TORONTO – Canadian born Parker Thompson captured Saturday’s Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship for Exclusive Autosport at Exhibition Place.
“When the checkered flag came out, the emotions were just so high – I was screaming, so I apologize to anybody on my radio channel,” Thompson said. “This win tops anything I’ve done this year. It’s extremely hard to win in this series and I think I took a few wins for granted last year, but to have the team behind me here is so emotional. They are so invested in winning so to get the job done for them and get our first win together feels so good.
“It’s been a testing season – Exclusive Autosport is new to the Mazda Road to Indy so we knew we had a tough challenge against some very dominant teams. But coming into our home race, we were very confident. I know I’m fast here and I knew we had a great street course setup from St. Pete and the team did what they do best: they gave me a great race car and I drove it well to take the win. I can’t thank them enough!”
Oliver Askew extended his championship lead for the Cape Motorsports team by finishing second ahead of his closest title rival, Dutchman Rinus VeeKay, who snared the bonus point for fastest race lap in the closing stages.
After a particularly difficult race last Sunday on the Iowa Speedway oval, Thompson and the team regrouped this week and were determined to put on a good showing in their native Canada. Thompson delivered in spades.
He qualified on the pole Friday afternoon – a first for Exclusive Autosport – and made a perfect getaway at the rolling start to lead from Askew, VeeKay and Kaylen Frederick.
The top three positions remained unchanged throughout the 25-lap, 30-minute race, but there was plenty of action in their wake. Firstly, a mistake by Frederick while under pressure from David Malukas saw him collect the wall in Turn Eight. Malukas then closed quickly on the leading trio and managed to sneak past VeeKay for third place in turn eight before a broken camber bolt in his rear suspension ended another promising day after just nine laps.
Mexico City’s Jose Sierra drove an impressive race for DEForce Racing to finish fourth in his debut. Sierra profited when a close-following Calvin Ming and Frenchman Alex Baron collided at turn three while Baron was trying to make a pass. Brazilian Lucas Kohl thereby inherited fifth place.
The finish:
Parker Thompson, Oliver Askew, Rinus VeeKay, Jose Sierra, Lucas Kohl, Alex Baron, Devin Wojcik, Moises de la Vera, Jayson Clunie, Darren Keane, Kory Enders, Dev Gore, Robert Megennis, Calvin Ming, David Malukas, Ricky Donison, Kaylen Frederick.
Source :speedsport.com
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