By Patrick Stephan
On the start we have three or four cars involved with three winding up backwards or sideways, including Jacob Douglas who had started on the outside of the front row. Looked like Douglas in the 90 had wound up about four back as they entered the braking zone. He then tried to dive inside of cars that had gone a little wide but probably got clipped and turned in to the curbing which he ramped over.
That send him into another car, who lost their front wing. Lucas Mann would come to a stop over at Turn 6 and need to be retrieved, bringing out the yellow flag.
The order under yellow is Johnson, Sikes, Cox, Hughes, Garcia, Clark, Taylor, Towns, Morey, Ho, Ping, Corry, Dyszelski, Jameison, Scully, Douglas, Garciarce, Papasavas, Mann.
Big movers on that start include Sikes from 4th to 2nd, Hughes from 11th to 4th, Taylor from 16th to 7th.
Back to green on Lap 4 and they come down single file and Johnson hugs the inside of the front straight, then pops out with Sikes alongside.
Lochie Hughes goes around Cox and picks up 3rd over in Turn 7. Lap 5 and the order is now Johnson, Sikes, Hughes, Clark, Cox and Garcia.
Battle for the lead at Turn 1 and several cars lock tires, and get through…but over at Turn 7 bigger issues.
Max Garcia jumped Max Taylor on the inside line under braking, going over the top of Taylor and then Garcia landed on the rear of Eliott Cox car. Cox was on the more traditional line when Garcia came down on his car. Another big save for the halo’s on these open wheel cars.
Garcia wound up hard in to the tire barrier at the end of the back straight.
Lap 8 order under yellow is officially Johnson, Sikes, Hughes, Clark, Corry, Dyszelski, Morey, Douglas, Gardner, Towns, Scully, Ping, Garciarce, Jameison, Ho, Cox, Taylor, Garcia, Papasavvas, Mann.
Race control is correcting the order as the tire barrier is being reset at the end of Turn 7. They moved Towns up to 6th as he had been passed under the yellow.
Green will come out again on Lap 10 and Johnson again protects the inside, but locks up under braking and with a bad angle, allowing Hughes to take the lead. Johnson had to bail and take the run-off (oval Turn 4 apron) and go around to rejoin at Turn 3. That will drop Johnson to 7th.
Next time by and Mac Clark takes the lead, with Hughes dropping to 4th.
Lap 12 order is Clark, Sikes, Corry, Hughes, Dyszelski, Johnson (6th), Towns, Morey, Douglas. Gardner is 10th.
Lead for Clark is 0.5017 on lap 13.
Lap 14 and again at Turn 1 we have tires locking at several spots in the field. The draft down the main straight is significant, but then some clearly don’t have enough grip to make the pass.
Johnson moves to 5th as the field takes the white flag.
At Turn 1, Sikes to the outside and Clark to the inside. They go side by side, and run wide and in to the grass…that makes Sam Corry the leader. He is able keep the lead with Hughes and Johnson getting side by side off Turn 14 as they raced for the finish line.
That gets us a podium of Corry, Hughes, and Johnson was 0.0336 out of 2nd.
This is Sam Corry’s first USF2000 win. He graduated from the inaugural season of USF Juniors. He finished second in that championship with three victories.
Corry started this race in 12th. Hughes in 2nd started 11th and Danny Dyszelski 4th started 14th. Johnson started on the pole, but got dropped to 7th with his own Turn 1 issues, and was able to get back on the podium.
Unofficial Results USF2000 Presented by Cooper Tires Discount Tires Grand Prix of Indianapolis Race #1
| Pos | Car # | Driver | Laps | Diff | Gap | Led | ST | Team |
| 1 | 14 | Sam Corry | 15 | LAP 15 | 1 | 12 | VRD Racing | |
| 2 | 8 | Lochie Hughes | 15 | 1.1502 | 1.1502 | 1 | 11 | Jay Howard Driver Development |
| 3 | 17 | Nikita Johnson | 15 | 1.1838 | 0.0336 | 10 | 1 | VRD Racing |
| 4 | 18 | Danny Dyszelski | 15 | 1.9367 | 0.7529 | 14 | VRD Racong | |
| 5 | 1 | Mac Clark | 15 | 2.5984 | 0.6617 | 3 | 6 | DEForce Racing |
| 6 | 95 | Chase Gardner | 15 | 4.3955 | 1.7971 | 19 | Exclusive Autosport | |
| 7 | 10 | Jorge Garciarce | 15 | 6.9211 | 2.5256 | 7 | DEForce Racing | |
| 8 | 7 | Al Morey | 15 | 7.3635 | 0.4424 | 18 | Jay Howard Driver Development | |
| 9 | 90 | Jacob Douglas | 15 | 7.5353 | 0.1718 | 2 | Exclusive Autosport | |
| 10 | 68 | Ethan Ho | 15 | 7.7561 | 0.2208 | 9 | DC Autosport | |
| 11 | 97 | Zack Ping | 15 | 8.7025 | 0.9464 | 15 | VRD Racing | |
| 12 | 12 | Maxwell Jamieson | 15 | 9.2395 | 0.537 | 20 | DEForce Racing | |
| 13 | 19 | Gordon Scully | 15 | 9.5998 | 0.3603 | 17 | VRD Racing | |
| 14 | 93 | Avery Towns | 15 | 14.1735 | 4.5737 | 10 | Exclusive Autosport | |
| 15 | 22 | Simon Sikes | 15 | 31.9552 | 17.7817 | 4 | Pabst Racing | |
| 16 | 67 | Elliot Cox | 6 | Contact | 10.9397 | 3 | Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Development | |
| 17 | 33 | Max Taylor | 6 | Contact | 4.7025 | 16 | VRD Racing | |
| 18 | 24 | Max Garcia | 5 | Contact | 0.3899 | 5 | Pabst Racing | |
| 19 | 6 | Evagoras Papasavvas | 1 | Contact | 0.8895 | 8 | Jay Howard Driver Development | |
| 20 | 92 | Lucas Mann | — | Contact | 0.6133 | 13 | Exclusive Autosport |