Lloyd wins a six-lap sprint after major carnage
Jordan Lloyd led a Pabst Racing 1-2 in the first USF2000 race of the season in St. Petersburg, but his hard work didn’t start until lap 12 following long caution periods.
Photo by: Rainier Ehrhardt
A 26-car field fell into first-corner mayhem as James Munro’s Team Pelfrey entry appeared to spear front-row starter Parker Thompson under braking for Turn 1, causing many frontrunners to swerve or stop dead on track to avoid the incident.
Worst affected were Thompson, of course, but also Munro's teammate TJ Fischer and Max Hanratty.
That left Lloyd, teammate Yufeng Luo, Robert Megennis and Luke Gabin as the top four, and that’s precisely the order they stayed in to the checkered flag – but not before another yellow.
Following the restart on lap 7, the third Pabst entry of Garth Rickards spun into the wall on the main straight after contact with Pelfrey's Jordan Cane.
That allowed Clint McMahan of RJB Motorsport – who started 20th – into fifth, ahead of Victor Franzoni of Arms Up Motorsport.
On the final restart on lap 12, Lloyd nailed the restart, and Luo was comfortably clear of Megennis.
However, on the following lap, Franzoni took fifth from McMahan but all eyes were on sophomore Anthony Martin, who was setting fastest laps and slashed past Franzoni after the Brazilian had attempted a brave but futile move on Gabin at Turn 1.
Martin closed on Gabin and appeared to have the pace for a podium finish as Megennis started falling away from the Pabst entries. However, he simply ran out of laps and had to be content with fifth.
Pos. | Driver | Team | Time/Gap |
1 | Jordan Lloyd | Pabst Racing | 30:44.217 |
2 | Yufeng Luo | Pabst Racing | 1.555 |
3 | Robert Megennis | Team Pelfrey | 4.355 |
4 | Luke Gabin | JAY Motorsports | 4.662 |
5 | Anthony Martin | Cape Motorsports w/WTR | 4.929 |
6 | Victor Franzoni | ArmsUp Motorsports | 5.654 |
7 | Clint McMahan | RJB Motorsports | 16.634 |
8 | Dakota Dickerson | Afterburner Autosport | 17.216 |
9 | Nikita Lastochkin | Cape Motorsports w/WTR | 17.438 |
10 | Ayla Agren | John Cummiskey Racing | 18.032 |
11 | Michai Stephens | RJB Motorsports | 18.742 |
12 | Tazio Ottis | JDC MotorSports | 19.541 |
13 | Sam Chastain | Chastain Motorsports | 20.146 |
14 | Eric Filgueiras | Spencer Racing | 20.721 |
15 | Parker Thompson | Cape Motorsports w/WTR | 33.818 |
16 | Robert Allaer | JDC MotorSports | 34.834 |
17 | Charles Finelli | Fat Boy Racing | 47.889 |
18 | James Munro | Team Pelfrey | 48.954 |
19 | Brendan Puderbach | Fat Boy Racing | 1:00.7046 |
20 | Austin McCusker | Chastain Motorsports | 1 Lap |
21 | Felipe Ortiz | Afterburner Autosport | 1 Lap |
22 | TJ Fischer | Team Pelfrey | 4 Laps |
23 | Lucas Kohl | John Cummiskey Racing | 5 Laps |
24 | Garth Rickards | Pabst Racing | 11 Laps |
25 | Jordan Cane | Team Pelfrey | 11 Laps |
26 | Max Hanratty | ArmsUp Motorsports | 16 Laps |
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