By Patrick Stephan
After running in damp to dry conditions Toronto Race #1 yesterday, the USF2000 presented by Cooper Tires driver’s again encountered a wet track at 8:10am for Race #2.
With the Ambient Temperature at just 69F, the Track 73F, and the humidity at 93% chances of the track to dry out today were slim. The mist had stopped just before the scheduled green flag but the track was very wet from the overnight rain, so USF officials had the cars run an extra pace lap with all cars running on the Cooper wet weather tires.
The clock and lap count would start as drivers continued warming tires and driving some of the water off the course. Nikita Johnson then spun between Turn 4 and 5 and would stop without hitting anything. He was actually going straight when the car snapped to the left, indicating perhaps a half shaft or other issue caused the spin.
The AMR INDYCAR Safety Team would have to push his car to the run-off area putting the second running driver in the championship out of the race without completing a lap.
The race would go green at the end of Lap 3, with Papasavvas going to the extreme left side, scraping the wall as he went through the braking zone and in to the run off area. Chase Gardner tried to make the corner but wound up on the outside and in to tire barrier.
Both would eventually be able to continue and rejoin the race.
At the exit of Turn 3, both Al Morey and Logan would spin at the exit of Turn 3.
Max Garcia, who hit the wall in qualifying for the race and started 18th was aggressively taking advantage of the conditions to get to 10th on Lap 5.
Preceding him were leader Sikes, then Christodoulou, Douglas, Clark, Hughes, Corry, Cox, Scully, and Garciarce.
Cox in 7th had started 12th and is need of a clean race after too much drama (most not of his doing) in the past few race weekends.
Clark moved by Douglas for third on Lap 7, with Hughes also getting by, sending Clark to 5th.
By Lap 8, Garcia was up to 5th, and Cox to 6th as the field settled in. While the level of spray was diminished, the track was still wet all the way around with no real “dry” line having formed yet.
The 14 year old Garcia would pass Hughes for 4th on Lap 9.
Sikes lead over Christodoulou would be just 0.8 seconds on Lap 11. Coming back from his Turn 1 incident, Evagoras Papasavvas was back in to the field and up to 11th.
On the 13th lap, Christodoulou was still chasing Sikes and was just 0.4 back.
Sikes would give up the lead on Lap 16 when he slid a little wide under braking at Turn 3. That allowed Christodoulou to take the lead for the first time today. A few moments later, Chase Gardner caught the wall at the exit of Turn 11, bringing out the yellow flag as Sikes, Clark, Garcia, Hughes and Cox would now round out the Top 6.
The AMR INDYCAR Safety team did a great job getting the track Gardner car cleared and the green flag waved again at the end of Lap 19. Christodoulou got away clean, but it would get messy behind the Toronto native on the final lap. Garcia dove to the inside at Turn 1, with Sikes and Clark side by side through 1 and 2.
Heading down the backstraight to Turn 3, Christodoulou was three car lengths clear of Sikes when Garcia tried to get inside of Clark at corner entry, but had a bad angle, and on the slick track he made left front to right rear contact, sending Clark spinning. When Garcia had arrived at the corner, that actually made it 3 wide as Lochie Hughes was already trying to go around Clark.
Hughes would make it around the outside, but Garcia and the spinning Clark would slide to the outside, taking Elliot Cox with them as the track became blocked and he had no way around. All three were able to drive back around to pit lane, and Cox may not have even had any contact – a small plus after a rough weekend. But his solid 6th place run was ruined.
Christodoulou brought his car all the way around for the win, with Sikes finishing second to extend his point lead. Hughes, Garciarce, Douglas rounded out the Top 5.
This is Christodoulou’s first USF2000 win. The 18 year old is primarily racing GB3 this year with a top finish of 2nd at Silverstone, but did 5 USF2000 races in 2020.
With Christodoulou being part time driver, Sikes already large point lead (55 over Johnson entering the day) will only grow heading to the triple header finale at Portland on Labor Day weekend. We will pass along the official standings this afternoon after they are posted by USF Championships.
USF2000 Toronto Race #2 Unofficial Results:
| Pos | No | Driver | Diff | Hometown |
| 1 | 2 | Nico Christodoulou | Toronto ON Canada | |
| 2 | 22 | Simon Sikes | 1.5161 | Atlanta GA |
| 3 | 8 | Lochie Hughes | 2.2176 | Gold Coast Australia |
| 4 | 10 | Jorge Garciarce | 3.9764 | Guadalajara Mexico |
| 5 | 23 | Jacob Douglas | 4.7725 | Christchurch New Zealand |
| 6 | 14 | Sam Corry | 6.1862 | Cornelius NC |
| 7 | 6 | Evagoras Papasavvas | 6.3597 | Kirkland WA |
| 8 | 93 | Avery Towns | 7.0079 | Dallas TX |
| 9 | 7 | Al Morey | 7.5723 | Fortville IN |
| 10 | 12 | Maxwell Jamieson | 8.5308 | Houston TX |
| 11 | 9 | Logan Adams | 9.1544 | Greenfield IN |
| 12 | 91 | Joey Brienza | 11.5445 | Denver CO |
| 13 | 1 | Mac Clark | 14.9777 | Toronto ON Canada |
| 14 | 24 | Max Garcia | 19.2087 | Miami FL |
| 15 | 67 | Elliot Cox | 23.1517 | Indianapolis IN |
| 16 | 19 | Gordon Scully | 1 Lap | Chicago IL |
| DNF | 95 | Chase Gardner | DNF | Sherman TX |
| DNF | 17 | Nikita Johnson | DNF | St Petersburg FL |