Max Taylor takes his second USF2000 victory in a row in the first race at Mid-Ohio

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Velocity Racing Development’s Max Taylor won the opening USF2000 race of the weekend at Mid-Ohio on Friday.

The day began with practice and Jay Howard Driver Development’s Evagoras Papasavvas set a time of 1:23.3024 minutes, 0.239 seconds faster. DEForce Racing trio Nicolas Giaffone, Lucas Fecury and Quinn Armstrong were his closest rivals. His teammate Michael Costello finished in fifth place, 0.4158 seconds behind.

Papasavvas was again the fastest in qualifying, although for a while it looked like Costello would take pole. With several minutes to go he set a time of 1:23.6672 minutes, which he did not beat until after the chequered flag. With a few seconds to go Papasavvas had moved up to second place, and on his final lap he improved again to take pole by 0.1271 seconds.

Armstrong also beat Costello and Giaffone qualified fourth ahead of Velocity Racing Development’s Thomas Schrage.

Rain fell heavily before the first race, allowing the drivers two warm-up laps, but many were caught out by the wet conditions when approaching them at race speed for the first time, and Papasavvas spun sideways into Armstrong at the S-bend. Armstrong then crashed after turn eight, Papasavvas rejoined the track in 10th place, and Thomas Schrage also spun and required assistance to restart, causing a full circuit yellow period to be declared.

Taylor, who had started seventh, took the lead ahead of Giaffone, Costello and Ayrton Houk. The race was restarted on lap five, and shortly before that Taylor almost spun out on the final corner when he floored the accelerator. The race was neutralised again shortly afterwards when Houk and Costello went off the track at turn one. The next restart was on lap nine.

This time, Carson Etter did what Taylor had threatened by spinning out of the final corner, immediately starting another FCY period.

On lap 12, some real racing finally happened. On the restart, Sam Corry attacked Giaffone in turn one as points leader Max Garcia moved from eighth to fourth. On the next lap, he passed Corry on the outside in turn two and did the same to Giaffone on the lap after that before another FCY occurred when Jace Bacon stranded his car in the gravel.

The race was shortened by two laps, and on the 18th and final lap, the drivers were able to pull away once again. Taylor held off Garcia to win, Giaffone fought off Corry to take third, and Elliot Cox passed Brady Golan to take sixth.

Race result (18 laps)