, with two laps remaining, Garcia left his braking for Turn 3 extremely late and Clark had little option but to cede the position.
Clark also lost out to a close-following Adams and Christodoulou, although he managed to repass his local rival on the final lap to regain fourth. Adams, taking part in just his second USF2000 weekend, earned the Tilton Hard Charger Award after lining up 13th on the starting grid.
Augie Pabst took home another PFC Award as the winning car owner. His joy was compounded by the fact that Garcia’s second-place finish moved his team within eight points of Jay Howard Driver Development in the battle for the Team Championship.
Sikes’ glorious day leaves him with a commanding 56-point lead in the championship with only four races remaining.
Australian Lochie Hughes, who had previously taken the fight to Sikes, slipped to third in points after clipping a wall and retiring from the race. Sikes will have another opportunity to extend his advantage bright and early tomorrow at 8:10 a.m. (ET) having earned the pole position following a separate qualifying session earlier today.