LEXINGTON, Ohio – Michael d’Orlando loves the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
One year after claiming his first Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship victory at the challenging 2.258-mile venue, d’Orlando repeated the feat Friday for Cape Motorsports in the first of three races that will comprise this weekend’s Cooper Tires USF2000 Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio.
After starting from pole position, championship leader Brazilian Kiko Porto had to settle for second for DEForce Racing, with Simon Sikes scoring his second successive podium finish in third for Legacy Autosport.
Porto claimed his series leading fourth Cooper Tires Pole Award of the season in qualifying this morning and was able to hang onto his lead at the start. Unfortunately, an incident further down the field between Porto’s teammate Prescott Campbell and Myles Rowe resulted in the first few laps being run under caution.
Porto maintained his position at the restart but was never able to shake off the attentions of d’Orlando, who started second and remained in his wheel tracks when the caution flags waved again after 11 laps due to contact between Erik Evans and Michael Myers.
The restart with six laps remaining provided d’Orlando with the opportunity he had been seeking as he moved boldly to the outside line at Turn Four and drove around the outside of his rival to gain the advantage of the preferred inside line at turn five.
Once into the lead, d’Orlando set a series of fastest laps to extend his lead to 1.6140 seconds at the checkered flag, and his second victory of the season vaults him from fourth to second in the points table, albeit 25 markers behind Porto. d’Orlando’s win ensured a third PFC Award of the season for winning car owners Dominic and Nicholas Cape.
“That was super fun,” said d’Orlando. “I’m super proud of how that race ended, and I know the points are so tight. Kiko was really fast and hard to chase down – I would get close, but then fall back from the aero wash and that was hard to overcome. Down the back straight, I made a move and I knew I had him. I out braked him and he really respected my pass. It’s been a crazy weekend so far, extremely difficult to manage with the changing weather conditions. Thankfully, I’ve been here a few times in the past so that experience really helped. It was difficult but, in the end, we figured it out.”
Sikes, who also finished on the podium at the most recent race at Road America, gained the upper hand over fellow second-row starter Nolan Siegel at the first corner and maintained that edge to the finish line, while former New Zealand Formula Ford champion Billy Frazer enjoyed his most impressive race of the season so far to claim top rookie honors with a fourth-place finish for Exclusive Autosport.
Siegel followed him home in fifth ahead of Bijoy Garg, who also secured his best result of the season for the Jay Howard Driver Development team.