ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Florida youngsters have swept this weekend’s Andersen Inside Contracting Grand Prix of St. Petersburg with Max Garcia claiming an emphatic victory on Sunday for Pabst Racing.
Constructing upon his second-place end yesterday, the younger man from Coconut Grove, Fla., who remains to be two weeks shy of his sixteenth birthday, overtook opening spherical winner Alessandro De Tullio (Flip 3 Motorsport), from Miami, Fla., instantly after a restart to cement an early benefit within the USF Professional 2000 Introduced by Continental Tire championship chase.
Canadian Mac Clark completed a robust second for Unique Autosport, adopted by Garcia’s teammate Jacob Douglas, from Auckland, New Zealand, who rebounded impressively following an incident within the first race of the weekend.
De Tullio as soon as once more began on the head of the sphere after securing his second Continental Tire Pole Award, and for the second straight day, he was flanked by Garcia for the rolling begin.
De Tullio continued to carry the higher hand regardless of a few early full-course cautions, however for the fourth 12 months in a row, the successful group from the opening race of the season was unable to again up that success in Race Two. The jinx continues.
Yesterday, Garcia had tried on a number of events to oust De Tullio from the lead by braking just a little afterward the surface line into Flip One. This time, he tried one thing totally different. When De Tullio left a small opening on the within following a restart on Lap 10, Garcia instantly crammed that hole and squeezed by underneath braking for Flip One. He by no means appeared again.
Final 12 months’s USF2000 Introduced by Continental Tire champion maintained his benefit after two extra full-course cautions throughout an incident-packed 25-lap race. Garcia then pulled away from the sphere within the ultimate couple of laps to make sure a transparent victory – his third on the difficult 1.8-mile restart after sweeping each USF2000 races in 2024.
Clark, who made up three positions on the opening lap, additional profited from an early conflict in Flip Two between second-row starters Elliot Cox (Flip 3 Motorsport), from Indianapolis, Ind., and Michael Costello (Pabst Racing), from Naples, Fla. Already as much as third after having began eighth, Clark then opportunistically adopted Garcia previous De Tullio to maneuver into second.
VRD Racing’s Max Taylor, from Hoboken, N.J., additionally managed to discover a well beyond De Tullio a few laps later, and shortly afterward De Tullio missed his reference marker underneath braking for Flip 4 and slid off into the boundaries. His day was completed.
Taylor later was ordered by Race Management to cede a place to Douglas as a penalty for an over-zealous safety of his place, shifting the Kiwi as much as third.
Up entrance, Clark was unable to match Garcia’s tempo however was nonetheless capable of fend off the attentions of Douglas. Taylor additionally completed shut behind in fourth, simply forward of French-domiciled Vietnamese teammate Owen Tangavelou and TJ Pace Motorsport’s Jace Denmark, from Brownsburg, Ind.
Jorge Garciarce, from Guadalajara, Mexico, claimed the Tilton Exhausting Charger Award after rising from 18th on the grid to ninth. It marked the second straight day a DEForce Racing driver had taken the glory after his Brazilian teammate Nicholas Monteiro did so on Saturday.
The PFC Award because the successful automobile proprietor went to Augie Pabst.
