By Tony DiZinno
Under clear skies and 63F ambient temperatures, the 20 drivers in their Tatuus PM-22, Elite Engines-prepared 2-liter MZR cars in the USF Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires got their engines fired for the L&W Supply Grand Prix of Road America at 8:00 a.m. The race is 15 laps within a 50-minute window.
True to form on a chaotic weekend for the quartet of USF Pro Championships races on the freshly repaved Elkhart Lake, Wis. road course, the action started early – and surprisingly.
Polesitter Christian Weir (TJ Speed Motorsports) and Michael d’Orlando (Turn 3 Motorsport) didn’t even make it to the start, because the two collided on the warmup lap at the apex to Turn 14. Both drivers came up the hill and pitted, and series starter Aaron Likens waved the yellow flag to halt the start.
Race Control came over the radio to report “Car 10 is the new polesitter.” So Lirim Zendeli in another TJ Speed Motorsports car moved to the point with another Turn 3 Motorsport driver, Louka St-Jean, moving into second. Everyone behind moved up a row.
Race announcers Rob Howden of Andersen Promotions and the USF Pro Championships and Eric Mueller of Road America were stupefied, noting they said as announcers they’re not speechless often, but were here.
The race resumed shortly thereafter with Zendeli ahead of the third TJ Speed Motorsports entry, driven by Francesco Pizzi, then Jonathan Browne in the third of four Turn 3 Motorsport cars third with Myles Rowe fourth in his Pabst Racing with Force Indy entry and Ricardo Escotto fifth in the first of the armada of Jay Howard Driver Development cars.
A more traditional full-course caution occurred on Lap 7 down at Turn 5 with a number of cars off course, including Escotto, St-Jean, Salvador de Alba (Exclusive Autosport) and Jackson Lee (Turn 3 Motorsport). The luckless Lee was caught up in an incident not of his own doing for yet another time this year, collateral damage following contact between Escotto and de Alba.
The restart occurred on Lap 9. The TJ Speed teammates, Pizzi and Zendeli, exchanged the lead twice but Zendeli kept the top spot by the conclusion of the lap with Pizzi second, Browne third, Kiko Porto quietly fourth for DEForce Racing and Rowe fifth.
Jordan Missig had driven up from 17th to sixth for Pabst Racing, looking to continue his momentum after a podium. But he went off at Turn 6 from sixth, with a broken suspension.
With five to go on Lap 10 and the race actually settling into a bit of a rhythm, it was Zendeli, Pizzi, Browne, Rowe and Reece Ushijima (JHDD) in the top five with Rowe sixth, Escotto seventh, Jace Denmark (Pabst), Joel Granfors (Exclusive Autosport) and Yuven Sundaramoorthy (Exclusive) in the top 10.
The top five changed hands over the final few laps, with Porto hustling up to second and Pizzi falling down to fifth, with Browne and Rowe making headway to get to third and fourth.
But none of them was able to catch Zendeli, as the German-Albanian driver secured his first USF Pro 2000 victory by 3.5879 seconds.
Zendeli is the seventh different winner this season, joining:
- Christian Brooks, No. 3 Turn 3 Motorsport, St. Petersburg Race 1
- Myles Rowe, No. 99 Pabst Racing with Force Indy, St. Petersburg Race 2, Sebring Races 1 and 2
- Ricardo Escotto, No. 4 Jay Howard Driver Development, IMS Road Course Race 1
- Joel Granfors, No. 92 Exclusive Autosport, IMS Road Course Race 2
- Salvador De Alba, No. 91 Exclusive Autosport, Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park
- Michael d’Orlando, No. 1 Turn 3 Motorsport, Road America Race 1
The series resumes at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in two weeks.
L&W Supply Grand Prix of Road America Race 2 Unofficial Results
| P | No | Name | Team | Laps | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10 | Lirim Zendeli | TJ Speed Motorsports | 15 | LAP 15 |
| 2 | 12 | Kiko Porto | DEForce Racing | 15 | 3.5879 |
| 3 | 2 | Jonathan Browne | Turn 3 Motorsport | 15 | 3.8863 |
| 4 | 99 | Myles Rowe | Pabst Racing | 15 | 4.9985 |
| 5 | 55 | Francesco Pizzi | TJ Speed Motorsports | 15 | 5.9119 |
| 6 | 92 | Joel Granfors | Exclusive Autosport | 15 | 8.6213 |
| 7 | 20 | Jace Denmark | Pabst Racing | 15 | 9.1025 |
| 8 | 4 | Ricardo Escotto | Jay Howard Driver Development | 15 | 9.5012 |
| 9 | 6 | Reece Ushijima | Jay Howard Driver Development | 15 | 12.8912 |
| 10 | 91 | Salvador de Alba | Exclusive Autosport | 15 | 15.6048 |
| 11 | 40 | Jack William Miller | Miller Vinatieri Motorsports | 15 | 18.6284 |
| 12 | 81 | Nicholas Monteiro | NeoTech Motorsport | 15 | 19.3834 |
| 13 | 90 | Yuven Sundaramoorthy | Exclusive Autosport | 15 | 20.1331 |
| 14 | 93 | Lindsay Brewer | Exclusive Autosport | 15 | 26.6718 |
| 15 | 32 | Christian Weir | TJ Speed Motorsports | 14 | 1 LAPS |
| 16 | 3 | Louka St-Jean | Turn 3 Motorsport | 13 | 2 LAPS |
| 17 | 19 | Jordan Missig | Pabst Racing | 10 | Contact |
| 18 | 47 | Jackson Lee | Turn 3 Motorsport | 6 | Contact |
| 19 | 7 | Bijoy Garg | DEForce Racing | 1 | 14 LAPS |
| 20 | 1 | Michael d’Orlando | Turn 3 Motorsport | — | Contact |
| 21 | 83 | Charles Finelli | FatBoy Racing | — | DNS |