By Patrick Stephan
Simon Sikes brought the 23 car field to the green with ambient at 84F, the track up to 109F, and the humidity at 64%. As they ran down from the keyhole to Turn 3, we saw some dirt flying on the exit of Turn 3 as everyone fanned out when the green flag flew.
Evagoras Papasavvas was able to move from his 3rd starting spot to the lead on the first lap. Papasavvas had turned the fastest time in qualifying, but lost two starting positions due to taking the checkered flag twice.
The field made it around the first time,but the next time in to the keyhole, Avery Towns had gotten past a couple cars and was looking for more on the outside of Turn 2, when he got squeezed in to the grass and spun in to the gravel trap.
The AMR INDYCAR Safety team was able to pull him out of the gravel, but he would lose a couple laps in the process.
Back to green on Lap 4, with Papasavvas, Sikes, Hughes and Clark up front.
That didn’t last though as a group of cars got together at Turn 5/6 and Elliot Cox gets the worst of it – and is off track after Turn 6. Max Garcia was also involved, picking up rear wing damage. He immediately heads to the pits to get help from the Pabst Racing crew.
Watching the replay, Cox was on the outside as Douglas was inside entering Turn 6.. Douglas made contact with Garcia, with Douglas then spinning and collecting Eliott Cox. Cox would have been on the inside at Turn 7, and probably gotten the spots of both Douglas and Garcia.
Race Control assessed Douglas an avoidable contact penalty – to be enforced after the race since both Douglas and Cox cars will return to the paddock on the back of a tow truck.
Order Lap 8 under Yellow: Papasavvas, Sikes, Hughes, Clark, Ho, Gardner, Morey, Taylor, Dyszelski, Corry, Garciarce, Schrage, Johnson, Jameison, Ping, Adams, Scully, Golan, Etter, Garcia, Town, Cox, Douglas.
Big movers are Gardner to 6th from 13th and Taylor to 8th from 16th. Schrage who didn’t get to turn a lap in qualifying is now 12th from 22nd.
Lap 9 and we’re back to green. Papasavvas keeps the lead over Sikes and Hughes.
Mac Clark takes 3rd from Lochie Hughes on lap 10 at Turn 6, Sam Corry also gets 7th from Al Morey.
Papasavvas leads Lap 11 by 0.3245 over Sikes, Clark, and Hughes who broken away slightly as Ho is 1.3 back in 5th.
Lap 15 Papasavvas leads Sikes by 0.3609, then it’s Clark, Hughes, and Ho Chase Gardner is 6th, Nikita Johnson has gotten back to 7th.
Lap 17 and Sikes is 0.2752 back and looking for a way to pass Papasavvas. Lap 18 and the gap is 0.2260 from Papasavvas to Sikes.
Nikita Johnson takes 6th from Gardner, Lap 18.
Coming to the white flag, Papasavvas leads by 0.2739 and Sikes tries to pop out at turn 3 and Turn 4. He goes around the outside at Turn 4 and they stay side by side through 5 and almost again through 6 with Papasavvas holding the inside and getting just ahead. There was some tire smoke and possibly some contact on that last lap for the lead – and also some great driving by both of them to make it through to Turn 7.
Papasavvas holds on the rest of the way and he will take the victory in USF2000 presented by Cooper Tires Discount Tires Race #1 at Mid-Ohio. Sikes gave it a great shot to finish second, just 0.3341 out of first.
Nikita Johnson moved to 5th on the final lap, with Chase Gardner dropping to 10th…as Sam Corry, Jorge Garciarce, and Al Morey moved up.
Took a bit to get going but great race over the last few laps – even as Papasavvas was able to lead every lap.
We’ll be back with more stats, etc., from this race later tonight.
Here is tomorrow’s schedule followed by the unofficial results from this race:
| Time | Series | Session |
|---|---|---|
| 7:55 AM – 8:15 AM | Porsche Sprint Challenge | Qualifying |
| 8:35 AM – 9:20 AM | Indy NXT | Practice 2 |
| 9:45 AM – 10:45 AM | NTT INDYCAR SERIES | Practice 2 |
| 11:00 AM – 11:40 AM | USF 2000 | Race 2 |
| 11:55 AM – 12:45 PM | USF Pro 2000 | Race 1 |
| 1:00 PM – 1:40 PM | Porsche Sprint Challenge | Race 1 |
| 1:30 PM – 1:55 PM | USF2000 | Autograph Session in Midway |
| 2:00 PM – 2:30 PM | USF Pro 2000 | Autograph Session in Midway |
| 2:05 PM – 2:25 PM | Indy NXT | Qualifying |
| 2:45 PM – 4:15 PM | NTT INDYCAR SERIES | Qualifying |
| 4:30 PM – 5:10 PM | USF2000 | Race 3 |
| 4:30 PM – 5:00 PM | INDY NXT | Autograph Session in Midway |
| 5:25 PM – 6:15 PM | USF Pro 2000 | Race 2 |
| After Dusk | Fireworks |
There were a couple calls that race control wanted to review post race…could be adjustments to the order coming. Though not up front to our current knowledge.
UNOFFICIAL Results USF2000 Race #1 Mid Ohio:
| Pos | Car # | Driver | Laps | Diff | Gap | ST | Status | Team |
| 1 | 6 | Evagoras Papasavvas | 20 | LAP 20 | 3 | Active | Jay Howard Driver Development | |
| 2 | 22 | Simon Sikes | 20 | 0.3341 | 0.3341 | 1 | Active | Pabst Racing |
| 3 | 1 | Mac Clark | 20 | 0.5875 | 0.2534 | 4 | Active | DEForce Racing |
| 4 | 8 | Lochie Hughes | 20 | 0.9915 | 0.404 | 5 | Active | Jay Howard Driver Development |
| 5 | 17 | Nikita Johnson | 20 | 4.7754 | 3.7839 | 6 | Active | VRD Racing |
| 6 | 68 | Ethan Ho | 20 | 5.4656 | 0.6902 | 2 | Active | DC Autosport |
| 7 | 14 | Sam Corry | 20 | 9.8935 | 4.4279 | 9 | Active | VRD Racing |
| 8 | 10 | Jorge Garciarce | 20 | 10.7697 | 0.8762 | 12 | Active | DEForce Racing |
| 9 | 7 | Al Morey | 20 | 11.173 | 0.4033 | 8 | Active | Jay Howard Driver Development |
| 10 | 95 | Chase Gardner | 20 | 11.5394 | 0.3664 | 13 | Active | Exclusive Autosport |
| 11 | 33 | Max Taylor | 20 | 13.2801 | 1.7407 | 16 | Active | VRD Racing |
| 12 | 18 | Danny Dyszelski | 20 | 14.4123 | 1.1322 | 11 | Active | VRD Racong |
| 13 | 90 | Thomas Schrage | 20 | 14.609 | 0.1967 | 22 | Active | Exclusive Autosport |
| 14 | 97 | Zack Ping | 20 | 14.8383 | 0.2293 | 15 | Active | VRD Racing |
| 15 | 9 | Logan Adams | 20 | 15.2136 | 0.3753 | 14 | Active | Jay Howard Driver Development |
| 16 | 12 | Maxwell Jamieson | 20 | 16.6739 | 1.4603 | 18 | Active | DEForce Racing |
| 17 | 11 | Brady Golan | 20 | 19.9409 | 3.267 | 20 | Active | DEForce Racing |
| 18 | 19 | Gordon Scully | 20 | 22.3144 | 2.3735 | 19 | Active | VRD Racing |
| 19 | 57 | Carson Etter | 20 | 31.6856 | 9.3712 | 21 | Active | DC Autosport |
| 20 | 24 | Max Garcia | 20 | 36.7241 | 5.0385 | 7 | Active | Pabst Racing |
| 21 | 93 | Avery Towns | 17 | 3 LAPS | 2 LAPS | 23 | Active | Exclusive Autosport |
| 22 | 67 | Elliot Cox | 4 | Contact | 0.1922 | 17 | Contact | Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Development |
| 23 | 23 | Jacob Douglas | 4 | Contact | 0.1356 | 10 | Contact | Pabst Racing |