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STEAM CORNERS, Ohio — Max Garcia was in a class of his own during this weekend’s PFC Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio.
The 16-year-old from Coconut Grove, Fla., dominated both 30-lap USF Pro 2000 Presented by Continental Tire races for Pabst Racing in blisteringly hot conditions at the challenging Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, scooping a maximum 66 points and extending his already commanding championship lead.
TJ Speed Motorsports’ Ariel Elkin, from Haifa, Israel, and Garcia’s teammate Jacob Douglas shared the second-place finishes, well in arrears of Garcia, as Max Taylor (VRD Racing) and Mac Clark (Exclusive Autosport) completed the podium placings.
For the second race weekend in a row, Garcia displayed prodigious pace in qualifying. The lone session on Friday saw Garcia outpace everyone by almost a full half-second to ensure another Continental Tire Pole Award, with Elkin lining up alongside for the first of today’s two 30-lap races.
The story of this morning’s race was almost identical. Following a brief full-course caution after five laps when George Garciarce spun into the gravel at Turn Two due to contact with Logan Adams (Comet/NCMP Racing),Garcia simply accelerated away from the field and was never remotely under challenge. His eventual winning margin was a comfortable 7.3545 seconds. Job done.
Elkin was similarly untroubled in second, while an early back-and-forth tussle for third between Alessandro de Tullio, who qualified third for Turn 3 Motorsport, and VRD Racing’s Max Taylor, who started seventh, was settled well before the finish in Taylor’s favor.
De Tullio cemented his claim to fourth place after edging clear of Douglas in the closing stages.
Another New Zealander, Sebastian Manson, collected the Tilton Hard Charger Award for TJ Speed Motorsports having risen from 16th on the grid to ninth at the checkered flag.
Garcia completed his weekend sweep of Continental Tire Pole Awards, once again ensuring himself of the inside of the front row of the grid for Race Two.
Although this time it wasn’t quite as clear cut. Garcia’s second-fastest lap during qualifying on Friday had been significantly faster than anyone else, but against the odds – and despite the high heat and humidity during Race One – the majority of the field turned laps faster than in qualifying. Garcia was again top of the pile, but by only 0.0335 of a second over teammate Douglas.
VRD Racing’s Frankie Mossman lined up third having taken the opportunity during this morning’s race to make a pit stop for a fresh set of Continental tires.
Garcia once again took off into the lead this evening, extending his advantage to over three seconds before being pegged back after 10 laps when Canadian debutant Nick Gilkes’ Jay Howard Driver Development car ground to a halt on the race track with a mechanical problem.
Once that had been cleared, Garcia continued his master class by extending his lead with every lap. He even posted new fastest race laps on each of the final four laps of the 30-lap race before taking the checkered flag 9.6659 seconds clear of Douglas.
A fine start saw Clark vault from sixth on the grid to third, where he remained for the duration.
Mossman enjoyed by far his best race of the season by finishing close behind in fourth, with Elkin a disappointed fifth.
