Kiwi driver Billy Frazer sits second overall after the first two rounds of the 2022 Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship at St Petersburg in Florida. Having finished second on the podium in the opening race, Frazer came home sixth in the second of 18 races that make up the series. Fellow Kiwi Jacob Douglas retired out of the second race and sits 15th on the points table.
Myles Rowe overtook Pabst Racing teammate Jace Denmark, the Friday winner, and went on to score a sensational victory in his rebuilt car. Rowe even posted the fastest race lap on the final lap for good measure.
Last year at New Jersey Motorsports Park, Rowe had become the first African-American driver to win a race on the Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires driver development ladder. Today the beneficiary of INDYCAR’s Race for Equality and Change initiative confirmed that was no fluke.
Second place for Denmark, from Scottsdale, Ariz., was enough to conclude the opening weekend of the season with a commanding points lead, 52-40, over his nearest challenger in the quest for a scholarship valued at almost $407,000 to graduate onto the next step of the world-renowned driver development ladder, the Indy Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires, in 2023.
Third-generation racer Jagger Jones, also from Scottsdale, Ariz., completed the podium for Cape Motorsports and, as on Friday, was the top rookie finisher.
Unfortunately, a succession of incidents led to only one of the first 12 laps being run under full green flag conditions. Even by then, though, Rowe had vaulted from sixth on the grid to third on the initial start, then overtook Nepveu for second place on the next restart. And when the race was restarted again with 12 laps already in the books, Rowe repeated the maneuver on his teammate to take the lead.
He eventually took the checkered flag just over one second clear of Denmark to ensure yet another PFC Award for Augie Pabst as the winning car owner – his third weekend sweep on the Streets of St. Petersburg after also achieving the feat in 2015 and 2016.
The Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship will now take a short hiatus before returning to action at scenic Barber Motorsports Park in Leeds, Ala., with another double-header event held in conjunction with the NTT INDYCAR SERIES on the weekend of April 30/May 1.
Provisional championship points after 2 of 18 races:
1/ Jace Denmark, 57
2/ Billy Frazer, 40
3/ Michael d’Orlando, 38
4/ Myles Rowe, 35
5/ Jagger Jones, 35
6/ Simon Sikes, 34
7/ Bijoy Garg, 28
8/ Spike Kohlbecker, 24
9/ Thomas Nepveu, 23
10/ Jackson Lee, 23
and
15/ Jacob Douglas 15
Comments