By Patrick Stephan
The first of two USF Pro 2000 races this weekend went green at 11:50am in Toronto with pole sitter, and point leader Myles Rowe bringing the field down to the green flag on a dry race track with the ambient temperature at 75F and the track up to 89F. We had some sprinkles earlier in the day and the humidity was a sticky 79%.
Salvador de Alba got the 2nd spot on the first lap, with Michael d’Orlando, Jace Denmark and Joel Granfors rounding out the early Top 5.
The biggest mover early in the race was Jack William Miller going from his 16th starting spot to 11th.
Michael d’Orlando passed de Alba on Lap 4 to move to second, trailing Rowe by 1.2308 seconds. By lap 8, d’Orlando had closed the gap to just 0.28 as he was trying to find a way by Rowe for the lead.
de Alba got by Denmark on Lap 9, with Granfors also moving up.
Rowe was able get a slight gap in Lap 10 when he turned his quickest lap to this point at 1:10.6650, expanding his gap to 0.6015 with 15 laps remaining.
The yellow flag flew for the first time on Lap 14 when Louka St-Jean tried to go inside of Jack William Miller for 13th at Turn 5. St-Jean was on the inside as they went side by side in to the corner but was never able to get turned, sending Miller into the tire barrier then just turning enough to himself hit the concrete barriers hard with the right side of the car.
Under the yellow, rain was picking up slightly…but not enough for the wet tires. Rowe was leading d’Orlando, de Alba, Granfors, and Denmark.
Kiko Porto back in 8th as the field circulated under yellow, is Rowe’s closest pursuer in point standings at 251-187 coming in to the race.
The AMR INDYCAR Safety team and track crew had the incident cleaned up around Lap 17, but we would stay yellow as race control monitored the moisture falling. And then with 20 laps completed, the red flag was waved over the field as the pace car had its windshield wipers running on a fairly quick “intermittent” setting.
USF race officials declared this a wet race and the field was required to switch to rain tires for the slowly, but consistently wetter track. If this sounds familiar, the field just went through this at Mid-Ohio for Race #1 there. The rain here seems to be a bit more significant, but we’re far from a downpour as the far complete the 5 minute red flag and return to the track on the Cooper wet weather tires.
With the track officially ‘wet’ Myles Rowe got the green flag at the end of Lap 21. The spray was flowing and he cleanly got through Turn 1 and 2, then locked up under braking for Turn 3. Rowe didn’t hit anything and with driver’s wiggling under entry themselves, he backed out of the runoff and returned to the track.
d’Orlando was able to stay on the track and take the lead over de Alba by 0.9 at the end of Lap 22.
Lirim Zendelli moved up to third, with Granfors and Denmark following. Kiko Porto moved to 6th and with Rowe down to 9th this could tighten the point battle.
Driver’s are sliding through turns full dirt track style, and fighting each other and the track.
Lap 24 and the yellow waves for Jonathan Browne in the Turn 8 tires…as another car also finds the Turn 3 run-off, but can continue.
Michael d’Orlando brings the car around to the checkered/yellow flags to take his 3rd race win of the season. This is the third straight race weekend where he’s won (Road America and Mid-Ohio preceded Toronto.
Myles Rowe got back to just 7th after sliding through Turn 3, but still maintains at 64 point lead over Granfors and Porto.
Point Standings and Quotes courtesy Andersen Promotions.
Provisional championship points after 12 of 18 rounds:
1. Myles Rowe, 268
2. Joel Granfors, 204
3. Kiko Porto, 204
4. Michael d’Orlando, 199
5. Salvador de Alba, 198
6. Francesco Pizzi, 186
7. Jace Denmark, 177
8. Lirim Zendeli, 164
9. Jonathan Browne, 158
10. Jack William Miller, 150
Michael d’Orlando (#1 USF Pro Championships/Focused Project Management-Turn 3 Motorsport Tatuus IP-22): “It was a crazy race, and one of the most difficult that I have driven in a long time. Myles gave me quite a fight throughout the race. Then we had a rain red flag and it was really difficult. I know from Myles’ perspective, it is definitely a lot more challenging being the leading guy. It is amazing to be on the top step of the podium here in Toronto. I am proud to be a Canadian up here and an American down there. Turn 3 Motorsport did a fantastic job in making sure the car was extremely fast and capable of this win today. I am extremely thankful to my sponsors and USF Pro Championships – I wouldn’t be here without you guys – Priority Technology Holdings and Rising Star Racing as well.”
Salvador de Alba (#91 Archandel/Red Cola/Mecano/Z Motors-Exclusive Autosport Tatuus IP-22): “It was a very interesting race. I started P3 and kept that position in the dry conditions. Then it started raining and we knew there was going to be more coming. They red-flagged the race so we could change tires. It was hard not knowing the track in the wet conditions, but overall it was a very good race. Myles didn’t make it through Turn Three so we managed to take second position and stay there until the end. Let’s hope to make another podium tomorrow. Coming off of P10, let’s see what we have.”
Lirim Zendeli (#10 Vexavit/Ajdini Spedition-TJ Speed Motorsports Tatuus IP-22): “The start in the dry was a bit difficult because of Kiko in front of me. He missed the start a bit so we both lost a position; he actually lost two. I think I was pretty quick on lap times but overtaking is difficult, but the rain helped a lot. That was the only possibility of how to get from P7 to the podium. I committed to some late braking, and obviously took a lot of risks. I clipped the wall here and there and the tire barrier in Turn Eight. As long as I stayed on track, in the end it paid off.”
USF Pro 2000 Toronto Race #1 Results:
| Pos | Car # | Driver | Laps | Diff | Start | Team |
| 1 | 1 | Michael d’Orlando | 25 | — | 2 | Turn 3 Motorsport |
| 2 | 91 | Salvador de Alba | 25 | 0.9209 | 3 | Exclusive Autosport |
| 3 | 10 | Lirim Zendeli | 25 | 1.4807 | 7 | TJ Speed Motorsports |
| 4 | 92 | Joel Granfors | 25 | 1.726 | 6 | Exclusive Autosport |
| 5 | 12 | Kiko Porto | 25 | 3.1294 | 5 | DEForce Racing |
| 6 | 55 | Francesco Pizzi | 25 | 3.5237 | 8 | TJ Speed Motorsports |
| 7 | 99 | Myles Rowe | 25 | 3.7997 | 1 | Pabst Racing |
| 8 | 44 | Christian Brooks | 25 | 5.2342 | 13 | Turn 3 Motorsport |
| 9 | 4 | Ricardo Escotto | 25 | 6.552 | 14 | Jay Howard Driver Development |
| 10 | 20 | Jace Denmark | 25 | 8.2466 | 4 | Pabst Racing |
| 11 | 19 | Jordan Missig | 25 | 11.3253 | 9 | Pabst Racing |
| 12 | 81 | Nicholas Monteiro | 25 | 19.8695 | 17 | NeoTech Motorsport |
| 13 | 32 | Christian Weir | 25 | 23.9443 | 12 | TJ Speed Motorsports |
| 14 | 90 | Yuven Sundaramoorthy | 24 | 1 LAPS | 15 | Exclusive Autosport |
| 15 | 2 | Jonathan Browne | 23 | 9.6359 | 10 | Turn 3 Motorsport |
| 16 | 93 | Lindsay Brewer | 23 | 2 LAPS | 19 | Exclusive Autosport |
| 17 | 7 | Bijoy Garg | 22 | Contact | 11 | DEForce Racing |
| 18 | 40 | Jack William Miller | 13 | Contact | 16 | Miller Vinatieri Motorsports |
| 19 | 3 | Louka St‑Jean | 13 | Contact | 18 | Turn 3 Motorsport |